PTSD And Prejudice

[gdf]

Athena,

The gynecologist comment makes me wonder...what was going through her head? I ask your pardon for edging toward being too personal but you have to wonder if her logic was "I don't see any damage so there can't be any abuse in this person's past." My foray into this psych degree is teaching me a lot. I ran across a scholarly article that stated that women who encounter sexual abuse at a young age often times heal and show no signs of the physical trauma in their adult lives. The authors actually substantiated the abuse with medical records from childhood and forensic exams so there was proof of the assault and yet in the majority of these women as adults, no clue. So what is not seen forms the basis for yet another denial of the truth and adds to our lack of being believed. Sad.

Gina

 

[Artista]

gdf... so sad. Yes. Misunderstood. Ignorance is something I have had to learn even more patience for these days. It aggravates me that some people do not even try and inform themselves of what a friend or especially loved one is going through when it comes to PTSD or any trauma or ailment of body or mind for that matter. Ignorance is just another place to hide if you ask me. Some worry they will be accountable or if they really know... their own pain for those who go through it will have to be faced. Amazing what we do to avoid pain but it is a sign of something usually not to be ignored.

Really good thread.

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

I ran across a scholarly article that stated that women who encounter sexual abuse at a young age often times heal and show no signs of the physical trauma in their adult lives.

Sometimes I think - maybe if I had scars from my trauma,then maybe more people would understand my pain. I'm not looking for pity. I'm looking for understanding. Not all pain has scars. Scars heal, the brain remembers.

 

[emmat]

I dont hate men at all... I think men and women can be equally as good or bad as each other. But it's a stereotype. If I like women then obviously I MUST hate men (WTF!?!?!)

Totally. I get this all the time!

When (if) I tell people I'm Bi and I'm seeing a woman a the time. I even get it when I say I'm doing some campaigning for female equality (be it raising awareness about just how many women suffer rape/ domestic violence/ sexual harasment/ gender discrimination in the workplace or campaigning for better laws). It's always "OMG! You must hate all men and want a Matriarchy!".

Pssh. What part of 'I campaign for gender equality' suggests I want a female led state? What part of 'I'm sexually attracted to women' means I hate all men? Gah. I hate that kind of nasty pervasive faulty logic. The statements those people make are total non-sequiters at best.

--

I've not experienced a huge amount of 'you must be a timebomb of rage' kind of PTSD predjudice in the UK. Just the standard 'victim-blaming' predjudice that comes from peoples desire to pretend that bad things don't happen to decent people. Which comes accross as them believing that either people with PTSD are making it up, asked for it by seeking out 'drama' or are just too sensitive.

 

[louisa]

Hi Everyone

Sorry it's taken me so long to thank everyone for commenting on this thread. Much appreciated. What a brilliant forum this is!

Best wishes, Louisa

 

[just me here]

The problem with having certain illnesses that aren't as well understood as say diabetes or cancer is that everyone thinks they know all about it and are at the same time uncomfortable about finding out any more about it. Aids for example. Most people think you get aids by being a junky, or a homosexual, or a healthcare worker, and thats enough for them-they don't want to know about heterosexual transmission or other routes.

I had Hepatitis C and everyone I told knew I wasn't a junky or gay, they all assumed I got it through my work as a healthcare provider. I am sure there were plenty that heard second hand and had to wonder if I had something in my closet- how could it not be true that some had to wonder? ("He did spend alot of time talking to the gay guy at the company picnic, he is probably gay. He did use recreational drugs in his teens, maybe he was injecting some of them")

Facts are my most likely contact with the virus came from a blood transfusion before 1983. No one knows that they didn't screen blood for it before then. Guess how many people asked me how I got it and had that little factoid related to them? Thats right, Zero. I don't remember one person ever asking me how I thought I contracted it, they just went down their mental checklist till they found the categorie they liked. Gay? nah. Junky? nah. He must have got it on a bloody rescue when he was an EMT.

I did a long sequence of basically chemotherapy and beat it, by the way. Totally clean now, no detectable virus-YEAH!

I am not telling people about PTSD. I can only assume that everyone already knows all about PTSD and how you get it too. They will go down their mental checklists and find the category they like for PTSD just like they did for Hepatitis C. Combat veteran? No, he was never in the armed forces. He was probably abused as a child, yeah thats gotta be it, abused child.

Fact is, I was in a very bad car accident and had to be tranfused (before 1983, see above), saw many accidents, lost friends to accidents, worked as an EMT for a decade, saw a bunch more, saw alot of death and dismemberment, saw alot of drunks and crying parents and frustrated cops. Now when a family member is on the road I get panicky, when they arrive late I feel a need to reprimand them for making me worry about them, when I drive I get depressed when I see the stupid things others do, I get frustrated when I see close calls, I get angry when I have to save my life by avoiding someone trying to kill me with their car. Just describing my trip into my therapists office can totally waste an hour as I sit there and obsess on my anger instead of listening and learning and getting past this. Sometimes I get home from work and just shut down. Totally drained of energy and frustrated by anything that detracts from my desire to just veg out for as many hours as it takes to get my adrenaline down again. I don't road rage, I become supervigilant, super defensive driverman, and that leaves me feeling drained. And very angry.

To answer the OP's original question- Do I think there is a prejudice and how do I feal about it? Yes, there is a prejudice against anyone that has any misunderstood diagnosis, caused by either limited understanding or sterotypical misconceptions about the diagnosis. And I am angered by it and choose to let no one know about this PTSD diagnosis, based on experiences with my Hep C diagnosis.