News Ptsd Awareness Month

[anthony]

Is it just me, being cynical, or do others also feel that the world is not really becoming PTSD aware?

In fact, I think due to the negative media coverage happening about PTSD, consistently linking it to violent crimes, homelessness and veterans doing stupid shit, that people are becoming more stigmatised to PTSD and cautious of it.

Maybe I'm just being cynical though?

 

[Suzetig]

I think in some ways the world is becoming too aware of PTSD bit not in a good away - in a "I broke my nail/have nightmares/must have PTSD kind of way. I would like to see credible information not just about the disorder but prevalence rates for people who have experienced trauma.

I do also see increased stigma, but in the UK I think the political environment is making people wary and suspicious of anyone who is "other" and I think mental illness falls into that as part of a pretty broad spectrum. So I guess I'm seeing that as an increase in intolerance generally rather than being PTSD specific but I could be wrong about that.

 

[Thematrix]

I think the world is PTSD aware, they just do not care. That is my lived experience anyway, and I think that is very injurious to PTSD sufferers. It plays out again and again, seems to be the never ending message in so many different ways and seems universal.

Logically there should be no reason why a mental injury does not have the same serious attention and treatment options, respect for a lack of a better word, as a physicalal injury but it is simply not so

I think it is more than stigma, at this point it has to be..maybe it is about money and saving money off the backs of the most vulnerable often . Maybe it is about an ever changing world full of hatred that has lost sight of what it is to be human at the most basic of levels and love one another and what happens when we do not..

I think people are turning into bigger and bigger a holes..

I think it makes matters worse when at the same time, we can all clearly see the injustice, corruption, abuses of power and trust, without accountability in so many ways and feel helpless because we are not heard or are silenced

I am pretty jaded on this and it makes me sick, the lack of supports and services, so I am a little biased!! I am a little grumpy today so if this is negative, well, that's how I feel..

The powers that be certainly know.They just do not care. I do not know how to accept that and it makes me feel physically ill often knowing so.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

@anthony I do not think that you are being cynical but actually realistic. I see the death of common sense all around me anymore, but there are good people in the world who are becoming more aware and learning what they can. I have found that having peer friendships with other PTSD sufferers to be tremendous help for me to keep me in the real world.

 

[ladee]

You are not being cynical..People tend to have a negative reaction to things they don't understand. The uninformed and uneducated tend to lump everything together, without cause or concern for the individual....i.e. those that are black are all bad, all Muslims are terrorist...we are definitely going thru the last one here in the States...
It is just easier to take the easy way out and get educated thru the media than to investigate to find what individuals are really like, not their label.
I am finding that sometimes if someone asks, I have to explain to people what PTSD is,the Cliff Note version, and encourage them to educate themselves... and the majority are surprised that it doesn't mean what they thought it did. I feel a certain responsibility to encourage education, if they show any interest in understanding.
But PTSD has been trivialized so much, people aren't paying attention.. or being misled. No, not cynical at all. Just seeing the sometimes uncaring and ignorant society we all live in.

 

[Deleted member 541]

My opinion..... I feel it's being OVER diagnosed, being used for an excuse for some crimes and so called normal people are developing the attitude that people with PTSD are weirdos and freaks. JMO!

 

[EveHarrington]

I'm scared because every terrorist, mass shooter, bomber, what have you-------is labeled as mentally ill or mentally unstable.

PTSD is known as a mental illness (not particularly as a mental injury).

Follow this on down------

And by association, people with PTSD are thereby perceived as dangerous/unstable----- (not because these terrorists have PTSD, but from the simple fact that they are mentally ill).

I get so uneasy whenever there is talk about how these terrorists are mentally ill and how we need to put restrictions on the mentally ill-----as if that will solve our woes. The truth is that the mentally ill who are seeking help aren't the same mentally ill who are out there hurting people. Who would be the ones with restrictions placed on them? The mentally ill who are seeking help as these are the only mentally ill people who are identifiable. (On whole, I think you KWIM.)

Maybe this sounds tangential, but it really does relate back to PTSD awareness. If the mentally ill are all lumped together with these terrorists, stigma is increasing, true awareness is decreasing. (It's a polarization of mental illness whereby the mentally ill are seen in the worst possible light and feared.)

I don't want to disclose my disorder to anyone anymore because I really do fear that stigma.

 

[Kodah]

The world has no clue about PTS. It has been mislabeled and mishandled. There are also valid efforts to bring a change of mind set. If it were only like a small light in the darkness, except there is wind and rain in this world we live in.

I would ask, what do you want the world to understand or know? After that goal is made, steps can be taken to work toward the goal in the rain, wind and darkness!

 

[The ANP]

In some ways I am happy that many people have no concept of PTSD. I am glad they have that. As for awareness? I am unconvinced that it is possible to truly understand the condition without having lived it. I do not dismiss the steadfast supporters who take the time to try.

I am disheartened by what I perceive as a societal misconception. I see posts tagged #ptsdawarenessmonth that reference simple coping strategies for the trauma we all experience. I tire of explaining the difference between trauma and Trauma.

I wish that coping strategies for trauma helped me address the Trauma response that is PTSD. Gosh, seems simple, wish Inhad thought of that Becky.

 

[anthony]

I see posts tagged #ptsdawarenessmonth that reference simple coping strategies for the trauma we all experience. I tire of explaining the difference between trauma and Trauma.

This is something I too so often see floating around social networks, associated with PTSD -- coping strategies for STRESS, labelled as trauma. There is so much of it, I have no option than to ignore and move on, otherwise I would get nothing done in a day correcting such nonsense.

For the Internets purpose to provide information, there is just so much misinformation in relation to stress vs trauma.

 

[EveHarrington]

This is why I have abandoned social media.

 

[anthony]

Yer... other than site marketing, I tend to really skip more than anything nowadays. I just don't have time to read all the nonsense, let alone put up with some of it.