Poll Ptsd Forum Naming Conventions - Sufferer / Carer / Survivor / Supporter - Vote Now

[cherryblossom]

I voted supporter and sufferer. I think I explained in the other thread.

Supporter sounds much more positive. The word 'carer' to me limits the use to a 'significant other' (b/f, g/f, fiancé, husband, wife, maybe parents). Or at least to someone who lives with you. I don't have one carer, but I do have several people who support me (both friends and family).

I don't survive PTSD, I suffer with PTSD. Yes I survived my 'trauma', but PTSD is an illness, that has no cure, so you can't survive it. Maybe it's the medic in me, but if I was diagnosed with incurable heart disease, or asthma, I would say that I suffer from, or have heart disease or asthma. I wouldn't say I'm surviving heart disease, or I'm a asthma survivor. I agree that survivor sounds more positive, but is that because we are ashamed to admit that we suffer from PTSD? I think because it's 'mental health', there is a stigma attached to it. I don't think anyone would be afraid to say "I suffer from Asthma, but I manage it really well with medication, keeping my stress levels low, and limiting very strenuous exercise.", but because PTSD is a mental health issue, we try to downplay it, and say defensive things off the bat - by saying I'm a survivor of PTSD. Sorry, but that phrase doesn't make any sense to me. Isn't it better to say, "I survived a major trauma in my life. As a result, I suffer from PTSD, but I manage it well with medication, therapy, keeping my stress levels low, and keeping myself healthy by eating well, exercising regularly, and I have support from my family and friends."

Maybe I've gone off on a tangent :p, but the phrase "I'm a survivor of PTSD" doesn't make any grammatical or logical sense to me.

 

[Freddy_hiding_less]

One way to leave these narrow words with all their implications would be to use something more neutral like "trauma impacted person" that could be shortened as TIP. I'm not that familiar with English so see this just like a possible direction to seek in.
.

 

[Darkness Shines]

'Survivor' to me isn't just a comment on having survived my traumas, but also that I am surviving the PTSD, which I think we all know can be lethal. To me it's an affirmation that I intend to continue surviving it as well.

 

[zelda]

I much prefer supporter over carer.

And, actually, I don't like either survivor or sufferer. I survived trauma, but I am left with something that is always with me. So, to me, survivor means that there is a point of completion. I lived in hell and now I'm out. I survived that.

But I live with PTSD. There is no clear point of completion there. It's an ongoing condition that is a part of my life, but my life is not all consuming suffering either (although it has been at times and could once again) So, I would really like to find another term completely. People "living with PTSD" sounds a little too politically correct, but I would like something like that. For awhile, I thought something like "manager" would work, but that suggests that hard times are due to poor management and that's not the case. People with diabetes and epilepsy are referred to that way in recognition that they live with and must accommodate their conditions. But then there are the shorter terms of diabetic and epileptic Do we need a new term that essentially means PTSD-ic?.

Just my late night ramblings.

 

[lala]

All of these terms put the truama/condition before the person. Person with PTSD, not PTSD person, not PTSD sufferer, not PTSD survivor.

I am more than my PTSD, just sayin'.

Anyway, if you look at the results of the poll, Survivor pretty clearly won over Sufferer.

 

[anthony]

Get over it... it is simply categorization for this website, nothing more, nothing less. You're trolling and going to be permanently banned if you continue.