"Everyone has bad thing happen to them, things they wouldn't wish on a friend, but Hey, you can turn it into PTSGrowth or PTSD.........it's up to you."
I can actually understand the angle he is coming from.
People are literally being told they have PTSD from just about any and every traumatic event that occurs in their life right now, which is wrong when used in conjunction with PTS or PTSD. There are a lot of people in the world who want to have a label, they want to claim they have it to get acknowledgement that they have endured something difficult... yet like said, every single person has bad things happen to them.
And he is right, you can actually either dwell upon them or use them to motivate yourself and grow into a stronger you.
I doubt he is really talking about the minority of people who have endured longevity childhood abuse, POW's, combat, etc. More the people who are involved in a car accident then claim they have PTSD, just because they lived through a car accident. Shit... the number of those I've been in I need two hands, and none of them give me nightmares or bother me in the slightest compared to other things experienced that gave me PTSD.
In todays society we are literally jumping around political correctness in mental health, which is a dangerous thing to do IMHO. It is no different than doctors acknowledging to people they have cancer or such just because they want to have it, when they actually don't have it. It is unethical in a biological sense, but it seems in mental health it is endorsed, encouraged, to apply sympathy, empathy and understanding to confirm to someone they experienced something traumatic and need to talk about it with a therapist... when more recent studies show that is the worst thing you could do.
I know that last line is going to bring questions, so I will clarify now... the studies show clearly people getting worse when seeking immediate therapeutic intervention after an incident, than those who don't. Those who don't seek discussion and such with friends, family, work colleagues, etc... which is healthy. A therapist, not healthy after a traumatic event now, and empirical data is quite conclusive on the studies performed in this area... mental health intervention is damaging. They even changed the entire US and other countries traumatic incident response procedures from intervening to putting people in a room with others who also experienced things, or leaving them talk with family and friends, which show far better results. Therapy leads them towards being ill, when no such illness exists.
Moral of the story: I see his point. It is a problem, and we really do have a choice on what we do going forward. He doesn't claim it isn't traumatic, but every single person has a choice on either growing into a better person or being consumed by their past because that is what they allow.
This is no different from what I have said here for years. Some people you just cannot help because they don't want to help themselves. Some people are happy wallowing in the misery and being consumed by the past, yet use that exact issue to them obtain sympathy or such from others.
My eldest sister is a classic example of this. Divorced 20+ years ago and still wallowing in the misery of that divorce. Still blaming. Still not admitting any fault. Still in denial. She literally depresses herself, eats more, is obese, that is more depressing for her, and so the cycle continues. Approach her to change any negative into a positive, and she rips your head off screaming at you. She literally is happy in being miserable. Hence, most of us don't really see her or have much to do with her, because she is just so depressing to be around and won't allow anyone to help her, let alone help herself.
The guy has a valid point to a degree and within a majority I believe. It is a true minority who really do have lifetime PTSD... yet even that can be fully managed and kept within quite controllable limits, as many here have proved over the years, me being one of them.
Some of my mates are just as bad as I used to be... they will not help themselves, even though some say they want to change. The moment it gets tough, they give up and go back to what they know... misery.
