Social Class And Ptsd

[EmmaOwl]

It can hit any social class. There are families that have a little too much money to get assistance, yet not have enough to pay for care outright.

Plus, in the more competitive schools, kids w/ good grades and good scores don't tend to get psychiatric assistance.

 

[Nessa7]

Other than for a few years in my childhood, I was between lower class and poverty for most of my life up until childhood. This definitely has an impact on my PTSD. I am unable to feel financially secure. I cannot entirely shake some of the habits I learned as a child to be able to feed myself when my parents either couldn't or just weren't, even if they are harmful for an adult with their own bank account. I think of many of them as rules that keep bad things from happening.

 

[Fadeaway]

I supposedly grew up extremely impoverished but but I don't know how much of it was a true lack of money and how much was just total neglect. Until meeting my husband I had always lived on 14-24k a year sometimes less so I can live like a queen on a working class income. My husband has always been securely middle class so our current financial situation is killing him. I mean it is bad even for me, but he is feeling it much harder as it is a blow to his ego.

When there is enough money to cover all the necessities and a little bit left over for a few wants here and there, I am extremely content. The things I truly want in life can't be bought. As @hodge said, money can't cure my PTSD.

 

[LadyZane]

We were always hanging on to middle class, although I never got the fancy "bonus" items that other kids my age had (clothes in fashion, etc). As an adult I now realize we were pretty poor but that my mom was good with money and that she went out of her way to make sure I didn't know how dire things were. She is the person responsible for a lot of the traumatizing things in my past, and I know it comes from a place of being horribly traumatized herself, but being from a generation with much weaker mental health options available (that doesn't mean I forgive her, ha, we're no-contact and it's staying that way). HER family was dirt poor growing up and I can see how that experience affected her mental health. Her mother was born just before the Depression and her entire life you could see how Depression-era poverty thinking shaped her view of the world.

I really think social class has a lot to do with it. Imagine everywhere you look, society confirming your deep feelings of being less-than. Here in the US where racism comes into the equation too I see that as its own complex trauma for people in groups constantly treated as "less-than" even if literally nothing else that's traumatizing ever happens to them.

 

[J'qel]

Social class most definitely has something to do with it. Those in lower social standing have less access to help, healthcare and methods to increase their situation (be that career options, education, whathaveyou). If you ask anyone who is a professional in the field and knows their population statistics they will tell you that things can be hard, but they're doubly so for individuals in poverty.

I grew up middle class, but I didn't get a lot of the advantages because of my particular trauma cause (my family)-which generally means no extras of any sort and I recently came to the realization that my mother pretty much farmed me for tax breaks and family allowance.

I was still privileged in that I had no food or clothing or shelter insecurities, but going to school while kids made fun of your clothes and you couldn't stomach your lunch, never mind later life with no transportation in the country (isolation), and lack of access to funds for post secondary (though she did take my tax credits for my first year-and informed me after the fact), that was rough.

I still wasn't *really* poor. So I avoided the wondering about if I was going to get supper, or if I could make my clothing last another couple of days, and whether I'd still have a roof over my head. Those things can do a number on a child growing up. The insecurity of not knowing where your next meal is, where you're going to live, etc is enough to cause a kind of childhood trauma all it's own.

My heart goes out to those who had to grapple with it. Life is hard enough as it is.

 

[The Albatross]

Hmmm. Money may not be able to cure my PTSD, but it did (when we had it) go a fair way to help me learn how to manage it. I'd like to be able to do some of the things that I found assistive... however for the duration, $$$ has been the block. That's why I worked so dang hard to keep functional enough to have some income coming in.

 

[Richie]

objective view: money does not buy magic cures so it should not matter. we are all human beings so we are all equal within the context of this thread. it may even be a slight burden since working class people (which i am) have actually lived and therefore have a grip on reality. when i am treating people i will not care about financial background as long as the person seeking treatment is not wasting my time or taking my time from someone else who needs me more. if someone talks about depression because they lost 50 grand on a deal that went bad then i will be putting a size 10 footprint on the seat of their fancy pants

 

[IamFree]

First things first I have met people with no money with much more class than some people with money but thats just my own little world I live in I judge class on the spiritual plane not the material.

 

[Richie]

First things first I have met people with no money with much more class than some people with money but...

totally agree. its who you are that matters, not what you are or what you have

 

[Suzetig]

if someone talks about depression because they lost 50 grand on a deal that went bad then i will be putting a size 10 footprint on the seat of their fancy pants

There's a judgment inherent in that statement, that someone who is in a position to lose large amounts of money can't be depressed about it? And in doing so you decide who is worthy of emotional support and who isn't.

How do you decide is someone is wasting your time, or taking your time from someone else who needs you more? What's your assessment criteria - despite your comment about not caring about finance, it seems to form part of your assessment about whether someone genuinely needs help or not.

I know you've said elsewhere you're a psychology student, it may be worth you spending some time really thinking about your biases - we all have them but it's important to know what ours are when working with vulnerable people. And financially secure doesn't mean they aren't vulnerable.

 

[Richie]

its a question of perspective on THEIR part, not my part. if they are that emotionally attached to their finances then i will not be the person who can help them deal with it. i am going to specialise in trauma related disorders and i dont see how losing money qualifies within that field so they would be better off going to see someone who has a better understanding in that area. there is no pre-judgement involved or assessment criteria because neither would be possible without knowing what the problem is in the first place. dismissing someone because they are from a money background makes no sense because i dont see any reason why i would know their background. it wouldnt be relevant and it wouldnt matter unless it has some bearing on the therapy session which seems unlikely

 

[Suzetig]

i am going to specialise in trauma related disorders and i dont see how losing money qualifies within that field so they would be better off going to see someone who has a better understanding in that area.

The consequences of losing a significant amount of money may well be traumatic to them - or they may need to see how you deal with that before they trust you enough to disclose previous trauma, or their money issues may be a form of defence or resistance to be worked through.

I hear your intention to specialise in trauma related disorders, however you need to learn, and being a good generalist is the best foundation to do trauma work - and also enables you to balance your caseload which helps protect against you becoming traumatised by the work you do.

The wider your knowledge base, the wider your clinical experience the better a specialist you'll make because you'll come to understand the myriad of ways that trauma can present, that looks nothing like trauma, and won't prejudge your clients or their issues.