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To those who've been here over five years

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I want to first say -- anyone who reads this as a personal attack -- you have an issue right there you need to work on. That is you, not the OP with the question. You choose how you interpret and respond to everything in life.
I actually do some work with high functioning Autistic people, and this is a fine position to take when you are not out in the world, but basically I have to teach them the skills to fit in and for their Autistic behaviours to be explained and for neurotypicals to accommodate each other in the workplace. You don't change behaviours that people perceive as a personal attack then you don't get your contract renewed. Simple as that. So there is learning from the people with Autism and the neurotypicals.

In the real world where you deal with dozens of people from all walks of life you have to have a whole range of people from many social classes, cultural backgrounds, genders, sexualities, and if you are saying bigoted things then you can be taken to the Anti Discrimination Board - that's $40,000, if you are smarter and you document more you can go through the Human Rights Commission and that's $125,000 and if you go for a breach of a fiduciary duty, a break of a duty of care, that's $250,000 and upwards and that is losing your house territory.

If someone cut your hand off, someone cut your hand off, and that is a reality that that is an attack. That can also occur when an emoationa attack occurs, and apparently bullying in the work place is is costing Australia 6.1 billion dollars per year. When a person puts up a post like @Sandstone posted. There are a couple of agendas there and one of those is possibly reinforcing a lack of self compassion and attacking the self. But there are other layers there. If an Austic man is stand two inches away from a woman, she is likely to perceive that as an invasion of personal space

We have different approaches to people @anthony, and I appreciate your bluntness, but unless I am mistaken you work mostly from home and don't socialise or work outside of the house all that much. Last time I read you you found being around people very draining and could only manage a couple of days and it got too much. I have been moving between 6 different social groups/work places, with widely varying capacities, to highly insightful, as well as dumb as two planks together. You have to learn to play the social games and smooth over social ruptures, otherwise you are not counted as a team member.

And whilst it is true that you choose your responses in life, if you have that attitude in the workplace you won't last a week. You have to soothe those people who are offended and explain why and what you are doing. Sometimes listening to someone and acknowledging their point of view, and apologising to what they perceive as harm to them, means they will shift in the direction that is most productive. It is a process of community building, which I am particularly skilled at doing.

Part of Sandstone's post was to get a certain type of reaction - and partly that worried me because implicit in that first post was a kind of challenge (not saying that is bad) but also a level of self hatred, which needs a good reading of David Burns to pick apart.

If you are arrogant enough to say to people how you choose how you interpret and respond to everything in life, well you won't have a job for long. You have to be to do social cohesion.

Indeed you have chosen a response which is at odds with other responses and that is appropriate and valid, but to me it doesn't invalidate what @DharmaGirl was saying because it did come across as rude, and in the real world that actually leads to social ruptions and social isolated, as I found with the people that I coach for social skills.

So I have gone from social isolation to basically having a couple of jobs which are high volume workloads with multiple people form multiple organisations, which varying levels of insight.

So it is a different kettle of fish when you are out in the world. There are social codes that you need to engage in. There's tact and diplomacy and there is sometimes apologising when someone interprets you incorrectly, whilst explaining exactly what I was doing and why. If people feel heard and listened to, you can make a great deal of progress.

I think the answer to this is simple, and complicated, depending who answers and their specific situation.

For me, it comes back to the basic treatment and recovery stats for PTSD.

Approx 60% will fully recover in the first year and go on with life.

Approx 34% will recover to no longer meet diagnosis within a 10 year time frame. There are groups in that, but that is not the topic.

Then you have that approx 6% of sufferers that will NEVER recover and always meet diagnostic criterion, EVEN after full / ongoing treatment.
I am in the 6% there is no doubt about it.

That bold statement of statistical fact is a significant enough number to represent the small portion of people who are still on this site seeking ongoing help, after 5 years. Let alone the actual larger number in the world. Even if you recover fully to no longer meet criterion, having PTSD means you are susceptible for life. IMHO, taking measures to ensure you don't bottle things up, you don't fall into bad habits or other negative aspects, by seeking help in any method that befits you, is just smart and good self management.
I have yearly plans for management, a three year plan, and a five year and a ten year plan for management.

I fit into the 6% that will never recover, yet I am much healthier today, PTSD wise, than I was a decade ago, even though I still meet criterion month to month. After all the work I've done, it is what it is.


I've helped people in my past that were in treatment for a decade or more. Within a few years of getting serious about helping themselves, realising that nobody else could actually help them and do the work, they improved their life more in a short period than a longer period of treatment.

People move at their own pace. Some people take their own lives. Others do little. Others do a lot to help themselves.

Each to their own.

A good question IMO, and that is my take as an opinion on it.
It is an interesthting question, but in the real jobs, volunteerring, being part of a social or sporting group, if you are that blunt wyou will be left out. I agree it is an interesting question, and I respectfully disagree.

And it is important for someone like @Sandstone to learn the social skills to ask questions in a way that people truly want to engage rather than the implicit you must be lazy and not trying if you are still here after 5 years.

If you see my post I didn't engage with that aspect with the OP.

I think @DharmaGirl made a valid point, so will just have to agree to disagree.
 
And it is important for someone like @Sandstone to learn the social skills to ask questions in a way that people truly want to engage rather than the implicit you must be lazy and not trying if you are still here after 5 years.
People who post here have all sorts of communication styles and they vary quite broadly. This thread is a prefect example of that. The OP said what was on their mind. So have others. And it's all acceptable, by the rules of this board. Some thought the OPs framing was rude or provocative, others had no response to the framing itself, others appreciated the framing.

I'm really not sure where you get from the OP of this thread to this:
If someone cut your hand off, someone cut your hand off, and that is a reality that that is an attack. That can also occur when an emoationa attack occurs, and apparently bullying in the work place is is costing Australia 6.1 billion dollars per year.
I don't think there's anything in this thread that rises to the level of an emotional attack, though I think your post comes the closest. And, comparing emotional battery to physical dismemberment is a biggish leap...I'm not sure it helps the point you're trying to make. But most importantly - this site has never tried to legislate the way - manner, tone - that people express themselves. Even though it can get spiky sometimes. We only try to legislate the actual content. What someone is saying, not necessarily how they are saying it.

That's how this board operates. So these statements:
Part of Sandstone's post was to get a certain type of reaction - and partly that worried me because implicit in that first post was a kind of challenge (not saying that is bad) but also a level of self hatred, which needs a good reading of David Burns to pick apart.
When a person puts up a post like @Sandstone posted. There are a couple of agendas there and one of those is possibly reinforcing a lack of self compassion and attacking the self. But there are other layers there.
These are perfectly fine as opinions. But these posts read like you think you are stating facts, and I'm not entirely sure you're right about that. David Burns helps a lot of people - but not all people. And all of us steeped in our own mental health recovery can make very observant analyses of our peers, because we study these behaviors in ourselves - but, because we study them in ourselves, we lack a certain amount of objectivity. And that is the reason why we are better off taking full responsibility for our own reactions, and acknowledging that sometimes, we just aren't going to understand where someone else is coming from. That doesn't mean we can't share our own experience. In fact, that's what we are supposed to do. And we take what is useful and leave the rest. That's the collective agreement. That's what allows this community to function - not smoothing over the social wheels.

Whether you're smooth or rough, that's just where you're at.
And whilst it is true that you choose your responses in life, if you have that attitude in the workplace you won't last a week. You have to soothe those people who are offended and explain why and what you are doing. Sometimes listening to someone and acknowledging their point of view, and apologising to what they perceive as harm to them, means they will shift in the direction that is most productive. It is a process of community building, which I am particularly skilled at doing.
We aren't in the workplace, and this is a real tangent on this thread - but to follow the derail for a little bit...I just don't think this is the only way it works, though certainly respect it being your experience (since I can't speak to that).

In my own life - which is riddled with PTSD and depression, and in which I also move through many different kinds of groups - I find that being conciliatory and building bridges often furthers communication - but not always. Some people respond much better to directness and bluntness. Those people often become agitated when they perceive that someone is trying to smooth them over. Communication is a two-way street, and strong, facile, effective interpersonal skills require a lot of adjustment.

And it is important for someone like @Sandstone to learn the social skills to ask questions in a way that people truly want to engage rather than the implicit you must be lazy and not trying if you are still here after 5 years.
So I'm going to go back to this. The OP has said they often feel like they are lazy and not trying. They never said that the other people on this board are lazy and not trying. You yourself acknowledge that you're reading 'between the lines' (implicit), which I wouldn't recommend doing on the internet. Better to take things at face value.

And the OP clearly hit a really interesting topic, because this thread has generated a ton of engagement.

This thread is not about social skills. It's about a bunch of us, all with PTSD, all from differing perspectives, having opinions about why each of us, individually, still suffers. And it's working perfectly well - which is to say, it's full of push and pull.

That's all.
 

Basically - so what?

Just because the owner of the forum agrees with you doesn't mean my contributions aren't valid. It also doesn't mean that other people's interpretations don't have a place in this discussion. It also doesn't mean that I am wrong.

If you just want people to agree to with your opinion/and/or underlaying self punishing and self hatred, then share in your diary. There will always be many different opinions.

If you took looked what @DharmaGirl was asking - you might reflect on how you could end the state you have found yourself in You could look at how you interact with people and give you some breadcrumbs to find your way out of the state that you are in.
 
IMHO it is everyone's own choice to react, though. Sandstone was not forcing anyone to respond in any way.... so if the question is so upsetting, or so full of implications that are upsetting, and so on, there always is the choice to leave the thread out and not respond.

I think it is an useful thing to look at underlying messages in one's own life... and the judgments encountered there, in which settings, and their strength. And how much of that we still believe in, today, or that seems inevitable to believe.

But that, again, is not about what was said here. That is life stuff.
After all, that question was not hate speech. And is likely to have zero actual danger consequences in physical lives, too. So not worth getting into an emotional turmoil for. Just another question of a stranger on the internet that can be passed go for when one has the time and mood for it.
 
Just because the owner of the forum agrees with you doesn't mean my contributions aren't valid. It also doesn't mean that other people's interpretations don't have a place in this discussion. It also doesn't mean that I am wrong.
No you're right, it doesn't. I think the point is, all sorts of interpretations are going to happen. And just because someone tells you - or anyone - that you're wrong, that doesn't make them right either. You seem to be assuming it does, though. That might be an interesting take-away for you. Or not. It's entirely your choice.

But I'd like to see the thread get back to the main topic, now. @Living in the 70s, you've been banned from the thread - not because I disagree with your perspective, but because it's time for you to step away from the thread. The OPs questions are just fine, don't need to be taken to a diary, and your point has been made.
After all, that question was not hate speech. And is likely to have zero actual danger consequences in physical lives, too. So not worth getting into an emotional turmoil for. Just another question of a stranger on the internet that can be passed go for when one has the time and mood for it.
Well said.
 
I like it because I look at the title and then "why aren't you better?" Then I apply the different tones of voice to the question. I hear the inner critic and I understand why people's took offense then I hear a softer kinder voice asking a question out of concern. I usually, due to my distorted filters, hear innocent things people say in that horrible critical voice "mine" and I react like I've received a blow. This is what I mean by hyper vigilant. I can laugh now. It really distorted my life though. I can understand why anyone with ptsd could potentially take offense at that opening the way it was put and that's why it was such a great thread in part it show cased that aspect of it. I can also see why someone else would say "what'd they do?"
 
Plain and simple, I have had times of major healing, but then life sets me back. I have dealt with several new traumas since I have been here. One of the reasons I am back. I made a lot of progress, the trial under fire kind. But PTSD causing incidents seem to follow me like the plaugue.
 
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