PTSD in Ottawa – Not Just For Soldiers
Because they are such a large and often marginalized segment of PTSD sufferers, understandably soldiers and veterans get significant media attention. While it cant be denied that exposing the problem of PTSD in soldiers is a good thing, an unfortunate consequence of repeated exposure in the media, a degree of social blindness is created towards the situation of non-military PTSD sufferers. Dispelling false notions about PTSD and replacing them with true ones makes us more capable of help ourselves and others when PTSD appears in our lives. Do so with Capital Choice Counselling:
False Notions
It Affects Only Soldiers:
PTSD effects anyone who experiences significant enough trauma. It’s no surprise, then, that soldiers and veterans are such a large demographic of PTSD sufferers. They are regularly exposed to levels of trauma that far exceed what anyone could reasonably be expected to cope with, and so it’s no wonder that so many of them can’t. First response personnel like firefighters, paramedics, and police officers also see considerably higher than normal PTSD sufferers. These occupations expose a person to trauma frequently, and so it’s no wonder that the demographics that work them experience higher-than normal PTSD diagnoses.
These demographics are comparatively large to the less-represented subset of PTSD sufferers that didn’t get their disorder from their occupation. Victims of domestic abuse, childhood trauma, witnesses to violent crimes or accidents; there are thousands of possible events a person may have experienced that led to a PTSD diagnosis. While common people are less likely to experience trauma leading to PTSD, it still happens, and though they are a less represented subset of PTSD sufferers, it’s important to be aware of their presence. PTSD is not the exclusive domain of those who work every day in traumatic environments, and dispelling that notion is critical to helping those in need access the help they need for PTSD diagnosis and treatment.
You Can Self-Diagnose:
PTSD is a mental health disorder very much in the awareness of the general public. Many relate to the stories and information they see and hear about PTSD in the media, and feel that PTSD explains many negative aspects of their personal lives and daily experiences. From this feeling, many make an erroneous decision to self-diagnose, and take measures to treat the PTSD they believe to be a source of their suffering. This error is not only illogical, but also carries with it the possibility of significant consequences on long-term mental health.
When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. When the only disorder you’re thinking about is PTSD, every problem looks like PTSD. While the stories and information you experience in the media may resonate with you, by looking for a PTSD diagnosis in your experiences, you risk bending your understanding to support a PTSD diagnosis. Having suffering in our life, and not knowing what it is, increases suffering; and so sometimes people will latch onto self-diagnosis like PTSD as a way of coping with the anxiety of not knowing the source of ones anxiety!
It is entirely possible that a person who diagnoses themselves with PTSD is correct. However it is also possible, and more likely, that they are incorrect. When a person works to address a falsely diagnosed PTSD problem, not only do they fail at treating PTSD, but also the true source of suffering they are seeking to treat. The only way to properly diagnose PTSD is with the help of a trained professional, and for that Capital Choice Counselling can help.
It Looks Like It Does In Movies
Like any mental health disorder represented on the big or little screen, writers go to great pains to represent PTSD in a manner that fits into a given narrative. These representations often do a great job of demonstrating the more dramatic events characterized by PTSD, but as you might expect, don’t do justice to the disorder. While night terrors and triggered panic responses are characteristic of PTSD, movie makers have yet to adequately present many of the subtler nuances of suffering with PTSD.
Waking up in the middle of the night after a recurring nightmare is something that many PTSD sufferers deal with, but movie-makers have over-used that particular symptom to the point of creating a trope. This over-representation causes laypeople to associate the event with the disorder, leading them to sometimes feel that if they aren’t waking up in a cold sweat night after night, that they can’t have PTSD. The same can be said of any symptom of PTSD represented in popular culture.
True Notions
Its Not A Badge of Honor
As mentioned above, PTSD is a frequently self-diagnosed disorder. In some unfortunate cases, not only will people self-diagnose, but they will take their self-proclaimed diagnosis and use it as a ‘badge of honor’. A PTSD diagnosis is a powerful means of garnering attention, and sometimes people unknowingly choose to believe in their self-diagnosis for it’s attention-grabbing abilities.
People who self-diagnose knowingly or unknowingly for these reasons to a massive disservice to those actually diagnosed with PTSD because they foster an inaccurate understanding of what the disorder is. Many who suffer with the disorder are ashamed of speaking about it publicly for fear of being associated with these unfortunate few who use the disorder as social leverage. Because of those who use PTSD as an attention-grabbing mechanism in their social interactions, those who actually have PTSD are forced to suffer just a little bit more.
When you wake up at 3:30 AM to a violent panic attack and have to medicate to get back to sleep, only to miss work because your medication was so powerful, life is made more difficult when you feel ashamed of explaining yourself to your co-workers. This shame is largely a product of public misunderstanding of PTSD, and this public misunderstanding is largely a product of misrepresentation by popular culture and the self-diagnosed.
PTSD Sufferers Have ‘Triggers’
Yet another layer of public misunderstanding and unjust appropriation of PTSD, the word ‘trigger’ has become common in popular culture. Originally, ‘triggers’ were something exclusive to PTSD sufferers. Exposure to experiences sharing similar features to their traumatic event causes them to re-experience a past trauma in the present moment. Like many aspects of PTSD, this one has been ‘appropriated’ by the public at large, especially online, as a convenient mechanism for attention-grabbing.
This appropriation is morally catastrophic, yet another reason why millions of PTSD sufferers feel like they must suffer alone. PTSD ‘triggers’ are intensely powerful, life-shatteringly negative experiences. The word ‘trigger’ seems to have been identified by many online as a convenient mechanism for controlling the behavior of others, but due to it’s rampant use, it has been cheapened to the point of triviality.
Without a PTSD diagnosis from a trained professional, one cannot legitimately claim that something ‘triggers’ them. While words or actions of others make you uncomfortable, to equate your discomfort with the suffering of one diagnosed with PTSD is not only hilariously incorrect, but awe-inspiringly disrespectful. Not only this, but it cheapens the value of the word ‘trigger’ to the point that when PTSD sufferers use it, people equate their suffering with the minor discomfort experienced by someone claiming ‘trigger’ online. Like the boy who cried wolf, it’s important to reign-in our use of the word, so that when it is used, it benefits those who have legitimate claim to use it.
Capital Choice Counselling
PTSD is no joke. There is no human being alive who is capable of coping with the disorder alone, and at least in Ottawa, Capital Choice is committed to ensuring that nobody has to.
If you or someone you know is or might be suffering from PTSD, we invite you to get in touch with Capital Choice Counselling. Whether it’s dealing with the disorder yourself, or learning how to help and cope with someone close to you who suffers from the disorder, massive benefits stand to be reaped from sessions from Capital Choice.
