3 ms·
One thing I've noticed is that there's a very severe bias in culture against PTSD. There's this idea that PTSD should be a "really big deal" and it only exists
by InclinedPlane 10y ago
One thing I've noticed is that there's a very severe bias in culture against PTSD. There's this idea that PTSD should be a "really big deal" and it only exists in the "goes to 11" mode and nothing else, that it has to be "earned" through truly great trauma. PTSD that exists from more minor things (such as childhood emotional trauma that didn't involve physical violence) is often ignored and sidelined. Consider, for example, the character of Clarice from The Silence of the Lambs. The event that gave that movie its name likely gave Clarice lasting PTSD that she had not overcome even as an adult. Her PTSD wasn't as life damaging as a veteran incapable of holding a job or staying sober, she obviously managed to prevent it from impacting her daily life too powerfully, but it still existed.
There are tons of people walking around with similar or even more "minor" forms of PTSD. And it's causing them stress and giving them potentially harmful behaviors like hypervigillance. Many of them will go through their lives not knowing or even recognizing the possibility that they're experiencing PTSD, because society says PTSD has to be a 500 pound gorilla, and a 2 pound monkey on your back is not even worth worrying about.