some time ago i read an article to the effect that more clinicians are arguing that the dx of ptsd is inherently iatrogenic.

i wonder what those who have been dx'ed think?

my trauma is not post, never has been, since the causal injuries began 13 years ago, and i do not think, a `disorder' though very `disordering' (not sure that makes sense). while the MD who gave me that label 4 years into the ongoing and worsening trauma, did a very good job in checking his assumptions, etc. and at the time `ptsd' was probably the closest `label' that fit, it was secondary to a more severe brain injury which the trauma sort of `crowds out'. no one sees a TBI beneath trauma.

anyway- my personal experience has been that this label, depending on to whom and how it is applied can be worse than no dx at all. `mental illness' is a very abstract concept, and i have a very hard time seeing those with rational basis for fear as `mentally ill' vs. socially unacceptable.

i see the dsm version(s) of ptsd as grossly over assumptive.
while some people may fit this, ie. are safe, stable and receiving all the appropriate medical, social and legal support they require, i tend to suspect that a very small percent of those dx'ed with this fall into that category.

but- it implies such delusion that it has been used to `excuse' and overlook any further trauma, ie. `well i think you are just paranoid b/c you were traumatized once'.

i further suspect that this has to do with the social need to deny, deny, deny, that we have millions of people who just DO not gain access to services which are appropriate, or that anyone homeless is anything other than making a choice to be, etc. we have many more millions of people on the waiting list for sec 8 housing for eg. than we do units in this country. are ALL of these people comprising the `excess demand' homeless, as implied due to `mental illness' or `addiction'.

sounds rather logically flawed to me anyway.

then again, we have people who perhaps lived a hundred miles from nyc during 9/11 with the same dx as people who are being terrorized by stalking?

where is the help for `Current traumatic stress Reaction'? i am sick of trying to explain to clinicians reasoning backwards from that time 10 years ago when they read the description of ptsd in the dsmv, that this assumes the trauma has stopped, and since it hasn't, could we please focus on immediate safey issues, not my toilet training?

shutting up- wonder what others think????