[Nosebleed]

I probably have ADD, OCD, Anxiety and Clinical depression.Thats what all the quizzez suggest. And I've been reading a lot about symptoms. I'm pretty sure I suffer from all 4 disorders.
I'm 21 yrs old and in college. As a child, a lot was expected of me. Especially since my father went to the top university of the country. (I'm from India BTW). Imagine an american earning a full scholarship to harvard's engineering college. Something like that.
But I could never even score average marks, let alone excel in academics. As a result, I went throught a lot of emotional trauma and stress. My parents and my high school teachers were always on my case. My dad is a short tempered guy. Sometimes he would just lose it and he'd just keep screaming at me for weeks. He would sit in my room all day, make sure I was studying and would just constantly keep shouting at me. My high school teachers did everything possible to make my teenage years miserable. Teachers in India believe that torturing kids makes them tougher. And that the academically poor kids are actually bad and immoral kids. Somehow I graduated from high school and got into a decent college. But I had to take an year off to prepare for my board exams (the indian equivalent of the american SATs)
As a result, I have developed an apathy towards everything that is even remotely related to academics. Everytime I open a course book, or think about exams or just hear the words "Physics", "Chemistry" and "Mathematics", it sort of reminds of all the trauma that I went through. I start going through all the same emotions and eventually I start getting an anxiety attack.
I can't even do simple things like going to class, submitting
assigments, etc etc. Everytime a professors talks to me in a condescending tone, it reminds of my high school teachers. They make me feel so small, I just want to pass out of existence.

My questions is : Can this be a case of post traumatic stress disorder? Or does PTSD only happen in cases of extreme events like war, car accident, rape etc etc?

[lenjan]

PTSD can be caused by any traumatic event, and the ones that build up over time, like yours, are the worst.

I taught college for a long time (in the U.S.), and witnessed first-hand what one of my Indian students went through. She was first-generation American, her parents were both physicians, and she got in horrible trouble if she got anything less than perfect grades. She had NO desire to follow in her parents' footsteps, but they kept trying to push her that way. It was hard to watch.

In my own life, I went back to school after nearly a 10-year break. I did really poorly the first time around, but worked my butt off after I grew up some (and had to pay for it myself) and maintained a 4.0 (perfect) grade point average right up to very near the end.

When I told my dad I lost my 4.0, his response was, "A 3.9 isn't very good, Candace."

I was able to shrug it off, but I was also over 30. He tried to pull the same thing on me when I was your age and it devastated me. I think he thought it would motivate me, but all it did was make me say the heck with it and walk away.

Anyway, I didn't mean to take over your thread, just wanted to say I share your experience and I'm really sorry it's happening to you. All that worked for me was time and distance -- I hope you find something that helps you sooner.

Candy

[(JD)]

I think research is finding that children who are bullied (here in America) are prone to PTSD. So, if what you experienced is not only bullying by adults, but emotionally abusive behavior (the power structure) it could very well be PTSD. IF you suspect this, you will need professional help; it doesn't improve or go away on its own TC!