What wrong idea about PTSD would you most like to eliminate?

That this illnes is a "CHOICE". i texted my brother that I was living in a homeless shelter and his response was "I'm praying for your recovery". I promptly informed him PTSD is not an addiction...but an illness. I'm so angry that my family considers this to be a choice. NO ONE would "choose" this illness.

Did he mean it like that? If he did, he deserves a slap with the DSM (so he has an aching cheek & the ability to look up the differences) but I think that phrase can also be used if someone has any severe somatic or psychiatric illness I think.

Tapatalk doesn't have a hug button.

That if you're being triggered, you will be very obviously being triggered. That if you're not thrashing about/yelling you clearly aren't having an episode.

I hardly ever have a fight response, my response is always to freeze and shut down so everyone always just thinks I'm not paying attention and if I say I had a trigger and was having a PTSD flashback they look at me like they don't believe me.

PTSD (and related ovary explosion-not precise medical name)taught me
happy people want to ignore negative things.Or have fun.
I was in ob-gyn,fighting for life,there was lots of happy soon-to-be mothers and "fathers"(were they pregnant?)sitting on chair and I was lying on floor.They were curiously watching me.

I lost trust for human parents I hope other people will not triggered,as my trigger is too common thing in life.
And I lost trust for my then-living mother by telling me I choose my ex.

She kept telling me forget about all of them and move on.I did if I could.It's a reflex.Engraved my nerve and just react.I hope people at least close to someone with PTSD understand it.

Me too. I freeze as well. I had one in a psych ward and no one believed me because I wasn't yelling my head off.

That we can choose "to not be consumed by triggers." "You are allowing your self to be consumed and you CAN control your thoughts". Makes me wanna slap some cognition in the people who say this to me when I'm having an attack of anxiety, panic or just plain ole nuclear melt down. Tis exhausting trying to explain this to people who "choose" not to understand. If ya can't understand it, at least try a little sympathetic compassion.

I get exactly the same. I just freeze and stop responding, withdrawing completely and making myself invisible. People interpret it as being weird, sulking, offended... When in reality I'm scared and every single one of my muscles is tight in defense and not knowing what to say or do.

It's a terrible state which almost no one understands

My husband's that way. When he's frozen in place and pretty much unresponsive, I know he's triggered.

Two things: that there are any meds that treat PTSD. There are not. There are meds that have been found to help various symptoms, but nothing that just magically treats the whole disorder. Many of us are on no meds at all in relationship to our PTSD. I am not.

The second, this thing where everyone everywhere is using the word "triggered" to mean anytime they have an emotion about anything. A trigger is something jolts you into an episode, it's not just something that upsets you or irritates you. Everyone gets triggered by every little thing...it really bothers me the overuse of the term. When I say I'm triggered, I mean I'm having a real episode, a flashback, an uncontrollable rage episode due to PTSD, a panic attack, or some other PTSD response that is a disordered response. You are not triggered because the barista got your latte order wrong and you're upset. You're just upset. You're not triggered because someone on Facebook disagreed with you, that's just being mad. Having a normal emotional response is not being triggered. UG.

The idea that 12 weeks of therapy does the trick. (VA)

that it's not just people involved in the war who suffer from it. it's associated a lot with the war, yes, especially in like the media but that one is so old now.. anyone can get it if they've experienced bad trauma.

the clue's in the name..

That's its actually the result of chemical imbalances or brain structure.

I have ptsd from a traumatic situation that happed to me but it wasn’t the act that set me off it was having it happen and being ignored by the people that were supposed to care. It made it worse. What I would like to have eliminated would be the denial. It would have changed my life to have one caring person. Your not a throw away if you have mental illness. We should be treated as an equal and are not less than deserving of equality just because we are diagnosis with a mental illness.

The average person tends to show their lack of understanding ptsd by making comments that insinuate the person suffering chooses to have triggers and flashbacks. PTSD is a term/label used that means a person is struggling with a mental health challenge that presents symptoms that can confuse and cripple a person. People do NOT choose to struggle with PTSD, most genuinely don't understand why they developed it and so many ask "why can't I just like I used to?". PTSD is a name for a challenge within the person's brain and that challenge can vary when it comes to WHAT that person actually experienced that traumatized them enough to create the condition of PTSD.

For example, lets say a person was at work late and that person went to the water cooler to get some water when suddenly someone approached the person and attacked them and overpowered them that caused harm and no one was there to help or see it. That can create this person to stuggle with PTSD where anything in that environment, including the water cooler and the cup and the sound of the water cooler and the hallway, all in that environment and even a tone of voice or the attacker lunging can leave this victim with any one of these things triggering them to re-experience the event, EVEN WHEN IT'S NOT WANTED.

Telling a person that now struggles with having anything in that environment trigger a re-experience that takes over to JUST IGNORE IT, or get over it, or let it go, don't allow, stop thinking about it IT'S OVER? Are all CRUEL statements that show ignorance about what it means to struggle with PTSD.

First of all, our brain takes in a lot more information than we consciously realize. Our brain takes in sights, sounds, temperature, touch/physical sensations constantly. And our nervous system responds to our environment. During a tramatic experience we experience a heightened sense of awareness, more than we consciously realize. We don't consciously take it all in as the frontal executive part of our brain doesn't really function that way. It's after a trauma that so many things start to present to a person all the things about their environment in the event that was present during the trauma. A person can now experience a trigger any time that person sees or hears a water cooler. Another person can say "Come on, it's JUST a water cooler, GET OVER IT!", but it isn't JUST a water cooler to a PTSD sufferer. The sufferer WANTS it to go back to being JUST a water cooler, yet, seeing or hearing a water cooler can literally send that person back into reliving being attacked. EVEN WHEN THE PERSON DOESN'T WANT TO RELIVE IT.

The other thing that the average person doesn't understand is the need to "talk about and even REPEATEDLY". When someone repeats describing a trauma, that is IMPORTANT, better than NOT talking about it and instead shutting down. Often what will happen is the sufferer may experience a trigger and discover something NEW that MEANS something about that event. Often the person will want to repeat the entire story of an event ADDING in this new detail. A person who DOESN'T UNDERSTAND PTSD often will say, "That's not important, you need to stop thinking and talking about it and move on". Saying that is actually CRUEL because HEALING happens when a person slowly becomes conscious of ALL THE ELEMENTS of that event. What the person suffering really WANTS is a presence that responds with "yes, something new you are seeing, good for you that you are finally recognizing that detail".

I know for myself, that I can experience a trigger that cripples me and I have no idea WHAT the trigger was. I find that HELL tbh. If I get triggered and it's a bad one where I can't function, it leaves me feeling HELPLESS and FRUSTRATED. If the answer does surface, it's a relief because at least I now know what caused me to struggle to function.

Also, some individuals DO have it worse than others. For example, with PTSD one person suffering can walk by a water cooler with NO triggers at all while the person who did have a bad experience near a water cooler avoids it to avoid experiencing a major trigger that can cripple them. Any statement of "Oh, water coolers are no issue, Just Ignore it, no water cooler bothers ME". Comments like that come across CRUEL and DISMISSIVE. Actually, a much better response would be a more CARING response and even a "Lets go over and stand by the water cooler and this time I will be with you and will hold your hand so you have something KIND AND CARING present when it comes to water coolers".

No one CHOOSES to struggle with PTSD. Making any kind of statements to someone who does suffer from PTSD that alude to "you are doing this to yourself" are disrespecting the challenge that PTSD means to someone.

Some children have had wars in their families.

Post-traumatic stress can be lessened with exposure therapy. This is true if the person agrees to the exposure. Without consent and understanding, this type of therapy only further traumatizes.

What wrong idea about PTSD would you most like to eliminate?

That it's temporary. That it will go away.