What PTSD Is

[ysabetwordsmith]

Here's a brilliant post about the kind of PTSD that builds slowly, a pervasive shift in worldview, rather than the kind that comes from a sudden major shock.  This is how it can form in people who aren't front-line soldiers but rather support crew, or cops, or people living in poverty or neglectful relationships.  

Now look at the part where it talks about society not being a safe place, everyone's out to get each other, no trustworthy connections, no safety net if something goes wrong, nobody to care if you live or die.  That's what we're making our world into every time we cut public services and support.  We're making it more like the place inside a PTSD sufferer's head.  "Every man for himself and devil take the hindmost" isn't a society.  It's madness.

Comments

[ravan.livejournal.com]

Hypervigilance. I had that for years after I graduated high school. Mistrust, cynicism, paranoia - yep, all from bullying. What's worse, every time I end up with a corporate bully for a boss, I end up re-triggered, and stressed.

So I am an iconoclast, the person who questions, who tries to protect others, sometimes by being the one to say "The Emperor has no clothes!" I've already been burned out several times.

Coming close to homelessness, being accosted on the street, starving, just more crap in the mill. That's why I can't even relate to the "Devil take the hindmost" attitude, because I've spent too much time as the hindmost, and I take it very personally.

The only reason suicide has never appealed to me is that it would give the bastards too much of a victory. Some years I kept living out of sheer spite.

My way of dealing with it is seeing making at least one person's life easier, better, happier as I go through my day as a victory. Answer a question, give someone a tool, tell a joke, make a pun, or just listen to their problems counts.

If I didn't have that, I'd be batshit crazy looking for a bell tower.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>Hypervigilance. I had that for years after I graduated high school. Mistrust, cynicism, paranoia - yep, all from bullying. What's worse, every time I end up with a corporate bully for a boss, I end up re-triggered, and stressed.<<

That probably happens far more than most people realize.

>>So I am an iconoclast, the person who questions, who tries to protect others, sometimes by being the one to say "The Emperor has no clothes!" I've already been burned out several times.<<

Yea, verily.

>>My way of dealing with it is seeing making at least one person's life easier, better, happier as I go through my day as a victory. Answer a question, give someone a tool, tell a joke, make a pun, or just listen to their problems counts.<<

It's important to make a difference.

For all the times people have fucked me over, walked away, told lies behind my back, left me to do all the work ... I'm still the one they come to when they don't know what the fuck to do. Now that's what they call irony.

[baaing-tree.livejournal.com]

Some years I kept living out of sheer spite.

Hey, don't knock it if it works. I'm specifically making myself responsible for some things (including a webcomic) as a safeguard against suicide. For me, duty > everything.

--Rogan

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>Hey, don't knock it if it works.<<

Agreed. Do what works for you.

>> I'm specifically making myself responsible for some things (including a webcomic) as a safeguard against suicide. For me, duty > everything.
--Rogan <<

It's good to hear that you know how your mind works and can find solutions based on that. Yay for webcomics!

[aoifes_isle]

For me, it's having had to both piece together what made a friend check out in similar circumstances and deal with my own responses. Knowing that him doing that broke me so spectacularly ... unless I can guarantee I won't break someone else the same way, my damn sense of responsibility won't let me.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>For me, it's having had to both piece together what made a friend check out in similar circumstances and deal with my own responses.<<

Useful comparison.

>> Knowing that him doing that broke me so spectacularly ... unless I can guarantee I won't break someone else the same way, my damn sense of responsibility won't let me. <<

I'm glad you're still here. Losing you wouldn't break me, and I wouldn't want anyone to feel trapped in an unbearable life on my account. But I'd miss you if you were gone.