What PTSD Is
Mar. 19th, 2013 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithHere'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.
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.
You're welcome!
Date: 2013-03-19 09:17 pm (UTC)I share the original author's view that we could use more representations of this type of PTSD in literature. I've written about some of the more extreme examples. This subtler version ... if you look around, you can see how some of my main characters have that kind of hypervigilance, connectivity impairment, sense of meaningless, etc. But I may see about playing this up in the future.