Why? I just dont understand. Why did I develop PTSD? It is said PTSD is caused by a real or perceived threat. A threat to you. The event that lead to my PTSD didnt happen to me. I witnessed two men beat a young woman a couple houses down from me. I was by my house they weren’t coming towards me. As far as I know they didnt threaten me. So why am I like this? Why am I still panicking sometimes? Why am I still having intrusive memories? Nothing happened to me. I was safe. I dont understand. I feel as though I dont even deserve to say I have PTSD. There are many people who have been through way worse.
It’s a side effect of being a good human being.
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one of my friends has ptsd from seeing too many gruesome dead bodies from his work as a fireman.
He will see bodies in trees sometimes when were biking or smell burning flesh and he will just breakdown.
So seeing bad things can definitely cause ptsd
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I know that you guys probably dont have answers. I’m just frustrated tonight. It’s funny, I first joined here thinking that I might have finally found somewhere that I belong. Than I started to understand what was going on and that it wasnt psychosis rather really ■■■■■■ up ptsd and I realized I dont really fit here. I dont fit with normal ptsd people either. I’m sorry in throwing a pity party but it feels good to every now and then. I’m just so frustrated tonight.
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its ok, ive got a bit of ptsd from my psychosis experiences. ptsd symptoms can be similar to psychosis.
Hope you feel better and get a break from it soon
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@GEDchill I wouldnt really say I’m a good human being though. I’m not evil just not great either.
@LevelJ1 Its nice to hear I’m not the only one. I know that I’m not but confirmation is nice. I wish he wouldnt have to go through that. I would rather live with this and have nobody understand if that means nobody else would have to go through it. It sucks and I dont wish it upon anybody.
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Oh cut yourself some slack you’re a damn fine human being.
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My PTSD is weird. At one point the symptoms pretty much went away and I developed psycho somatic symptom disorder. Because the ptsd wasnt treated properly I essentially developed psychosis.
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Thank you. I mean it.
@GEDchill @LevelJ1 thank you to both of you. It helps to just rant a little and let things out. It helps more to have somebody to rant and talk to. Even just a little bit. Thank you again.
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@NeoPolitan02, people even have PTSD from medical procedures.
Your experience is valid.
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PTSD arises not so much from the level of badness in an event, but from the amount of shock it causes to your worldview. I’m guessing that before this incident, you generally thought of your neighborhood as a fairly safe place where you could go about your day without fear. Or at least you didn’t think about the possibility of being attacked. Seeing such a thing happen to someone else really changed that view. You suddenly and without warning became acutely aware of the possibility of being attacked on your street. That sudden shift of viewing the world as a safe or neutral place to a place full of potential danger is what causes PTSD symptoms. Your brain is wired to respond to threats. It is very good at learning negative associations and responding to them. This is a skill that has kept us alive for thousands of years. Your brain learned that there were threats to respond to. Bad men can beat up women on this street. But it wasn’t so good at sorting out what was really a threat and what was just background data associated with the threat. It wasn’t good at telling when the threat has passed, and when it can return to its resting state.
There are a lot more people with PTSD like yours, they just generally don’t realize they have PTSD because, like you, they believe they shouldn’t be so affected by something that happened to someone else. This is one of the factors that leads to people living in poverty to experience higher rates of mental illness. The trauma of living in a high-crime neighborhood is real, even if nothing bad ever happens to you personally. The normalization of witnessing violent crimes in such neighborhoods, combined with lack of access to affordable mental health care, leads people to not get help, and leads them to develop symptoms like yours.
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I knew it wasnt a good place. I knew bad things happened. I just dont think I ever saw it like that. I could dissociate from gunshots in the middle of the night. It’s simply someone shooting a target. I could dissociate drug baggies at the bus stop. I’m only in 5th grade so these little bags have nothing to do with me. I could dissociate cops with assault rifles and k9 units. The bad man just came through, hes gone and they just wanna make sure he isnt there. I could dissociate drunks stumbling into our house. They’re just drunk and dad is here so its okay. I guess that event was too much. It broke through everything, all of my insensible rationales. I cant dissociate from what is right in front of me.
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I’m not sure about the DSM but ICD does not require that the threat was towards yourself.
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Witnessing trauma can cause PTSD as defined in the DSM-5.
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Children who see their mothers beaten get ptsd even if it didn’t happen to them. You do fit in with other people who have ptsd. Try not to be so hard on yourself
I have ptsd from becoming psychotic and spending a month in one mental hospital and ten days in another mental hospital. I was put into the isolation room which I hate. My ptsd is also caused by abuse from my dad. I would not wish it on anybody.
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