But not always, my friend. At least, I am not dead yet.

You need to check your assumptions, I think.

Do you really think an abused 8-year-old has access to PTSD treatment? Or that a twenty-something who hasn't managed to get beyond her denial does?

I'm afraid that your reaction here seems to me to be exactly the kind of mythologizing that I think the common media portrayals of PTSD encourage. And that "Proud and lonely, endure it" thing is *exactly* what I am talking about. That's what we're shown in the romanticized versions: "Oh, he's tormented by his tragic past, how heroic!" "Oh, she'll never get over her rape, how sad!"

People react in the way you describe in part because it's natural for somebody who's been badly injured to erect really powerful barriers, and in part because that's how we teach them they have to cope.

We need to let go of those comfortably tragic images of PTSD as a culture in order to help people who suffer from it deal with it.

Edited at 2012-08-07 04:17 pm (UTC)

No, I'm saying that the kind of portrayal that you seem to be defending, in your first comment above, is exactly the sort of thing that in my experience is one reason that people don't seek help--because they see PTSD portrayed in media as exactly what you describe.

Please don't call me honey. My *boyfriend* doesn't get to call me honey.