I’m not talking about PTSD so severe that it interferes with someone’s life, but I guess what I am asking isn’t some level of it normal and maybe beneficial? Isn’t every human being on earth subject to it?
Someone who is assaulted or raped can feel terrified just because they never considered it could happen to them, or that it could happen in a certain area. And now that they are it is a possible threat, where before it wasn’t.
Or imagine a baby that approaches a strange dog and gets nipped, from that point on the baby will be suspicious of any strange dogs and approach cautiously.
Some level of most disorders is normal. Most people have a few Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors, for instance. What makes them disorders is that they inhibit everyday life to an abnormal degree. That’s why it’s so easy to self-diagnose.
I agree with Jragon, we all possess some symptoms of mental illnesses, of various stripes, everyday. But it’s about degree. We’ve all been depressed. That’s not the same thing as suffering from severe depression.
So the OP is right, but it’s hardly news, I think.
PTSD is defined as a mental disorder that meets a specific set of diagnostic criteria. You meet the criteria or you don’t. You can’t just have “some” PTSD. I think the OP incorrectly uses the word PTSD when he means to say trauma.
“PTSD” is what we call a kind of response to a stressor that is generally outside the norm. While PTSD may be a normative response to that stressor, it’s not the only response people might have. “Normal PTSD” as I think you’re describing it would be called “low grade anxiety,” “tension,” or something else that’s a normal response to normal stressors.
Example: My car was recently hit by another car. Since then, a car approaching quickly causes me to be somewhat physiologically hypervigilant and to have my anxiety go up further than normal. This is in the range of expected and typical reactions for this stressor, will probably subside, and isn’t the same as PTSD, which has other characteristics.
Analogy: I have an allergy that makes me cough. This is in the normal range for response to ragweed, which is a normal stressor. Though it shares some signs with tuberculosis, it’s not tuberculosis (a disease that requires a very specific stressor and has a broader range of more severe expression and consequences). But both I and a person with TB cough.
Or not, if you actually read that page and look at the type of changes, and also note that it was 19 years between DSM IV and DSM V. [rolling my eyes so hard they’re coming out the back of my head]
Yeah, it’s pathetic how science and research changes our understanding of the world. If the Bible hasn’t changed in 2,000 years, neither should medical texts!
Cordelia Fine wrote that “The grace that saves us from psychiatric diagnosis is nothing more than the sheer good fortune that millions of others happen to share our delusion.”
I think what is actually “normal” is people self-diagnosing themselves with a psychological/mental disorder based on their own whim, because it feels good to be classified, and to have a label that justifies any personal quirks/challenges.
You’re probably right, but it might be from other people misusing the term too. I guess what I noticed is that every human being experiences trauma and has a psychological reaction to said trauma, and I see that as normal and not even bad really.
I guess what I was asking was is it even possibly to not experience trauma as a human being period.
Informally, if your behaviour has some characteristics of a diagnosable condition, you are looking for these criteria:
Is it persistent?
Is it pervasive?
Is it problematic?
If yes to the three Ps, it’s worth doing some work on. I say that as a therapist, so I mean therapeutic work. That’s not the same as being diagnosed by a psychiatrist.
OP - you specifically mention rape as something that might PTSD, but you do so in a way that causes me to think that you may not be aware that it actually does cause clinical PTSD.
I’m wondering if you are, or were, thinking it’s just associated with military service?
In fact, as others have stated, it could be the result of any number of traumatic events.
A minor dog bite might be a teaching moment. A severe dog attack that almost kills you might result in PTSD. And different people handle things differently, so the same event won’t produce the same results in everyone. Although as the event gets more traumatic, PTSD gets more likely. Active duty combat, war zones, rape survivors, natural disasters are going to start kicking out higher percentages of PTSD. At that point, trauma isn’t really the learning experience you describe in the OP, so much as it becomes (at least once you’ve lived through it) “oh fuck, I lived through that”. And, well, PTSD actually can really interfere with life. But I won’t dwell on that so much.
Yes, we all experience trauma. It’s a scale though. We experience different amounts and types, and we process it differently. I would not say PTSD is something everyone experiences, which is a good thing.
We’ve all got traits. We all have post-traumatic stress. Life itself is trauma. It’s only when those traits/stresses cause significant dysfunction and dysphoria in one’s own life that it rises to the level of a disorder, and needs attention.
THe eastern philosopher Lo-Slung summarized it nicely in an earlier post.
Please don’t make the mistake of discounting another’s suffering due to PTSD, because you’ve survived trauma of your own just fine. Or you know somebody who got raped and moved on from it without needing a disorder or therapy.
Everyone suffers trauma and loss, but none of us know whether we’ll weather, the storm it produces in our lives, or it will begin to unhinge us in some way.