Interesting exchange this morning… It all started with a comment on this meme:
Someone posted :
Shell shock. Quit making shit out to be so sugar coated. It’s shell shock.
I’m glad they did… because I had to sit down and really pin down ‘WHY’ was I doing this… and why this way.
So here is my answer.
I don’t know if you’ll read all this. So let me start with this. PTSD and CPTSD are both hell to live through caused by massive shit that happened. You’re right.
You and I both know that. We live it day in, day out. [I made a big assumption here.]
I present things like this not really for you and me. We already know the truth. The ugly truth.
So why do I pretty things up? (It is not to minimize things – oh Hellz no)
One – a lot of people don’t ‘get’ it – and for them a picture of what is really going on inside our heads will freak them out massively.
Two – I’m trying to educate the people around us. Again – walking up to someone with a gaping wound is going to make most people faint or run. Putting a bandage on it – (sugar coating as you say) makes it easier to approach. To teach them, to get them interested and then to be of actual help.
PTSD (shell shock) is not the same as CPTSD. Both are trauma, yes. Both cause changes in the body and the brain.
But here’s the difference.
Shell shock (PTSD) occurs in soldiers, adults. The brain is fully mature – and then boom – trauma. Massive shit happens. And the grown up brain just can’t deal with all of it at once.
CPTSD Happens to kids, mostly. Their brain isn’t mature. And because they can’t reason – they can’t say I’m being treated like garbage… They assume permanently (internalize) “I am garbage.”
That message stays with you for a lifetime.
Hang in there.
I wish you well.
I don’t know if it was the best answer. But it’s the best answer I could come up with today. Even now I’m editing it in my head to ‘be better’ … So maybe that’s a post in the future.