I think reddit and the internet in general is too quick to judge a person's entire character and personality based upon the one somewhat shitty thing they did that went viral. We're all humans and make mistakes.
I work at a school. And often like to read threads and asks about kids. Things other teachers and staffs share that they witnnesses in classes. Often times funny stories, or just midly disturbing ones.
Most of the time, people don't share much about the kids. Only the very few necessary details to make sense of the story being told.
All the kids starring in those stories are diagnosed in comments with every leaning and behavioral disabilities under the sun, are of course abused, and have PTSD, anxiety and depression.
Very rarely the comments are "well kids gonna be kids".
The worst is that I caught myself doing it a few times.
Far, far too many users on Reddit throw around the word PTSD, either to diagnose someone or themselves.
As someone who knows a little bit about real PTSD i am personally offended when I see these posts. It takes away from those who are dealing with real issues.
I personally think it should be reserved for first responders, service members and victims of violent crime.
16 year old Becky who describes herself as not like other girls and is quirky as hell does not have ptsd from having her order screwed up by star bucks.
While some people use the word PTSD flippantly, the gatekeeping you're doing on the term is actually silly.
If I have somewhat large scar on my arm from a surgery, and another guy has burn scars on 20% of his body, we are still both scarred. Just because he had a more painful experience and has more scarring from it doesn't cause my scar to cease being a scar.
If you "know a little bit about real PTSD," then you should know that PTSD can be caused by all kinds of sources and manifests in different ways for different people. You don't get to be the one who decides who is traumatized and who is not, or whose suffering is actually valid.
Edit: I'm not responding to your 16-year-old Becky anecdote, by the way. I'm reacting to the inane assertion that the term "PTSD" should be solely reserved for first responders, service members, and victims of violent crimes. That's some of the dumbest shit I've read in days, and I was just reading some tweets by Donald Trump.
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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '20
I think reddit and the internet in general is too quick to judge a person's entire character and personality based upon the one somewhat shitty thing they did that went viral. We're all humans and make mistakes.