Rachel Riley now reported to have got PTSD from Strictly too

[chachacharcoal]

Both the Daily Mail and the Mirror are now reporting that Rachel Riley also claims to have developed PTSD after doing Strictly. She went on to marry her partner though so he doesn't seem to have been the problem. One of the articles is also claiming she says that many of the other former contestants she's spoken to since doing the show have shared similar experiences. I was surprised by some of the vitriol Amanda Abington got for saying similar but I do realise most people have a fairly basic understanding of trauma. Anyone else very interested in this story?

Faye Tozer is also being reported to have had a negative experience with Giovanni. But the word trauma hasn't been used in that story as far as I'm aware.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13262881/Rachel-riley-strictly-come-dancing-ptsd-amanda-abbington-exit.html

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/rachel-riley-reveals-bbc-strictly-32493863

The intensity of training and the length of the run each autumn are such that it does not surprise me if it has long term mental health impacts.

I venture the thought that if it was done more akin to Christmas Strictly, with say 10-12 weeks of different celebrities each week, then the weekly winners coming back for a semi-final and final, the impact would be a lot less.

Imagine being so soft to even think you could get PTSD from...dancing. FFS what hope do we have for their children. It's an insult to people who actually have PTSD.

It's a choice and I'm sure the fat pay packet and career resurrection made it an easy one. If it's a trauma. It's trauma if their choosing, it wasn't a surprise - they go into it eyes wide open.

SCD is a competition on live TV with a huge audience and professionals who have competed at world class level. Even non watchers of the show will be aware of that, so the celebrities signing up must know it’s not a gentle 12 week career exposure exercise.

The standards from the early years have risen dramatically as the professionals look to improve on the year before, probably under the management directive of ‘making lots of good tele’ to paraphrase Googlebox. Every year, those that do well are seen talking about the hours they put in training, the physical challenges and the pros’ expectations. It’s not a hidden secret that the show needs dedication and hard work to achieve results.

As a PP said, lots of these people are used to being told how great they are and receive acclaim and public affirmation for their day jobs. Dancing is not easy and does require a level of talent, physical strength and fitness/ flexibility, as well as flare. Not everyone will excel at it. If you can’t hack the hard work, training, pressure of competing and scrutiny, don’t do it!

Surely it’s the perception of being unable to leave, and the perception of feeling threatened that causes the trauma?

There’s that research about children experiencing bullying and peer group fall outs in the survival areas of the brain- to them, it’s a survival issue even if their rational self understands it is not.

The continuous, ramping up of pressure, moving the goal posts, being in the dance off despite a high score, so feeling as though no one likes you… Then the exhaustion, both mental and physical, until you can’t think straight or organise your emotions.

Your dance goes brilliantly and you think it’s a triumph, then the judges all criticise it.
The moment standing, waiting for the red light to come on you. I can’t even watch it, let alone be subject to it.

From amateur theatre days, being shouted at because I forgot to wear my tights with my dress, or left sweat patches on the arms… The costume department would be tutting if you lost weight faster than expected, and commenting on your stubby legs or strangely shaped bust…

And that’s without mentioning your partner’s standards and your family’s reaction.

Honestly it sounds traumatic to me- I know I could never do it.

They're not children.
They can leave, sometimes people do.
Of course they're judged, it's a competition!

This exactly.

We all have different triggers, some people will find experiences others class as normal or fun extremely traumatic.

There are a lot of quotes about war and that being classic PTSD. My dad was in the army, never had any issues with anything he had to do there (I no for certain I would not have coped), but when he left he found a job most people would class as easy extremely stressful.

@Bluevelvetsofa ' If all these people are saying they suffered at the hands of their partners on SCD, why were the majority of them regularly saying they were having a wonderful time and didn’t want to be eliminated.'

Because, like every reality tv show, it is a facade, a pack of lies to draw you in and get you to 'buy into the dream' so it makes ££££££££s for the production company and celebs and dancers, literally millions and millions every series.

They are all lies and fakery- in what is presented, how it is presented, what is included and what is left out, what they say, the pretend romances (Bobby and the woman from Corrie). It's all to get audiences, clicks, viewers who will attend the dance tour shows and spend money.

SCD's 'thing' is to create an atmosphere of 'family', loving, caring, humour, glamour, heroes and fake-villains. Nothing nasty, 'all good fun', a belief almost anyone can do it.

for you Beauty

People bandy these very specific terms about because they latch on to them and it's a way of getting attention "Oh, Poor Me! How I have suffered!"

It "cheapens" the expression which in psychological terms is very specific. Is she really saying that her weeks on Strictly were as bad, or worse, than the experiences of (say) a serviceman who spent two years frontline in Afghanistan? Or of a child who has been repeatedly abused? Or a woman who has been trafficked?

Of course, I don't know, but I truly think it's highly unlikely that she has PTSD, Does she wake up terrified in the night? Shake as she puts the TV on in case the show is mentioned? Are flashbacks triggered every time she looks at her husband?

People who do this should be ashamed of themselves -it's happening everywhere now all of the time, from those rubbish spellers who claim they are (self-diagnosed) dyslexic etc. to claiming PTSD. As a previous poster said - there's a difference between "a shit time" and "PTSD".

I imagine it's quite terrifying to be on the show and it puts you under a lot of pressure. It just doesn't feel in any way on a par with being caught up in a terrorist attack or being in a serious car accident for me. There are levels of trauma and this is surely not at the top.

Yes - As @Getouterear says above. there are levels of trauma. (And "trauma" is also a much misused term.)

Jellycatspyjamas - which criteria are you using for CPTSD? Aren't there several? The medical community are still reaching a consensus (as they are for PTSD itself - hasn't cancer only recently been added as a permitted cause?)

I was broadly using the ICD11 criteria. Yes there’s no real consensus on CPTSD but the criteria for PTSD has been established for at least the last two iterations of the DMV, particularly in terms of the need for a “qualifying event” and the definitions of those events. Cancer falls under the “threat to life” heading,

Situations can be incredibly stressful without producing a trauma response in our bodies, basically PTSD is our normal, healthy, protective physiological responses to trauma on overdrive. So you may see some PTSD like symptoms (because it’s the same physiology activated) but that doesn’t mean PTSD.

Also, people who have recently gone through something emotional, a breakup, a bereavement, a pregnancy loss may attach their trauma to something else happening to them at the time. It doesn't have to be a related trigger. We don't know anything about their private lives.

This. Nobody is being held hostage.

What a bloody first world problem.

I know, it's weird. I enjoy watching it because it is such a challenge for the celebs and it's great to see some of them progress so well. Rose Ayling Ellis, Hamza Yassin, Bill Bailey, so many have done well and provided entertainment.
Anyone entering this competition knows what it's about.

Annabel Croft was recently widowed and incorporated this into a dance. It was beautiful. She never complained once.

I can't stand Rachel Riley so it doesn't suprise me she's jumped on the sympathy bandwagon.
.
I danced for many years, from around age 5 to 19. Dance teachers are very hardcore.
It's why when people got cross about Abby Lee from Dance Moms being too harsh, I thought she was no worse than my old dance teacher.

They are committed and professional, and in the case of Strictly it's a competition, they don't want to be sent home.

Surely these has beens must look into how hard it will be? Do they think they turn up, put a sparkly frock on and that's it? They're literally being judged by professionals and dancing with professionals who don't want to appear bad at their profession!

I remember dancing before competitions from 9am until 7pm, full on. It's exhausting and the teachers used to be firm with us all.

It's like the has beens who go on I'm a Celebrity then moan they're hungry.

I certainly feel I know enough about Rachel Riley’s private life to form a judgement about the PTSD claim.

I've wondered about after effects of a number of reality shows where they do scary things, surprised to hear the first one talked about is strictly. These shows do demonstrate why some people make it on TV as their willingness and determination to overcome the basic fears is a bit draw dropping at times , the phrase 'they'd sell their grannies' springs to mind. I think we might hear more of this.

The widening of the bandwidth of PTSD to include these type of situations I think is demeaning to people who genuinely suffer nightmares, flashbacks, hyper vigilance and avoidance of triggers that rules their lives.

As a previous poster said you can have some of the symptoms of PTSD without having the full disorder and it should not be acceptable to conflate those 2 things because it really really isn't the same thing.

If you are a sleb you can afford private therapy at the drop of a hat for whatever you fancy or for no reason at all so the fact that a person had (private) therapy does not make me think they have a genuine diagnosis of PTSD which would be diagnosed by a psychiatrist or a clinical psychology not a random 'therapist' who does not have standardised training and is not a member of a regulated profession.

These people who claim to have PTSD from something like this piss me right off. They have no idea what it actually is and it's just another thing that lessens the struggle of people who really do suffer from it.

Every one of these people could have left strictly at any time, had they wished to.

That Sophie Ellis Bextor article is really interesting. Probably the most balanced and informative take on how intense it can be and how it can take over your life. She says that she had a happy, secure marriage and a nice, supportive dance partner but it still took huge strength of character to not allow it to invade her life, even post show. It gets described as cultish which I can believe it is.

I think that people on here are annoyed at the liberal, quite possibly inaccurate use of PTSD diagnoses but when numerous women are saying that they found the experience of Strictly traumatising and affected their mental well-being, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to disbelieve them, especially if it’s because we don’t like them which is irrelevant really.

I suspect some make it through an extremely stressful experience because they are ultimately already resilient, have supportive networks and gel well with the other contestants.

If you were, say, not hugely popular with the others because of a personal opinion or an irritating personality, and have trauma in your background- which many people do- then you are much more vulnerable to long term repercussions.

I have only watched the first half of the first series of traitors, and I’m worrying about the longer term repercussions for the contestants.

I imagine it’s a very claustrophobic world- 3 months where you spend all your time fully focused on the competition. I wonder whether those still working at the day job fare better, despite the competing priorities?

PTSD is a clinical diagnosis made by a mental health professional. I think they understand what it is better than you do.

”Traumatic Stress” can come from a variety of different sources. Pretending you need to have been a soldier in war (or similar) to be diagnosed with it is something that mental health organisations are trying to debunk, particularly those who deal with PTSD in ex military personnel. My dad struggled for years with PTSD as an ex soldier, but because he hadn’t been in any conflict he refused to seek help. He kept saying he’d never been at war so those organisations weren’t for him, he hadn’t been through what those soldiers had been through. He attempted suicide three times, and is now a recovering alcoholic, having been self medicating with alcohol for 30 years.

Nobody knows what Rachel went through during the show, except her and her mental health professional.

I think some people thrive on competition. Some people see it as a challenge to rise to. Others want to show that having a disability and being judged on the same terms as more able people is a good thing to do, and gives hope to others.
Some are entertainers and want to entertain.
Others want the money and the career exposure.
Everyone, but everyone knows that it is intense and difficult.

I never thought I would ever say this, but in some ways I respect Ann Widdecombe for very firmly taking the attitude that she wasn't going to kill herself, and if she she didn't want to do a particular move or spend longer training, she wasn't going to do it, so there. Maybe more should follow her lead.

I agree. Or Les Dennis or many others who weren't very good, but accepted it for what it is.