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

FGS. She is saying she is traumatised by being on SCD? That's ridiculous, unless of course she was sexually assaulted and/or subjected to violence during the show.

It's an insult to people who have suffered trauma and PTSD.

I think what she means is that the world of professional dance - the exacting standards, the relentless work and repetition, the discipline, the hours, being told to do things better etc - was a shock to the system. Fair enough. It would be for me too! But it's not trauma.

If a woman posted on here saying that her husband had been on an intense three-month work project working closely with a female colleague, had chucked her immediately after, and
shortly afterwards had commenced a public relationship with the colleague, would people really then be happy to accept that he had been traumatised (not stressed out or tired - traumatised) by the work project?

Ptsd my god ! It's thrown about like confetti these days . If you are not cut out for a dance competition fine but Ptsd !

Rachel Riley had been married a matter of weeks when she started on Strictly. Her marriage ended before it even started due to her affair with Pasha. I imagine she does have a lot of stress from that time.

As did her husband !!

I mean I’m pretty sure they’re not saying the strictly process is like a war. More that individual personalities are abusive.

Isn't this the awful woman who is very vocally supporting the genocide?

@ijustneedtokeepbreathingFGS. She is saying she is traumatised by being on SCD? That's ridiculous, unless of course she was sexually assaulted and/or subjected to violence during the show.

Why are you assuming she wasn’t? I’m assuming she and Amanda Abingdon etc were. Not by Pasha, quite clearly. Otherwise this would have been shut down by now.

I'm more concerned for the Palestinian women and children than her.

Dancers that want to win are going to be competitive celebs who aren't getting it first time will have to do it again and again there isn't going to be asked "softly and "kindly"

@BingoMarieHeeler I am assuming she wasn't sexually assaulted and/or subjected to violence because she hasn't said that she was. Unless I have missed a fundamental part of the press coverage. Has she said she was assaulted?

Stressful ? Yes I imagine so .
Exhausting ? absolutely!
PTSD ..how can anyone say that 😔 how incredibly disrespectful to people who genuinely have PTSD

You are assuming they have been sexually or physically assaulted? That's a big leap.

I used to watch Strictly with the dcs when they were younger, and often thought there's bound to be a darker side to it. The hyped up laughing/shrieking/jumping around from pros and celebs, the ott 'glitz and glam', the "journey" that the celebs say they're so grateful they're being taken on...🙄 It's mentally and physically full on and seems to completely consume the celeb's life.

Dancing's a competive business and i can well believe some pros can be brutal, and celebs may feel they can't speak out as they've signed up for the job. Whether that leads to ptsd i'm not qualified to say, but i do think SCD needs to look carefully at how its pros operate and what's occuring in the name of 'wholesome family entertainment'.

It’s a dance show. People aren’t forced to take part. They can drop out at any time. These claims are a complete insult to anyone who’s been through an actual trauma.

Don't know why everyone is assuming it can't be that bad because it's the Beeb. They haven't exactly covered themselves with glory when it comes to protecting vulnerable people from their "stars".
I know a dance show isn't Afghanistan but people's mental health can be affected by many mundane situations. School or work bullying for example.
I'm not a fan of RR either but wow the dismissive attitude to the stories coming out of the show is shocking.
No wonder women find it so hard to speak out.

I'm not a fan of RR either but wow the dismissive attitude to the stories coming out of the show is shocking.

It's mainly because she's an attention-seeking twat. She has form.

Edited as did Amanda Abbington. I even said at the start of the series, oh here we bloody go. Nobody likes to play the victim more than her. I blame the BBC for taking her on in the first place.

That SEB article is very interesting. I could have written a similar one about two occasions when my late husband took on specific high profile and intensity roles in the industry he worked in. He was the one who went away to do the new high profile (not in the media) "exciting" thing and I was the one who played the back home support role....and yes his committment had to be absolute and yes it would have wrecked his career and therefore our material future if he had pulled out halfway. I am one of those who thinks how can the people who go into it not know, but I'd be interested to know how much overt up front warning the celebs get. Over the last few years I have seen a move to "clean up" the more explicit dances and also remember one female contestand (can't remember who) requiring that her rhumba should be toned down so that she would feel happy about her children watching it.

I’m confused why posters are eager to call all the women liars? It seems like three clearly PTSD can cover any number of things, trauma is trauma.

This attitude is really blinkered - you are dismissing a medical diagnosis because you deem only those who have it even tougher deserve the diagnosis?

PTSD can be diagnosed following many causes.

I wonder about this tbh!

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

Psychotherapists aren’t trained in diagnosis, it’s not a regulated profession and while they can do fantastic work, it’s beyond their scope to diagnose. I have an expert level understanding of trauma, I work with very complex clients, I’m not a diagnostician. Too many therapists throw medical jargon around when not qualified to do so and clients believe them because they’re considered “mental health professionals”.

I hate to be brutal, but aren't a lot of these upsetting experiences that do damage simply normal life, rightly or wrongly?

None of us come away from life unscathed, without pain, without suffering, without memories we wish we didn't have, that might keep us awake at night.

My issue recently is that these experiences and the reactions to them are becoming more and more medicalised. It's as if people need a label to validate their experience rather than saying "I found this incredibly distressing and needed a lot of support to help me through. I hope that safeguards are put in place to help people in the future" which is perfectly valid in itself.

For what it's worth, my NHS trauma therapist believes PTSD is now overused.

My theory is that with trauma, there is a slow creep. The experience of trauma is so different to what people should generally expect to experience in life that trauma victims often feel utterly alone, different, almost inhuman. However, this means that those who haven't experienced it simply don't understand (hence the many incarnations of PTSD from predominantly straight white male psychiatrists, sitting in a room drawing boxes round behaviours they couldn't empathise with and naming them a disorder).

But because untraumatised people don't understand they believe it is experiencing something distressing and feeling distressed (which I'm not minimising btw). The language of trauma is therefore slowly (and I might get flamed for this) appropriated by the mainstream. Before long, language and diagnosis may adjust to factor this in, may include people who have had distressing experiences such as Rachel Riley in the traditional PTSD diagnosis and come up with new diagnoses which will cover those originally diagnosed with PTSD then it will all probably go the same way and the cycle will begin again.

Let's not forget, all these labels are essentially made up and subject to sociological factors, the personal and political. Yet people quote the DSM as if it is some certainty.

Having said all that, it's not for me to dictate another person's experience. I suppose as someone who was severely sexually abused as a very young child and regularly thought I was going to be killed during it, the increasing inclusion of more and more experiences into the diagnosis of PTSD serves only to alienate people like me more and add to the feeling of being alone and different.

Sorry for the essay!

Wow. Women really are their own worst enemies aren’t they? This thread is shameful.

Sorry my quote disappeared 😔 was supposed to quote GeriatricMillenium....