To think people shouldn’t say ‘I have PTSD from X’ as an exaggeration?

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Even if it is obvious they don’t mean they had a genuine diagnosis and it is said quite lightly about something silly?
e.g. ‘my child used to love glitter and playdough as a toddler. Trying to clean it up was an absolute nightmare - I still have PTSD from it’
There are lots of other examples I’ve heard in conversation recently.

I think it’s worth remembering that PTSD develops, but not always, from highly threatening situations experienced or witnessed which include rape sexual abuse, violent assaults, near death experiences, medical injuries, as well as accidents etc

So no I don’t think saying I’ve got PTSD from some innocuous bland event is respectful though I don’t think any offence or harm is intended. The in accurate self diagnosis really is annoying though. You can experience trauma without developing PTSD.

Exactly. I work in mental health with very unwell people. However, I accept that these words now get used in common language.

If somebody says, oh my takeaway arrived without the chips, I am so depressed! I don’t consider that offensive. Even though I treat people with severe depression who have made attempts on their life.

I think this is one to let go.

Doesnt bother me in the slightest and I have suffered with poor MH previously, just about managed now

Language changes and is used creatively, people dont have to use something in the way dictated by someone else. Lots of things about peoples verbal quirks irritate me, but thats their language.

We use metaphor and descriptors a lot, its what makes something come to life

I dont agree with policing peoples language

Its going to be a car crash....

Disrespectful to people who have been in car accidents?

What about the MN favourite to describe any food they dont like as 'vile and disgusting' or lack of daily changing of bed sheets 'grim'.

oh please!!

Its a bloody nightmare!

'I was worried about going to the GP. So worried, I had to have a nervous poo.'.

I think, though, we should still be able to use having anxiety or being anxious about a one off event, because it is possible to be anxious about something specific without having the recognised condition known as 'anxiety'.

The issue in PPs example, though, is when people imply that they had a nervous poo because they 'have anxiety', implying the general condition is the reason, rather than the specific event of going to the doctor's. IYSWIM.

Quite right and agree- anxiety is normal to experience does not mean you have a diagnosis of GAD same as sadness is normal but does not mean you have a diagnosis of depression.

I was really nervous about seeing the doctor.

Saying "I was anxious" would be ok too, but "I had anxiety" implies that there's a pathology to it rather than it being specific and temporary.

Language can be used in non literal ways. Most people can pick up on context and nuance. I think the trick is not to be easily triggered or offended because life is about resilience.

It’s the hyperbole of language that is so frustrating in every day language and posts.

You have pointed out a good one and are completely right.

Its also people who say they were devastated their kid wasn’t chosen for a team or heartbroken because their child friend wasn’t nice one day.

Its rhe language to exaggerate for affect. Saying you have a migraine when it’s a headache. Saying you have anxiety because you are feeling a bit nervous about something. Saying you have depression when you are a bit sad etc.

Or the over use of something “triggering” your anxiety such as spiders. No, you don’t like them. It’s different.

It makes me seriously worry about the resilience of people who need to use such big language to denote how they are feeling to make it seem life changing.

And yeah I call it out on MN often…..I find it hard to deal with the issue or advise when someone does this.

Sorry just to pile on the one that really gets me is ‘my baby was screaming’. No your baby was crying. Babies don’t scream.

I have PTSD and cptsd.. yes it’s possible to have both. Can’t say it bothers me at all to hear people use it lightly.

My uncle had PTSD following his time in the army in WW2. He took his own life when I was young after living with it and the lack of help for years. So I am a bit when people claim to have PTSD due to a relatively minor occurrence. Of course it's not for me to police anyone else's health but I do think people seem to have lost perspective and there is a failure to accept that sometimes things happen which are inconvenient or mildly unpleasant (messes, minor accidents etc) and you just have to deal with them.

It’s like someone messaging you jump and you saying “I thought I had a heart attack”.

Honestly, people need to stop being so rigid with language. Yes the words tell a story but only part of it, context and tone will tell you the rest. It’s the wonderful flexibility of the English language.

You can have anxiety about a singular event, nothing wrong with that.

I have genuine OCD, and I'm not remotely bothered by people saying they have OCD about something. It's just exaggeration for effect, a totally normal thing to do. It's plainly obvious that the people saying it don't actually think what they're describing is comparable to having an actual mental illness. No need to get upset.

I have cPTSD. I've likely had it since the early stages of my childhood, having been seriously physically and mentally abused by my father since at least the age of four and possibly before that. As a teenager I suffered two instances of rape and I lost the one relative who always had my back at far too young an age.

I had no idea I was traumatised. It blighted my life until middle age in ways I hadn't even realised were not 'normal'. It was only when I experienced a serious trigger (more sexual assault at the hands of men, qu'el surprise eh?, and the symptoms became so serious I'd started to suffer short-term memory loss and what I thought was a serious cognitive impairment, that the truth of what was really wrong started to dawn on me. I had a lightbulb moment in which I realised I got sick in response to very specific triggers.

Why did this take until my forties to notice? That's easy to answer. Because of attitudes like this thread.

I thought it was a veterans' disease. I thought that my traumas weren't serious enough and didn't 'qualify'. Had I not done so I could have been treated sooner and not had many more years of my life blighted by an eminently treatable - if not curable - condition.

Please, think before you type.

@SerafinasGoose thank you for your post. I agree with it.

People used to be better at this, and less self orientated in their comments. It is tactless. My daughter has to put up with comments like these. She is a child.

If it's said in jest, what's the harm? no worse than saying 'I walked a hundred miles looking after mums dog yeasterday'.
if somone who saw a bit of glitter and claimed ptsd in all seriousness, then yes, call them out.
Just out of curiosity, what do you think is a legitimate claim for PTSD - purely on a formal medical diagnosis, or self-diagnosis?

yes they bloody well do

Yep, fashionably overused.

My daughter is diagnosed. If you had to experience a child that screams in the night because her dreams are of being abused over and over again then I think you would be very annoyed at the stupidity of adults

I always correct peoppe on this one. I know 2 families who are affected and it is no joking matter at all. It is very serious.
I am suoer clean freak but would never joke about being ocd

It's definitely on a scale. There are people in my family who really can't function at all and are on antipsychotics for it, and people who can function mostly normally but deal with the disorder in the background.

Of course they do, you're fortunate if you haven't experienced it, big difference between crying and full on screaming.