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

[NameChanged25]

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.

This is exactly how I feel about it, and there's also something to be said for the fact that it's arisen alongside the increased awareness and openness surrounding mental health. It used to be something you couldn't talk about at all, it was seen as so fearful/shameful. Now people can be more open about their struggles, whatever they may be, and MH can be discussed in a more lighthearted way. Much prefer that than feeling like some isolated freak whose experiences could never be shared by a 'normal' person, tbh.

I must have a sheltered life as I don't know a single person who says I have PTSD. The only time I hear anyone say anything about OCD is on here.
People claiming things are a nightmare or nearly gave them a heart attack don't bother me.
You are going to call people out on it OP? Let us know how that goes (my guess is not well).

It’s a baby crying not screaming. Screaming is in terror or by surprise not crying. I personally think this is hyberbole.

Yeah I have kids. They cry. They don’t scream. They cry louder or harder or more forcefully but it’s not screaming.

We can agree to disagree.

I’ve read a lot of these comments and do think language matters. Yeah we can all exaggerate for affect (I ate a ton of chocolate) but that isn’t offensive or putting a negative issue or diagnosis on yourself.

No one jokes about having cancer. Because it’s serious and big. You wouldn’t say a spot on your face was the start of cancer.

Offensive language matters. Descriptive language matters.

Using hyperbole to make a point to make your feelings on it bigger matter. People want to create bigger issue where none exist and so use big language to do so isn’t right.

Again it shows in our everyday day the lack of resilience and the need to catastrophise at times.

I have clinically diagnosed PTSD, and while I might roll my eyes a bit, I recognise that this is how Brits work. No milk for tea gives you PTSD, but a severe disaster is "a bit of a situation". Twas ever thus.
And since it seems a PTSD diagnosis has to be justified on here, I watched someone die while being very close to death myself. I didn't seek help for a long time because I felt that I had no right to feel anything, because I should be thankful that I was alive still, but it took me to a very dark place. However, to those suffering, I cannot recommend EMDR enough. I honestly thought I was too broken to fix, and while things are not perfect now, they are so much better.

I have diagnosed PTSD from severe trauma (and also diagnosed OCD!).

It seems to be happening a lot, but I can't say it offends me. I think that it they genuinely knew what having PTSD or OCD was like, they wouldn't say it. However, dark humour sometimes helps me.

I find people mocking being, "Triggered" worse, because it used to be a genuine term for people with PTSD and now it's used as a piss take on social media for people who are mildly sensitive about something.

I'm really not fussed if people say any of these things. It's perfectly obvious when it's intended in a lighthearted way or serious way.

You can scream in pain.

Just out of curiosity, what do you think is a legitimate claim for PTSD - purely on a formal medical diagnosis, or self-diagnosis?

Obviously, a formal medical diagnosis made by a competent professional with expertise in that field of treatment.

I think you can tell from the tone and the subject if it’s an exaggeration for comedic effect or a disclosure of mental health issues.
people always exaggerate in conversation, I think it’s supposed to be a light hearted and amusing way to describe a negative experience, by over dramatising it and allowing the other person to laugh at it. It’s a way for someone to tell another person about a negative experience and protecting themselves and the other person from actually having to feel sad about it.

YABU for policing other people’s coping mechanisms.

I think it's pretty obvious that's not what I meant and I'm not sure why you picked that one line out of a much longer post. I was responding to a poster who said it was a scale in the context of overly tidy people being 'OCD to an extent'. There is a scale in the severity of symptoms as with every disease, but the disease itself is something you either have or you don't. It's the whole point of diagnostic criteria.

It really pisses me off. And not because I think they're being insensitive, but because they are diluting the meaning of it.

I have diagnosed PTSD after being hit by a car, whilst riding my horse, and my horse being put down with multiple broken legs whilst squealing and flailing in pain. I didn't sleep or go out for a week. I couldn't get in a car or walk by a road for over a month. I had to take medication to basically sedated myself so that I could cope just enough to look after my 3 month old baby while my husband was at work.

When I say to people I have PTSD so struggle with certain things they often say oh yeah, I had PTSD for a bit when (insert inane shit here) or my friend had PTSD when her gerbil bit her. NO SHE FUCKING DIDN'T. YOU ARE JUST TELLING ME YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HOW HARD THIS IS FOR ME BECAUSE IDIOTS HAVE DILUTED THE MEANING OF PTSD.

So yeah, it's not about people being insensitive by saying it. It's about them making the term meaningless so when we talk about our struggles, people think we are just being overdramatic too, just like these people. So no one takes us seriously and just expects us to get on with it. If they really knew how awful PTSD is they would expect that. And I blame these people using the term for stupid things for doing that.

It's exactly the same as people not knowing how debilitating OCD is because they think it means liking things to be tidy due to the way it is used by so many people in conversation.

You are not unreasonable at all. PTSD has very specific criteria for formal diagnosis, and several treatment options, including certain therapies and medications. I know lots of people with PTSD from military service, including dh, and get just a little irritated when people claim they have PTSD every time they have a bad experience.

I've been diagnosed with PTSD.
Absolutely destroyed me

But that doesn't bother me,nits a turn of phrase, usually light-hearted.

I have diagnosed PTSD - not hugely bothered when it's a very obvious joke ... but it's so hard when the word trauma is diluted to mean 'any difficult experience' and the word triggered is used to mean 'very upset' because actually being triggered is a specific experience that is unique and incredibly painful and it's been diluted to the point of being unusable. That's not to say that some people aren't suffering very much and very upset but having PTSD and being triggered is psychiatrically different!

As someone who has both (clinically diagnosed and medicated for) OCD and PTSD (ptsd from being attacked in broad daylight by a random man), I totally agree!

I agree with you. The same with people who say "oh its my OCD, what am I like?!" as if its funny.

My dd has autism and an obsessive compulsion to pull her own hair out. We've made improvements over the years and she's learned to manage it to a certain extent with therapies and medication but when she was younger she'd rip it out until her scalp bled. There's nothing funny or lighthearted about it.

I find it annoying when people say "everyone's a bit autistic". My non verbal child was flinging his poo about at home and decided to try and walk through the forest barefooted earlier.

I don't think everyone is a bit autistic funnily enough.....

It is very ignorant, but it just goes to show that people don't understand what these diagnoses means. I guess it is schools and the media that should do more as well as parents. It is annoying when a soap opera convey OCD as someone cleaning a lot for a couple of weeks then are completely back to normal after getting immediate help. people are going to be ignorant if that's what education about neurodiversity and MH looks like.