I was bullied and terrorized in high school and I survived cancer and OCD. These snowflakes can take their triggerings and go fuck themselves.

Sorry you went through all that.

PS I had no friends -- not one -- until I was 15. It was pretty awful, and I wish my parents had allowed me to have a dog, but I could still read The Great Gatsby and even Lord of the Flies without needing counseling.

Louis CK discusses this here, an enjoyable podcast of you like those guys.

The claim that one is traumatized by, well, pretty much everything and anything in life is something I've described before as a form of "covert narcissism."

It's covert bullying. An ego trip. Look at me, a victim! Pay attention to me! Do what I say!

The perpetual victim get his/her way by painting anyone who doesn't go along as the bully, as the uncaring meanie who terrorizes the defenseless.

If you're unable to cajole, convince, argue, or muscle people into seeing it your way, cry victim.

If you don't want to complete that reading assignment on To Kill A Mockingbird? Cry triggers.

Who would begrudge a victim the right to not relive a traumatic experience? However, as psychiatrists have discovered, running from the trauma and associated triggers is counterproductive.

By the end of World War II, the US Army figured out that putting shell shock victims in a quiet corner left them vulnerable and untreated. Immersive therapy was indicated. European armies had figured that out decades before. A treated shell shock victim could actually become a soldier again. An untreated one could not.

Didn't feel too well last night (better now!) so I finished this post just now, this morning.

Richard McNally, who wrote the NYT piece, works on "exposure" for healing trauma. (He was very helpful on my next book that I'm finishing -- still! -- now.)

For people who are truly traumatized, what's useful is being exposed to the feared thing over and over to train your fear/anxiety responses in your brain that the feared things are actually not a danger to you.

Conan: "It's covert bullying. An ego trip. Look at me, a victim! Pay attention to me! Do what I say!... The perpetual victim get his/her way by painting anyone who doesn't go along as the bully, as the uncaring meanie who terrorizes the defenseless... If you're unable to cajole, convince, argue, or muscle people into seeing it your way, cry victim."

There are a lot of actual victims who play that game too... and a lot of people who have PTSD who are very jealous of their diagnosis.

"To meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, the stressor experienced must involve actual or threatened death or serious injury."

Not anymore. A whole lot has been learned about trauma, stress and PTSD since that outdated criterion was first suggested.

As a kid and young adult I was sometimes afraid of things. I put myself in situations to overcome those fears and did so. Wallowing in self-pity is not a cure for anything, but these people don't want to be cured. In the Marxist framework, there are only 2 types of people, oppressors (evil) and victims (good)--and everyone wants to think of themselves as good. So leftists practically trample each other in the rush to find some way they can claim victimhood, in order to be on the side of the good guys. Some of the people who protest the loudest (white men on the left) and are actually violent are unable to claim victimhood, so they instead put on the mantle of hero fighting the nazis and throw things and burn stuff. idiots.

I wish I could recall who said that being offended is not an achievement. Sometimes it seems as if people are trying to collect credits by being offended at the drop of a hat. They are either totally lying or they spend some energy fooling themselves that they should be and.....there you go.
In masses, it can be used to give a university administration the excuse to do what they wanted to do in the first place. Like cancel American Sniper at U-Mich. But, after some publicity, the let it go on. Still, that wasn't supposed to be the result of the dance.

Amy Alkon: "For people who are truly traumatized, what's useful is being exposed to the feared thing over and over to train your fear/anxiety responses in your brain that the feared things are actually not a danger to you."

There'a a lot more to it than that. Exposure therapy isn't beneficial for everybody with PTSD, not even for most. It depends on the trauma, depends on the "feared thing" or "trigger", depends on the type of exposure therapy (of course none involve actual exposure to traumatic events or circumstances) and depends a lot on the patient - some do get better, and some get worse. PTSD is not just a dysfunctional way of thinking about, or reacting to a traumatic experience. It involves physical injury to the brain.

I am SEVERELY arachnophobic.

To the point that I, a 6'3" 200+lb man, once climbed a refrigerator ten feet away and threw several pots at a young wolf spider (less than a half inch in size) in the space of about six seconds

Once a month I look at pictures of spiders for about a half hour, which is extremely uncomfortable and emotionally upsetting, but I no longer run screaming (in my head) in terror when I see one in real life. But they still make my skin crawl and the flight or flight response no longer makes me want to throw up

I'm sorry, Amy, but I don't entirely buy this. Yes, there are people who claim PTSD but don't really suffer from it. But if someone has flashbacks and awakens in a cold sweat, I believe that's genuine PTSD even if the actual events that triggered those symptoms don't meet your criteria for "real" suffering.

I'm a domestic violence survivor. Classic "Who the Bleep Did I Marry" situation. Known him since I was fourteen. He said and did all the right things. Things that seemed like red flags he was able to turn pink. Because nobody's perfect, right?

As soon as he had me financially trapped and isolated in a city 400 miles away from home (he sweetly spent all my savings, promising to pay me back) the abuse started. Kept me broke. Wouldn't let me sleep. Yelled at me for everything I did, even when he had just ordered me to do something. Gave me impossible tasks, like requiring home cooked hot food in the heat of summer but not letting me use the oven, stove, or microwave. Had several long distance relationships and forced me to be the bigger person, even while some of these women were shitty to me. Lied, .lied, lied, lied, lied.

And at the end, after a school shooting, he started talking about how he understood the shooter (his girlfriend had broken up with him) and had been talking about getting a gun. Always two separate conversations. Notice that I can't call the police for any of this. Oh, and oh yeah--told me he liked cats. But after I moved in with him and he had me trapped, he started talking about how he hates cats and used to pick them up by their tails and throw them in dumpsters. Do you think, Amy Alkon, that I was going to leave my cat alone with him if I could possibly help it? Do you *maybe* think, Ms. Pseudoscience, that this changed my brain and perception of the world permanently? Would you believe me if I told you that I don't trust my own judgement anymore? That I became paranoid about people I had known for a long time? That in *everybody* I just wait for them to show the hidden monster?

Or, you little cunt, are you going to make fun of me being "triggered?"

You know why this has never happened to you? Why you don't believe sexual harassment, man's planning, cat calling, and that women don't generally feel safe in the world? I think you know why. It's because you are ugly. Physically ugly. Manly. You are not the type of woman that men want to own, grope, rape.

Me? 5'3", cute as fuck, hourglass figure with huge boobs.

I am SICK TO DEATH of bitter women like you claiming other women are being over sensitive. You are like the sister in a dysfunctional family who is upset that daddy is molesting all her sisters but not her. You are THAT fucked up.

Have a nice life. Go ahead and ban me. I've been reading you for years and noticed that you are rapidly losing your Itty bitty fan base, and with papers going extinct you will be homeless and jobless real damn soon. Better be nice to Gregg!!!!

Sophie, Bad things do happen to people. Amy wasn't denying that. She was trying to point out there is a difference between you and my sister who also considers herself a 'survivor' when the worst thing that has happened to her is getting into arguments with old union men who just don't want to do their job.

While PTSD is real it has become fashionable as well. And it does no good to true sufferers to have a bunch of fakes muddying the waters.

We have the same issue with 'rape'. When someone uses the word you have to ask for a definition. Real rape is a horrible horrible crime. But it is far different from regretting that hookup a week or two ago. Mixing the two does a great disservice to real rape victims. Just like mixing real PTSD and trained hypochondriac PTSD does a great disservice to true PTSD sufferers.

"As soon as he had me financially trapped and isolated in a city 400 miles away from home (he sweetly spent all my savings, promising to pay me back) the abuse started."

SophieK, I don't doubt a word of it. Your story is a familiar one to me. But you aren't the sort of person Amy was referring to.

Wouldn't you agree, as an actual sufferer, that it cheapens the definition of PTSD when people claim it for trivial things? Being isolated, abused and beaten by a spouse is a genuine cause of PTSD. Having to sit in a classroom and listen to a professor express opinions that disagree with yours is not. Narcissists like your ex will wrap themselves in a mantle like PTSD in order to gain sympathy and social status. (And to help them find new victims.) I think it would be better to keep a bright line there, as much as possible, or else the whole concept of PTSD loses credibility.

Again, I understand the situation you describe; I've got some experience there. I'm going to be presumptuous here, but none of what was in Amy's post was intended to refer to people in your situation.

"Or, you little cunt, are you going to make fun of me being "triggered?""

Begone. You have no power here.

"I've been reading you for years and noticed that you are rapidly losing your Itty bitty fan base, and with papers going extinct you will be homeless and jobless real damn soon. Better be nice to Gregg!"

You are still venting the poison you were served. You've just wished for ill to befall another. If you were a better person, you wouldn't have done that.

"You are not the type of woman that men want to own, grope, rape."

Sicky-type comment, but here goes: "Rape"? Never. "Own" (whatever that means)? Perhaps. "Grope"? Hell, yes! (No offense, Amy!)

Women just don't get it, sometimes. Especially when blinkered by bitterness. "Ugly" is your attitude, SophieK. Get some help, if you really need it.