Is my ptsd valid?

@Edgar8

I want to write to you to say that yes all these things are valid, when things like this happen at such a young age you don't know any better as a child and the world is already scary as it is because you haven't learned what people really act like yet. It is a lot to go through and I believe your PTSD is truly valid for all the horrible things you had to endure during this time period. Children don't understand so a lot of adult issues are traumatic for them. I believe you fully as I am a sufferer myself of childhood trauma. I hope you feel more valid because a trauma like that is difficult.

@Edgar8

I would like to take some time to answer your post and my message is this: yes, your trauma is valid.

To summarize briefly what you write, your story is this: Your father was an alcoholic and harmed your mother. Later, he physically harmed you. You believe he touched you in inappropriate ways. You mother yelled at you when you felt scared, she told you everything bad that happened was your fault, and she told you to harm yourself. Later you experienced sexual abuse by a partner, at the age of 12. You also experienced bullying, including physical harm.

My interpretation is that you have experienced abuse, both physical, possibly sexual, and absolutely emotional abuse. Beating someone up is physical abuse. Bullying, telling someone they don't deserve good things, that they should harm themselves, is emotional abuse. Touching or doing something sexual with someone in an inappropriate way is sexual abuse. Your trauma is valid. And your mother is wrong: you are allowed to feel scared, you are allowed to feel sad, and you deserve so, so, so much better.

The devastating and absolutely horrifying thing about abuse is that it robs us of the belief that we actually do deserve better things, good things, love, compassion. Know this: you do deserve better things, love, compassion and respect. You are not sensitive, you are reacting in a healthy way to an unhealtihy situation.

Your trauma is valid.

@Edgar8

Hi there,

I'd like to add to some of the other replies here. First off, I think that 100% your trauma is valid. The reason I believe so is because trauma is not about what happens, it si about how we respond to it. Yous aid that some people have it worse and don't develop PTSD so that worries you about your own. Other people could have received therapy from the moment after it happened, or had a really solid support network, or had been taught healthy coping strategies from a young age. All of these things factor into what is called "resilience." It sounds like you did not have a solid support system, you were not taught healthy coping strategies, and the various types of abuse you suffered from were spread over a long time meaning that it was difficult to fully heal each time something happens. If a wound keeps reopening, how can we expect it to heal fully or quickly.

Emotional wounds being drawn out like this can develop into complex PTSD. It really is the combinationa nd repeated nature of the events you're telling us that makes the PTSD sound valid to me. You are not just a sensitive person, you have been harmed. And regardless of if other people were harmed more, it doesn't affect how you feel about your own harm. If you still ruminate on these events, if they still invade your thoughts, if you get flashbacks or nightmares, that means it's still negatively affecting you, and really, that is the important part of whether something is trauma.

It is not what happens to us, it's how our brains and bodies process it (or don't process it) that causes trauma.