how to with news stories and people knowing about past>
Hey so I'm BrokenFlutterby.
I'm new here and not really sure how all this works, I joined a while ago but haven't really been active at all other than popping on and reading a few posts.
I have PTSD from sexual abuse as a child. I've struggled with it for my whole life (I'm 29 now, it stopped 20 years ago). I have my coping mechanisms and had psychotherapy for 4 years. I was finally getting to the point where day to day, it wasn't interfering with life. But typically with PTSD I have triggers and sometimes it can just get too much.
The last week there has been a lot of devastating stories on the news, which I mostly try to avoid, but people talk about these stories and this is something I can't avoid.
For example on Thursday I was at work, my colleagues and I were in the drug room (I'm a nurse) preparing medicines when the topic of two news stories came up. My two colleagues were talking about it and I was trying to just switch off (which I have got pretty good at to protect myself) but then one of them turned to me and appolgised for talking about it in front of me saying she had just remembered something and realised it was insensitive to talk in front of me....
My main issue is that I had no idea she knew about my past.
I have disclosed it to Occupational health at work and I know that the Senior manager knows as she has seen a psychiatric report detailing it, but I did not know that my line manager knew.
I'm not really sure how to handle it.It's hard enough coping with the news and people talking about things like this as it is a massive trigger and will trigger flashbacks etc. But now knowing that my line manager knows about things that I have been to means that
(sorry I accidentally presed post when I hadnt finished)
But now knowing that my line manager knows about things that I have been to means that senior management or occupational health have broken confidentiality.
I don't know what to do. It's hard to pretend everything is okay all the time. It's hard to work with people knowing that they potentially know details about my past that I wanted to be kept private.
has anyone else gone through this kind of thing? how do you cope with it? I want to talk to my line manager to find out how she knows about it and ensure that she will not tell anyone else but I dont think I can handle that conversation.
