Society has skewed so many mental health issues badly.
- “I about had a panic attack!” is said when someone was really nervous, with no clue to how awful panic attacks really are.
- Some people think remembering unpleasant things & flashbacks are the same thing. They fail to realize that during a flashback, it can be almost impossible, or sometimes it is impossible to tell reality from flashback. You have to fight with every fiber of your being to stay in reality instead of being lost in the awful flashback.
- They even joke about something upsetting giving them Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, dismissing the fact PTSD is caused by extreme trauma.
- Saying “I’m so depressed” when the truth is they are just sad. The person has no idea how debilitating depression can be.
Ignorant comments such as this along with the lack of compassion for people with genuine mental illness has done much to create a terrible stigma about mental illness. The mentally ill are thought of as weak, wallowing in the past, stupid & more. Even some in the medical field are not immune to having these warped views.
Living with mental illness & putting up with this cruel stigma is not easy! If you too have a mental illness, I applaud you! As if the disorder isn’t bad enough, putting up with the ignorance of others makes it even harder. It can create so much shame in you that you shouldn’t be forced to carry!
My hope is that writing about my experiences with C-PTSD helps to show that just because a person has a mental disorder doesn’t mean they are crazy, stupid, drama queens or even “less than.” I’m a normal person who happens to have an illness, that is all. It doesn’t mean I am weak- quite the opposite, as I’ve always been strong. The fact I have C-PTSD means that I’ve been through repeated traumatic experiences, not that I’m weak or feeling sorry for myself.
That is what you are too, Dear Reader. If you battle mental illness as well, don’t tolerate people making you feel badly about yourself. You are fine- you just have an illness. Would you be ashamed of your illness if you had diabetes, cancer or heart disease? Then why be ashamed of having a mental illness? Why should mental illness be something to be ashamed of when physical illness is not?
If you’re like many who read my work & have PTSD or C-PTSD stemming from narcissistic abuse, I also want you to know that you are not alone. I know it can feel that way sometimes, but it’s not true! Unfortunately, many others have survived narcissistic abuse only to develop PTSD or C-PTSD as a result. Sadly, they are normal results from abnormal circumstances like narcissistic abuse. No one escapes narcissistic abuse unscathed. Anyone who says they are completely fine is lying, especially to themselves.
Cynthia Bailey-Rug, Christian Author 
“No one escapes narcissistic abuse unscathed.” This is so true. The problem is that many people don’t know that they’re not okay. In fact, I don’t think most people that have or have had relationships with narcissists don’t even know that they are abused. I was one of those people until I became aware of narcissism.
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That is very true. Narcissists convince their victims that what they do isn’t abuse, the victim is overreacting/oversensitive/imagining things. Gaslighting at its finest. Is it any wonder victims would think that way?
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