if you use the phrase "be normal" as if it's something to aspire to, kindly take a long walk off a short plank. or block me. whichever is easier for you.
child of the 80s
i escaped a cult.
all of the content warnings.
all of them.
tag: exerian's tragic backstory
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it's pretty clear that borderline personality disorder (and all the cluster B personality disorders) and dissociative disorders (DPDR, DID, OSDD) are all pretty deeply linked with cPTSD and traumatic childhood experiences
and, people with lots of trauma often have a much easier time relating to other people who have lots of trauma
moreover, growing up trans and neurodivergent in our society almost always invites a lot of complex trauma just as a baseline
so like. yeah, of course
it's a party :P
that is a thing, for sure. some people are.
we've found that it's largely about what seems normal, what kinds of behavior seem acceptable. there's very small signals that are easily picked up on by people with shared history around this stuff...
then there's red flags, too, stuff that is unambiguously misbehavior and not simply unusual, which people who've never known anything else tend to not notice, though anyone else would
we don't actually buy into the concept of personality disorders as a diagnostic category, we think it's oppressive bullshit. there are people who meet these criteria who we do count as friends. we don't automatically run away just because we notice this stuff. we have elements of it in common, even, and it can be nice to be able to relate, since it's not as though we can fundamentally re-wire our brain to work in some other way.
but then, we also don't treat our own survival as a top priority in the way that humans do. so it's not necessarily advisable to be like us.
we do encourage building an awareness of what the signals and the red flags are. knowledge is power. what to do with that awareness, though, is a thing that everyone kind of has to decide for themselves.
yeah I've seen arguments that all the personality disorders are really just cPTSD, and the differences between them are largely which of the fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses people have learned to reach for. I think the fact that BPD is diagnosed in women much more than men is pretty good evidence that it's a questionable category; it has "hysteria" vibes
there's definitely a dialectic of "traumatized people who have learned unhealthy behavioral patterns are not inherently bad people," and, "sometimes we need to distance ourselves from people who haven't been to enough therapy to learn to be self-aware and self-regulate, for our own well-being"
I love other traumatized people; I honestly have a hard time connecting with anyone else. and, I've learned the hard way many times over to prioritize relationships with those who are working on themselves x)
we do broadly agree with that general line of thinking, and have been saying that for a while, though we acknowledge it as highly speculative and under-researched
yup! cPTSD isn't even in the DSM, and I feel like it would subsume a lot of the existing Dx's if added x)
we can only hope. if you read the ICD definition of PTSD it goes into detail on which kinds of military service do and do not qualify for it, making it incredibly evident that the definition is fundamentally political in nature (presumably for cost reasons). since cPTSD would apply to a broader set of people, we expect robust opposition to formalizing it.
reminds me of how that one psychologist who abused his kids ran a smear campaign to discredit DID
too much of psychology is politically motivated
