Civvy pseud here. Feel free to skip.
PTSD exists on a spectrum. From 'extremely annoying' to 'I have made the decision to end it all'. If it's not 'extremely annoying' and doesn't affect your life in any great way, then you probably shouldn't be diagnosed with it.
Talking of diagnosis. People are trying to get C-PTSD included in the DSM for a distinct diagnosis compared to PTSD. C-PTSD is Complex PTSD. Many people think the distinction is vague and that it doesn't warrant a separate category. Sufferers of C-PTSD tend to be more prisoners of war, concentration camp survivors and childhood abuse 'victims'.
I've been studying PTSD for some years and C-PTSD for a while as well now. I've been diagnosed with PTSD, but I actually have C-PTSD. I don't make a big thing of it. I never bring it up in conversation. There is no help for it on the NHS and I've had to go 'private' to get to grips with things.
It's life changing and it's not going away. It's something you have to just try to deal with best you can. I don't compare my 'PTSD' with what a combat veteran would have. Then again, I don't compare it with the 'PTSD' a gang-rape survivor who has been in a horrific car crash, who just got mugged and had bones broken and a knife held to their throat, who then lost all their surviving family in a car crash, has.
I don't think anyone should compare their diagnosis with anyone else. Does it stop you functioning and unable to live life? Does it put you in a place where you have lost all hope and are making plans for the final exit? Join the club. You may have bigger problems than PTSD.
Years ago there were reports of men coming back from WW1 with 'shell shock'. We draw a parallel with that and PTSD today. But is it really the same thing? Is there an overlap? What else could 'shell shock' have been other than Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Stress? That's putting it mildly isn't it when you witnessed half a dozen of your mates around you (probably signed up from the same village and played together as kids) getting sliced in half, quarters, smithereens.
Nobody should have to witness that, but many did and survived. Some just became withdrawn, some turned to drink, some even carried on with their lives, but none talked about it. Some went quietly mad. Some just went mad.
Is it fair to compare the horrors they saw with the horrors soldiers have seen today? I'm not going to attempt to answer that question.
Some people get PTSD after seeing relatively trivial things, but it's not trivial to the person at hand. Others witness the stuff of nightmares and shrug it off. I would think that if a couple of muckers saw some stuff, and one of them got PTSD but the other one didn't, then the one that pulled through would not think his other mucker weak, or lacking in any way.
Which brings us on to the bluffers. For sure they exist. I bet they even exist among those that have served. Again, I'm not going to stick my neck out here and say any more. But there's probably one or two. Maybe they suddenly find they have it when they've got in to trouble and are looking for a way out. The way that hackers miraculously get Aspergers when caught hacking in to the White House.
But I would imagine those numbers are very small. You 'lot' seem to have some strong bonds and judgment systems in place, so for the most part, when someone who has served says they have PTSD, I would believe them.
Unlike the shower of shit that is the civvy world. They don't only make a mockery of those who have served, they make a mockery of those with genuine PTSD outside of that realm as well. It's extremely insulting to everyone, most of all themselves really, but some people have no shame. It dilutes the whole diagnosis and makes it seem as if it is akin to 'feeling a bit down'. You know what I'm talking about.
I've gone quite deep with this stuff. One of the ways of my self-healing is to try to help others with the condition, both PTSD and C-PTSD. I've occasionally come across a couple of vets here and there on my travels. British, American, Australian even. They were pretty far gone by the time they decided to talk to me.
As you well know, no vet really wants to talk to a civvy. I get that. I respect it. It's ok. But now and again, the odd one slips so far through the net that they will talk to anybody, after alienating everyone around them, usually because of alcohol/drug addiction and even violence. I don't know if I did any good. Does anyone really know if they did any good? We like to think so.
I may criticise the professionals in the field (the ones I know anyway), and I may criticise the system, but I always defer to 'them' and 'it'. It's more of a support structure that I'm involved with. And I always let everyone know I'm just a 'pseud'.
It seems to me that people coming out of the military (or still in the military) seem to have a better support structure in place. I don't know. But it seems to me as well that people who have PTSD from military experience, seem to have it at the much more sharper end of the spectrum, that is to say: much worse.
I have no idea of the culture or the stigma involved in military circles with regard to PTSD, so I suppose now would be a good time to shut my big pseud mouth and put a sock in it.
I've offered my 'services' here before, and that offer still stands. I doubt anyone would want to get in touch with a dumb civvy like me, but the offer is still there. If nothing else I can point you to resources and other possible avenues of attack, if you feel as if you have hit a brick wall, and just maybe just want to try 'one more thing' before you make that fateful last decision. The last decision you will ever make.
Some of you have been very good to me on this website. So if I can pay back even a tiny amount somehow, it would be my privilege.
There are lots of resources out there, but often times it comes down to the human touch and the striking up of rapport. Sometimes you need someone that has 'been there man', and others, you just need a bit of distance and perspective.
Big hugs and sunny smiles to you all anyway.