Hard core trauma does not discriminate. Is PTSD the worst form of dissociation?

This is a subject that gets under my skin a bit. No offence. Trauma is trauma and I don't think it matters how you come by it. This gets under my skin because where I live I did not qualify for assistance because I was not a front line worker like military, firefighter or police etc. I only worked to repair vehicle damaged by war....but apparently that did not count.

Sorry...sore spot with me.

Have to also agree w/ john and canuck. Trauma is trauma, and this group is not a 'who is suffering more' competition.

There are a lot of things I have read here regarding supremely horrific 'civilian' trauma.

But the point is that PTSD recovery techniques are quite similar, irregardless of the original type of trauma. And hopefully we are about supporting each other's efforts to lead morecomfortably functioning lives.

I got PTSD from sexual assaults from a pedophile when I was ten years old. Then from when I was 13-17 my parents went to war in the home and I got weekly beatings, severe bloody ones. Then I was tortured when captured in a combat zone. Having PTSD from 3 different sources, I don't feel one source is inferior or superior to the other. I've had 40 years of surviving with the after effects of them, daily flashbacks, panic attacks so severe as to require hospitalizations, meds, lots of therapy, support groups. Each of my 3 sources of PTSD has made its own kind of unique contribution to my pain over the last 4 decades.

Agree with others here, trauma is trauma.

agree with everyone on here.. Its not a competition. Terror is terror. In the end its all just souls trying to heal

I knew this was a touchy subject before I wrote it, thank you for your comments. Sometimes I need other peoples opinions to help me not feel so alone, at the same time not to compare.

I totally understand why you would feel that way..I mean if you were and saw the atrocities of war...yeah you would think that way.

But when it comes down to the actual damage the different types of trauma cuases there's really not much difference.....And sometimes if war vets had a good childhood they are more likely to heal than someone who had trauma due to child abuse and neglect....

Because the brain of an abused child is in development and it literally gets wired the wrong way with abuse or neglect.We also don't have a point of refrance to a time when we were not under trauma....
Some children live like POWs.

But i do understand why vets would feel that way.Totally.

I did not experience a lot of violent physical abuse...
But when i ran away from home i was present in violent scenes like one time this guy was going to decapitate his girlfriend ( i was so scared i could speak)....But i ha've no trauma about it.


All my trauma and PTSD comes from what my family did to me.
Some of it its like months of silent treatments, solitary confinements, emotional cruelty and sexual abuse...left a much bigger truama than what i saw and lived on the streets (attempted rape too).

as John said hard core trauma does not discriminate try being raped by a brother at 3 that is war ,,, for the rest of your life ,,,,, you live in Iraq with IEDs terrorists of the mind everywhere,, just remember in AA terminally unique gets us nowhere,, but separates us from our family of other souls who suffer,, ,,, we are all in this together,, I believe children who sufer truly are the most hard to treat and heal , they spend a life time in ptsd if they make it at all ,, Thanks to the Jerry Sanduskeys the one who never ever get caught,,,,,,, sad but true if I did not go to AA work my a,,, off in therapy get off the pity pot everyday and help others I would be annilhated by the war called child rape incest,,,, you are one of hundreds and hundreds doing their best each day to make sense of senselessness,,, God bless keep sharing,, warrior

Not to compare but the damage done by care givers,people you trusted and love while you're developing is specially damaging in the long run.

But like everyone has said trauma is trauma anyway you've lived it its very difficult if it caused you to have PTSD.