{"id":7913,"date":"2021-05-23T12:48:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T02:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/?p=7913"},"modified":"2021-05-23T12:49:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T02:49:52","slug":"ptsd-complex-trauma-and-the-problem-of-celebrity-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/?p=7913","title":{"rendered":"PTSD, Complex Trauma, Anxiety, and the problem of celebrity endorsement."},"content":{"rendered":"

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A Saturday morning musing.<\/p>\n

Me being me, I\u2019m loving all the Royal chaos and drama, but also, I must admit, I\u2019m feeling \u2018VERY\u2019 uncomfortable with Harry and Oprah etc discussing trauma, PTSD, anxiety etc. Is part of it me being worried because it (here comes that word) triggers me? yep, probably a \u2018bit\u2019, but it\u2019s more than that. Genuinely, I know it\u2019s good to talk about such things.
\nHear me out (or not), I\u2019m \u2018really\u2019 worried, because, I know celebrities and royals are people too, but it\u2019s bullshit to think that they don\u2019t have greater support that their (here comes another shudder word for me) privilege affords them. They have the safety nets, they have the fundamentals like shelter etc.<\/p>\n

When an issue, both social or medical becomes cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre, yes, the public and Gov\u2019ts become aware, but with that, often soon after, comes a perception of, \u2018Okay, we know about that now, isn\u2019t it all fixed, get on with it, we don\u2019t need to keep hearing about it\u2019.
\nNo more evident has this been seen post marriage equality. In my experience many now think, and assume, \u2018Well, now it\u2019s out in the open, just get married, find a boyfriend, be openly gay, what have you got to worry about\u2019.<\/p>\n

There is no instant magic wand, one piece of legislation, one allowance by the public does not instantly erase thousands of years of distrust, homophobia, damage, violence, pain and dysfunction. But, people think it has. It\u2019s the same with the addressing of mental illnesses and disorders.<\/p>\n

I see this with OCD, depression, and chronic anxiety. When something IS discussed, and becomes a (I\u2019ve gone to the trouble of copying and pasting this term, so I\u2019m going to overuse it) cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre, the seriousness of the situation, for the average Joe struggling with these disorders and illnesses, can be trivialized.
\nThese decimating situations can be co-opted, sometimes in well meaning empathy, \u2018Well, it\u2019s not so bad, I have OCD, I like to hang my washing strait with the same coloured pegs\u2019 . . ummm, no, that\u2019s not OCD, that\u2019s a quirk.<\/p>\n

The same with Complex trauma\/PTSD, everyone can say they\u2019ve been impacted by trauma. The risk I fear is people may come to think, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve had trauma, I got over it, you just need to get on with it\u2019. Never quite grasping the multilayered and truly disabling depths Complex trauma can be.
\nOnce you add in Oprah and Hollywood, and yes, for the first time in my life, I\u2019m going to use the word, \u2018privilege\u2019, I worry this will come back to cause great trouble and heartache to the truly marginalized.<\/p>\n

The gov\u2019t will probably throw some money at the problem, but in many cases, that could work against the marginalized, because the Govt\u2019s perception is, \u2018We gave money, you should be fixed now, what are you complaining about\u2019.<\/p>\n

No more has this phenomenon been better manifested than in \u2018RU Okay\u2019 day. Where Govt\u2019s and work places think that if they hand out some balloons and Donuts one day a year, that somehow negates the still appalling and damaging behavior by them towards people for the other 364 days a year.<\/p>\n

I get what Harry is saying needs to be talked about, but I\u2019ve seen good intention backfire and work against people. The reality is, there IS a vast difference in circumstance between a Harry and an Oprah, and a suburban shit kicker man or woman sexual abuse and\/or violence survivor, sitting at best, in a housing commission flat. Crippled by nightmares, addictions, decimating physical manifestations, trying to get on, or stay on, a pension as they\u2019re demeaned at every step by govt departments trying to save a dollar and reduce percentages.<\/p>\n

The conversation needs to be far more nuanced and forward thinking for the impact on the most vulnerable and desperate than what I\u2019m seeing.
\nThe news cycle is fickle, soon Harry and Oprah will be last weeks news, and the general public will be left thinking, \u2018Haven\u2019t we talked about that? Isn\u2019t that all sorted for you?\u2019 This can, and I\u2019m almost certain will, come back to bite the most vulnerable people on the arse. <\/p>\n

If the balloons, t shirts, donuts and ribbons come out, we\u2019re in trouble. It\u2019s far too big, far too delicate to be \u2018Oprah-ized\u2019, for want of a better word. Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Saturday morning musing. Me being me, I\u2019m loving all the Royal chaos and drama, but also, I must admit, I\u2019m feeling \u2018VERY\u2019 uncomfortable with Harry and Oprah etc discussing trauma, PTSD, anxiety etc. Is part of it me being … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[97,459,306,680,589,501,872,881,803,360,397,524,873,488,246,458,361,226,434,318,310,45,362,537,469,35,468,273,874,587,36,875],"class_list":["post-7913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-australia","tag-brisbane","tag-camp","tag-cinema","tag-dining","tag-drugs","tag-elizabeth-street","tag-engadine-mcdonalds","tag-facebook","tag-fair-day","tag-fashion","tag-feet","tag-flinders-street","tag-food","tag-gay","tag-gold-coast","tag-guys","tag-john-waters","tag-kings-cross","tag-lesbian","tag-mardi-gras","tag-melbourne","tag-men","tag-midsumma","tag-movies","tag-newtown","tag-porn","tag-retro","tag-social-media-influencer","tag-stoner","tag-sydney","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7913"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7917,"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7913\/revisions\/7917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tammytingles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}