I Really Hate The Concept Of “little T Trauma”. Hate It.

I really hate the concept of “little t trauma”. Hate it.

“Big T Trauma”, the logic goes, is for things that are “actually bad enough’, like war veterans or rape survivors. Or people who survive natural disasters or terrorist attacks or car accidents.*  “Little t trauma” is said to be for things like “interpersonal conflict”, infidelity, divorce, “financial worries or difficulty”, “legal trouble”, “death of a pet”, “bullying or harassment”, “loss of significant relationships”, or emotional abuse.*

And it’s bullshit.

*Examples taken from various articles on the subject I just looked up in preparation for this rant.

Plenty of people survive car accidents and sexual assault and war without lasting mental health issues.

The perceived severity of the traumatic event doesn’t actually matter. What matters is how your brain reacted to it.

You can have PTSD or other serious traumagenic disorders from bullying at school, or “just” emotional abuse, or neglect, or just from not having your needs met. If you’re marinating in stress long enough, it causes SO MANY problems.

Poverty is extremely traumatic! Your brain doesn’t necessarily understand the difference between “someone is routinely causing me serious physical harm” and “we run out of money for food by the third week of the month”. It just knows to interpret these things as threats to your continued survival. They cause you to produce stress hormones and other physiological responses. I’ve probably known people who have severe, ongoing issues due to just about everything on that list!

Your brain is trying to make sure you don’t die, and all the fucking logic in the world about “Well I wasn’t ACTUALLY in danger” or “Well she wouldn’t really have hit me” or “it was just kids being kids” doesn’t change that.

Every single trauma survivor I’ve ever known has thought that what happened to them Wasn’t Bad Enough to Count, because Other People Have it Worse. Every single one.

I think we’re so close to starting to realize that, as it turns out, a whole metric FUCKTON of people have experienced traumatic events and it’s affected a LOT more people than we initially believed. We’ve started to understand that it’s not just war vets who get PTSD.

But it’s like we’re desperate to come up with a reason that no, actually, it’s not that the systems we have in place routinely damage people severely - or that a lot of very common parenting techniques cause serious harm. We have to subdivide it further into little categories, and you should stop being so dramatic. OBVIOUSLY it that wasn’t bad enough. To be clear, I understand that this terminology was PROBABLY well-intentioned. “Look, a whole host of experiences can be trauma! We should acknowledge that!” - or at least I hope it was. But it’s that implied “[but obviously it’s not as bad as the people who have REAL problems. Don’t you know some people had to deal with TERRORISM!?]” that makes it bullshit.

People who are really struggling with awful, serious things already have enough trouble being taken seriously and taking their own pain seriously.

This concludes your irregularly scheduled rant about how mental health is discussed.

More Posts from Jcryptid and Others

3 years ago

brb just gonna tell all my friends that I just witnessed righteous vengeance on tumblr and it absolutely made my day.

Like Damn!

You will always be a woman, your biology betrays you every second of every day.

Wow! I've never gotten one of these asks before so ngl seeing the first few words of this notification and then opening it to find that the whole thing is written with the prose of a wannabe supervillain looking to finally, just once maybe, be taken seriously pwetty please??, is absolutely senDING ME asdfghjh-- XD

But sorry anon, sorry, like I say, I know you sent this expecting to be taken seriously, so I guess I'm duty-bound to give you the same due respect that you've so generously given unto me in ur message that nobody asked for 😔👌🏻.

What I mean to say is: "wow😲, wise stranger who is so brave they can’t share their world-shaking wisdoms without hiding behind an anonymous Tumblr ask😤💪🏻, I’ve never thought of it that way! 🤔🤯 Your single sentence of regurgitated rhetoric has shaken my sense of self to it’s queer little core 😱😔🙏🏻. I will °˖✧repent✧˖° for having lived a foolish life of icky-wicky Trans™ 🤢🤮 existence up ‘til this moment, and comply with cisgenderism immediately. 🚻 You are a genius, your meat is huge, and ev'wybody wespects you so so many for ur totawy owiginal big bwain ideas. 🥺💖"

I'm also vewy sowwy that me minding my business and existing without ever having interacted with you in any capacity offended you enough to warrant sending this ask my way, I really should have been more considerate of the fact that all clowns have a chronic phobia of Trans folk who have actually passed the vibe check because they don't have a rancid attitude that betrays them as a fuckin' idiot every second of every day. 😢😔🙏🏻


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2 years ago

Good writing tool, gonna make my personal whump writing challenge really fun

i made a whump wheel

want to beat up a character but don't know how you wanna do it? same here, friend. behold, the whump wheel! it currently has 60 different prompts/tropes on it and is ready for use! 🎉 i...love this thing. it is wonderful for writing exercises. (if you wanna know what's on it before using it, take a peak at the screenshot below)

I Made A Whump Wheel

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2 years ago
[ID: A Watercolor Painting Of Jon Sims, A Thin Brown Man With Long Hair And Bright Green Eyes. He Scowls

[ID: A watercolor painting of Jon Sims, a thin brown man with long hair and bright green eyes. He scowls at the viewer, looking like he's speaking. End ID]

Quick watercolour painting I did of my favourite Eldritch dumbass :)

Image ID by @princess-of-purple-prose, thank you for helping me make this more accessible (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)


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3 years ago

Neither have you, just saying

Mark Zuckerberg has never proven he’s not a lizard person

7 months ago

I hope none of you disappear in the coming days. Seriously don't do anything that can't be undone.

3 years ago

As if I wasn’t going to reblog a post demonstrating yet again how fma:b is consistently the best show for its audience.

people who are like “the final fma battle was cheesy shounen” Shut the fuck up they all stood in a circle and cheered as he fucked god up. and then everyone clapped


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1 year ago

reminder that i am doing tumblr trick or treating on halloween! come to my door (askbox) and say trick or treat and i'll give you something!! (a png) please reblog if you are turning on your porchlight (opening your askbox) this halloween

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jcryptid - Welcome to the Dragon Wagon
Welcome to the Dragon Wagon

Sometimes i draw shit, sometimes i write shit, sometimes both at the same time.♠ Aro/Ace, (They/Them), Chaotic Good Disaster, definitely a human person

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