“In many cases, more deliberate attempts to process the trauma – for example, trying to think it through or talk it through with friends and family – were actually associated with worse PTSD. The children who didn’t recover well were those that reported spending a lot of time trying to make sense of their trauma. While some efforts to make sense of trauma might make sense, it seems that it is also possible for children to get ‘stuck’ and spend too long focusing on what happened and why.
No, it’s not. Researchers have hit upon the amazing observation that when well-meaning therapists, parents, teachers, and others make obsessive efforts to treat children for conditions that do not exist but which are projected onto them actually make things worse. “You’re in shock.” “No, I’m fine.” “You’re in denial.” “No, I’m just fine.” “Oh, now you’re repressing it. You need to get it out or you will have symptoms.” “I don’t have any symptoms.” “You pathetic human being: you won’t even deal with your issues.” “Well, maybe I am having a few symptoms.”
Did you know that many high schools where there has been a shooting actually require students to be “treated” by a therapist in order to “process” their trauma? This is justified with the pathetic medical analogy argument: would you allow a person who comes into a hospital with a broken leg to leave without getting a cast? No, but your hospital will have him leave with a broken arm, a fractured pelvis, and a broken leg. If he came to the hospital with a depression, he would probably leave with anxiety, PTSD, BPD, and an addiction. And depression. And medications, some of which treat the side effects of other medications.
*
Have you ever heard of “grief counsellor”, which is my nominee for the stupidest phrase ever coined in the last fifty years?