No Shit Sherlock Award – Emotional Damage

I read an article recently, and I could have told them all about IWA (Identification With the Aggressor) had they just asked. I recognized this behavior as a trauma-related response 20+ years ago. I want to award the No Shit Sherlock Award to these scientists for their achievements emerging from under whatever rock they were living under to conduct the most obvious study. Congratulations.

I was reading through the risk factors, and it was a laundry list of achievements unlocked:

Depression -check. Anxiety -check check (a recent discovery because I was too busy to notice I had it before – I thought it was something else, doh). Dissociation -triple check. (I could teach a master class in checking out). Enhanced Startle Response -check (the pro max version of being startled).

And of course, the more delightful CPTSD symptoms:

Heightened emotional reactivity (me 100% during the marriage, nothing quite like being a new mom to help blow things out of proportion). Emotional numbing (feelings? Don’t know ‘em). Persistent Negative Self-concept (Boy, do I ever!). Profound feelings of failure & guilt (my secret identity), avoidance or limited interest in relationships (hello, my non-dating life). And the best for last: my relational dynamic- how I can maintain a quasi-positive relationship with the perpetrator (my mother) despite knowing she is the worst.

Funny thing, I expected to leave the military with PTSD. I didn’t leave the military hyper-vigilant, because I already was. Jump scares? An everyday occurrence. I came out relatively unscathed because Spoiler Alert: I was already traumatized.

Thank you, CPTSD, and my mother’s lifelong legacy of generational trauma! And for that, I award this No Shit Sherlock Award for Excellence in Detecting the Obvious to these scientists who have apparently been living under a rock.