What if your not OK, and my not OK don't look the same?

We often say "it's ok to not be ok", which is accurate. We need to KEEP SAYING THIS. We have got to normalize it.

Unfortunately, sometimes the reason someone is not ok doesn't fall in line with what our personal criterial of a "not ok-able incident/issue/situation" looks like.

To clarify my message, I don't disagree with Viktor Frankl as he declares, in this quote, that an abnormal event may happen, and it's perfectly reasonable to recognize that we may have abnormal reactions. But being NOT OK from an event that feels benign to you isn't the guideline for when someone might be NOT OK. Let's remove the stigma that someone's reaction is disproportionate to the event.

I had a recent important conversation with one of our supervisors where we discussed this topic. We talked about how we need to encourage, guide, lead, and teach our trainers (and seasoned staff) to not judge some else's reaction. What is traumatic for you may not be traumatic for me, and vice versa.

From Scientific America; "Trauma is not necessary to trigger PTSD symptoms. Although by definition clinicians cannot diagnose PTSD in the absence of trauma, recent work suggests that the disorder's telltale symptom pattern can emerge from stressors that do not involve bodily peril. Taken from: www.scientificamerican.com

You all as PST who are removed from visual stimuli, or from having to wrestle with bad guys; you know all too well that this is true.