Bullying and trauma, it is not your imagination!

Trauma the effects.

PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions.” 
― Susan Pease Banitt

Are you feeling the symptoms (listed below) after a prolonged episode of bullying at work? We believe that harrasment, stalking, domestic violence, violence, witnessing a horrific event, link to similar experiences suffered by bullied individuals. In our campaign we lament any real political commitment to place bullying on the chart of abuse but we live in hope.....

We are not experts but are convinced in our reading on the subject that  trauma is still a little recognised and validated consequence of bullying. The subject of the bullying may themselves not  even recognise that their feelings are the real result of the bullying and be astounded that they feel so hopeless and flat.

If you feel you are exhibiting any of the symptoms below or just feeling unable to cope it is essential you consult your health professional for evalution.

I myself felt after my experiences, upon returning to work, and during and after the bullying, that I exhibited and continue to exhibit several of the symptoms below. I still wait for my workplace to send me for the occupational health evalutation I requested so that I can find out for myself why I feel so devastated by my experiences. I have been fortunate that my counsellor certainly named 'trauma' as what I was feeling.

Bullyonline.org is the only site we can find that really goes into the subject in any depth in relation to bullying. The book, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, by David Kinchin is still available on Amazon and appears to be one of the first books to link bullying to PTSD.

We are on the look out for links and reading material on this subject and/or any experts who would like to contribute a more thorough explanation of trauma and bullying. We welcome your comments.

Do you recognise any of these:

• sleep problems, nightmares, waking early
• flashbacks and replays which you can't switch off
• impaired memory and forgetfulness
• inability to concentrate
• hypervigilance (feels like but is not paranoia)
• exaggerated startle response
• irritability, sudden intense anger, occasional violent outbursts
• panic attacks
• hypersensitivity - almost every remark is perceived as critical
• obsessiveness - the experience takes over your life, you can't get it out of your mind
• joint and muscle pains, with no obvious cause
• feelings of nervousness and anxiety
• depression (reactive, not endogenous)
• excessive shame, embarrassment, and guilt
• undue fear
• low self-esteem and low self-confidence
• emotional numbness (inability to feel joy or love)
• sense of detachment
• avoidance of anything that reminds you of the experience
• physical and mental paralysis at any reminder of the experience

  

  Image Pixabay.com public domain

Bullying and victim blaming.

Victim blaming or holding the victim/target responsible for the breakdown or failure to resolve the workplace bullying issue is perpetrated by several schools of thought. We find this interesting merely because a few years ago a women wearing a short skirt was seen as encouraging sexual assault and a disobedient wife was seen as responsible for being beaten by her violent and frustrated husband. Times have moved on considerably in the understanding of abuse. Such forms of thinking would now be abhorrent. Bullying suffers the same taboos.

The victim blaming culture used to excuse or at least minimise the responsibility of the employer, bully abuser, is convenient. It shores up old fashioned and outdated modes of working, such as the master and servant model. Also,  it protects senior staff, managers, directors, CEO's and shareholders from having to change workplace models. Moreover, victim blaming is a way of avoiding bad publicity. Hence the desperation of some companies to pay large sums of money for the problem to go away. Compromise agreements may appear to protect companies and employers from financial difficulties but it is at the expence of justice and a moral obligation for justice to be seen to be done and transparent.

The recent enquiry that put the ambulence service in the UK into special measures and identified bullying as a feature of the system,  is recent cogent evidence of the need for transparency.

Many companies firmly place the issue of bullying into the hands of Human resources. They are satisfied provided there is an ACAS compliant disciplinary procedure and a bullying policy somewhere on the intranet. This is insufficient.

The workplace is far more sophisticated than simple models of hierarchy and so are employees and the  general public. The more information that can be brought into the public domain to highlight bullying at work, the better.

Victim blaming is an outmoded concept that excuses the bully and protects profit over people, when in the real costs of bullying in sickness, litigation, bad publicity and low productivity, prove the reverse is the true picture.