Can you get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from watching Television or movies?

Dying from cancer does it for me. I’m talking about the last moments.

I wonder if you can get PTSD from a horrifyingly vivid dream?

Did it trigger a past moment?

I would think not, simply because you weren’t physically involved, just emotionally.

Isn’t Post Traumatic stress about after exeriencing trauma?
You mean that you got tramatized watching TV?
Are you imaginging yourself in those roles?
If so, it could cause stress?

No. It can trigger a PTSD incident if one is re-visualizing a prior experience. But it does not cause PTSD.

And you are describing something that is not “post” event, but as a result of watching an upsetting TV show. If it bothers you, stop doing it.

I watched ”*Dear Zachary” and about halfway through I got so stressed out. I was sad and angry at the events that happened and I kept ruminating over it.

* It’s a documentary about a murderer who escaped to Canada and the hell the family went through attempting to extradite her.

If you do it may mean that you’re a part of the problem.

I’m still freaked out by a scene that was shown over the course of two Breaking Bad episodes. Be more concerned if you’re not freaked out by Breaking Bad.

I doubt it, but I’m sure something you see on TV (or for that matter anywhere in the media, where bad news 24/7 is s.o.p.) can upset you enough to trigger similar symptoms.

I live with PTSD from years of being abused, starting at age 4… PTSD does not refer the initial emotion that you feel while experiencing or witnessing a trauma. One of the hallmarks of PTSD is that the overwhelming, emotional impact does not go away, but becomes latent until a trigger releases it again—that trigger can be anything, but once released, the person with PTSD experiences the trauma all over again, on an emotional level, and usually with extremely high anxiety and shame added. I have to be vigilant about not responding to triggers—or I really go into a tailspin. I have lost opportunities, money, relationships and precious time because of the depression that comes with PTSD.

Just getting freaked out or stressed out is not PTSD. On some other threads, those with bipolar or OCD asked us not to trivialize their disorders, and I feel the same… PTSD is not easy to live with.

But can someone get PTSD from watching TV—I do think so. I heard about some people who got PTSD from watching CNN run the Twin Towers’ collapse over and over again. More likely, I believe—if a seriously overwhelming emotional anguish comes from watching TV—it might be a PTSD trigger, not a PTSD cause.

I am so sorry @linguaphile. Is it someone I can go beat the shit out of?

@Dutchess_III Smile!! Thank you for the offer! :D I’ll help you! :D I’ll have to find them first. Hugs :)

What I want to emphasize, though, is that I live with PTSD, I don’t suffer from it. I don’t consider myself a victim or a survivor—I just went through those experiences and they did affect me, yes, but they don’t define my life. I have thousands of non-PTSD moments that I appreciate.

Last night’s GoT definitely triggered me. I wept. Then laughed. That was some hard core shit.

No, not without a context in real life. Movies can act as triggers, though.