I just saw a Tweet that was like "overexplaining yourself is a trauma response". The amount of people in the replies like "wait does this mean I was traumatised", I even saw one like "I thought I had a happy childhood but these posts are making me think otherwise" and oh my god the misinformation.
Overexplaining yourself can be a trauma response, but that doesn't mean it always is
Sure, PTSD/CPTSD and other trauma-based disorders can lead to the need to over-explain yourself.
You know what else can cause it? Autism, ADHD, OCD, anxiety, depression, Graves' disease, epilepsy, and even just fucking low self esteem without any mental illnesses or neurodivergences behind it.
Saying "overexplanation is a trauma response" is like saying "ankle pain means your foot is broken." Sure, it could be that. But it could also be a sprain, a break in the ankle itself rather than the foot, an allergic reaction to something that touched your ankle, or "you bumped it in your sleep and it bruised a bit". There are other symptoms you gotta figure out before jumping immediately to any one condition.
The worst part is this is far from the first time Twitter has done something like this. I feel like every other week I see "XYZ is caused by trauma!" when XYZ could be caused by literally anything.
I'm not saying discount the possibility of trauma. But if you only hit one or two symptoms of childhood trauma, don't immediately jump to that conclusion either - especially if, like one of the replies I mentioned above, you feel like your life has been relatively happy.
Sometimes things that can be trauma responses can also be caused by other issues. Sometimes things that can be caused by other issues are actually trauma responses. Look into things properly before jumping to a conclusion based on just one or two symptoms.
(to be clear, I am pro-self diagnosis. I am not pro "this vague symptom means you must have trauma")
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