Can You Develop PTSD After Being Heckled By a Comedian?

A lesbian who claimed that it happened to her got a big pay day courtesy a "human rights" body and the courts, but a woman who has the disorder writes in a letter to the NatPo that the idea that you can get it that way is, well, laughable. As someone who suffers from "complex-PTSD," she says

it took way, way more than someone swearing at me and giving me a shove to be diagnosed. I’m considered a victim of torture. I suffered for over 15 years, I’ve also been raped and held hostage at knife point for over six hours.

I’m in a support group. Most of the women there have PTSD and have suffered rape, been physically assaulted for years, were sexually assaulted as children or have seen war conditions or death as a result of a natural disaster.

This bar patron, who claims to developed PTSD after having suffered “ ’lasting physical and psychological effects’ after [a comedian] directed a string of lesbian slurs at her,” makes a mockery out of a very serious illness. Having generalized anxiety disorder is serious, but you cannot say you have PTSD with a straight face in this circumstance. Her life was never in danger: that is one of the criteria for being diagnosed with the disease.

She makes people like me, and those in my support group, seem less legitimate. Shame on her. 

K. Murphy, Mississauga, Ont.

Watch it, Ms. Murphy. Saying such things to a hyper-sensitive lesbian could potentially complicate her anxiety issues, and could get you hauled in front of a "human rights" 'roo to answer for your "discrimination."