Taylor Lorenz says she has "severe PTSD" from being a journalist

Is having PTSD something only people who work for major outlets have?

Do you know any journalists who have PTSD?

 

Attacking a journalist while doing their job should have its own separate set of severe punishments.

But if you are working for a "news" organization that antagonizes people, then, well...

 

Never heard of her

 

Back around 9/11, I covered a deadly crash, a bad fire, a memorial for a guy whose struggle against cancer I wrote about, and then 9/11 - I was grateful that the paper actually brought in a counselor and I checked in with her - there were times, dealing with a lot of death on the job, knocking on doors of grief-stricken families, times I asked an editor for someone else to cover a funeral because I was numb to death and my tank of empathy was empty - about a week after 9/11 I was at home, finally able to catch my breath, had a little cry about it all - and I was good. The important thing is to talk about stuff like this - acknowledge it. The military began having better results when they didn't have soldiers "self-report" PTSD anymore and just assumed everyone had it and gave them the tools and counseling so there would be no stigma to it.

But I am surprised a journalist who specializes in social media doesn't have a good filter (either personal, or an app) for crap. I don't answer the phone from numbers I don't recognize, I don't open e-mails from addresses I don't know or even care about comments from people who don't actually know me on social media. But I realize the younger generations live their lives on-line, and it is as much of who they are as they probably actually are.

 

I covered 7 games in one night. Didn't get PTSD. Did have the time of my life though.

And that was Razzie-level crying.

 

There was a local TV person and cameraperson doing some traffic piece and some loon started shouting Trump stuff and free speech while they were working. This was before dawn, at night.

The guy should feel the cold grip of the cuffs.

 

Yeah. It's very different for women. I don't doubt she's sincere.

The threats of violence in response to straight news stories are bad enough, but the routine sexual threats to women in media are stomach turning.

Fearing for your life, being frightened all the time is one consequence of having a high profile on social media. Elizabeth Bruenig was tweeting about it the other day.

I remember when I first started in a television newsroom in 1975 the calls we'd get for the on-camera women were shocking.

I'd like to hear from some of our women here. Maybe @gingerbread and @OscarMadison and @Mngwa can weigh in.

 

This isn't journalism related, really - but I have noticed an "uptick" of stories about people who have "personalized" attacks of other people, by other people to claim victimhood for themselves. Maybe it does qualify as PTSD - a flashback to a previous episode in their lives, but I heard stories about women in general and black women in particular "dealing" with the rough treatment Jackson received from Senate GOPers (about a week after I read stories how the hearings "uplifted" them - pick a lane), throw in stories about people "dealing" with the horrific images from Ukraine on TV or even Schumer feeling traumatized by what happened to Rock. Not saying they aren't being honest about their emotions, but when someone else is dealing directly with a difficult situation, should you even dare make it about you - and be public about it?

 

She is a must-read for tech and social media reporting.

 

Well then, since I don't read about either of those things I guess I can move on.

 

Um, yea. Not even going to try and wrap my head around how a tech/social media reporter has PTSD. I was thinking she may have covered war-torn areas or something. True PTSD vets must be shaking their heads as well. Kudos to her for making me waste my time to see who she was.