There's another discussion going on right now regarding whether we tend to automatically see the negative rather than the positive in things. I think this is a really helpful thing for us to examine, but it seems (at least judging by the people who have responded) that we are very aware of our negative tendencies.

My question is this...When you are posting to the forum do you go back and read what you've written before you post it? Do you think about how it will sound to people reading it and consider whether or not it truly conveys the message/question/sentiment that you are trying to get across? I think it's important to remember that we are merely sending our written word...there is no facial expression, body language or vocal inflection to aid the reader in interpreting our statements. This kind of problem exists whenever there is written-only communication regardless of whether it is in a PTSD forum or not. It is not uncommon for one's written word to be misinterpreted when there are no IRL context clues to help guide the reader.

I also think no matter how carefully we craft the words that we post there will always be times when people read it differently than we intended. Most of us are not authors nor should anyone here expect us to be. While there is absolute value in stepping back and realizing we may have read something through our own negative filter and therefore misinterpreted its intended meaning, I think there is equal value in being able to step back and realize that perhaps what we have written could have been easily misinterpreted.

I guess I'm just wanting to examine another facet of this same issue. How carefully do you consider what you've written before you post it? And regardless of the amount of consideration given beforehand, do you ever go back and read something that you've posted only to think, "Wow, I didn't mean for it to sound quite like that?"