I voted criminal behavior but there are other elements. The man who attacked me was trying to force me into prostitution; his own financial gain was the motive. He was drunk and probably high at the time. My sister (a coconspirator) was also drunk and high at the time. A lot of the psychological damage is related to the aftermath. My father (an alcoholic) was for the most part missing in action or just plain didn't give a crap. My mother was residing in the psych ward (unable to help).

Amends? No way. They are all either evil, clueless, or incapable. Some things never change.

I have amended this poll to suit the demographics of this forum. I do not endorse the exclusion of any trauma when asking such a poll. Posts immediately identified that people felt left out, which is not the idea of this forum. So I amended the choices to suit more the overall trauma types changing other to "Nobody Was at Fault" and including "Combat / Military" as a general aspect for those it suits. These act as a placebo for any specific aspects one may be desiring to obtain from such a poll, ensuring accuracy of data without narrowing the results.

I did leave it as a single choice as upstream does ask for the primary factor, not all factors or the major one's.

Hmm...I guess mine would fit into several categories as well...I guess the "Combat/Military" would be the most accurate. However, "Criminal Behavior" also fits as theoretically they are not supposed to be targettign civilians...and I guess most were strangers too...some of them drunk.

I didn't vote because I've had several different types of trauma and couldn't decide which was the worst.

This thread has grown quite political... seems like we are spending more energy debating the semantics of the question than we are spending answering it.

Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to get to the point by using language of exclusion. I can think of a few threads I've read recently that deal with only one realm of traumatic event or trauma symptom (which I didn't always have). I don't see how this is any different, but I suppose that's my shortcoming.

That being said, I support any changes that are made to this question for the benefit of this forum and its members. Not a big deal to me... if the majority wants to click more than one option, and it sounds like they do, the moderators are free to make the change.

Whatever makes everyone happy...

Upstream, were the threads you read polls though? Polls are a bit different because they are supposed to be representative of everyone with PTSD in at least some respect. I think Anthony said once that this is because physicians come here to view them and use the data in studies and such. So the poll section is often edited in order to be inclusive and therefore a more accurate representation.

Fair enough, thanks for clarifying batgirl. As I said, I support any change made for the benefit of the forum and its members. Works for me.

I will not make radical changes typically to a poll upstream. Your desire for one selection will be respected, as its not overtly hard for someone to identify their most traumatic vs. wanting all events. There has to be a line drawn and I agree with you in that regard. I only added the extra options purely to maintain a placebo effect within a poll. A poll could be like a study if you like, in that if you go searching for a specific answer you will find it, though is it necessarily accurate when you have narrowed results to pre-determine an outcome? So I modify polls to ensure they are spread accurately to obtain a full effect scenario as much as required. Some things are a yes or no, being a closed statement. When you make something an open statement, which means more than a yes or no response, you need to ensure the full coverage is sought. Often a poll can be posted here and it is the members who identify aspects that should be included because we cannot think of everything by ourselves. Yes, not all suggestions warrant changing a poll, some do though. I would not change this poll for multiple choice, as I do not see it warrants it even though some members would like it... has nothing to do with the result obtained, if anything, would taint the result due to the nature of trauma and most ensure trauma in their life. Where would one stop at their choices? It would depend on what each views as traumatic, hence why I agree this poll is just fine the way it is.

Again, I only add or reduce choices depending on the question asked and to ensure a fair and broad outcome to suit the forum demographics.

my mother was definitely the one who most, and most frequently, traumatized me. She has not taken any responsibility for her actions, nor will she ever. I wrote my parents a letter last May, asking as gently as I could, for us to begin a more honest dialogue about matters in the family when I was a kid (actually any dialogue!). There was no letter in return. And my mother has not spoken to me since. I saw my father once last June, and then that was it for him too.
I did not know what a narcissistic personality was, when I was a kid, or even last May. Now that I have been educated about the fact that this is the nature of my mother's problem, I know that there was never any hope that that letter would bring about a positive result. Oh well, live and learn!

my parents abused us because we were their toys. They saw us as objects like dogs and cats to be owned. I was tortured, kept in the basement, etc. and they never saw anything they did to us as wrong.