[ExI] virtual ptsd

[spike at rainier66.com]

BillW might know the answer to this given his professional background or
anyone else here might know.

 

We have a concept called PTSD which might be thought of as the memetic
counterpart of cancer in a way: a tumor consists of cells that keep making
copies of itself, but PTSD is where a memory (usually a bad one) makes copy
after copy of itself until the mind is distracted: everywhere the thoughts
wander, it encounters copies of the memory.  Is that about how PTSD works?

 

Most of us here have had one of those dreams that is so clear and so
detailed we remember that dream nearly the same as actual events, or even
more clearly than actual events.  If so, it follows that one could get
PTSD-like symptoms from an event which never occurred.

 

Example: when I was much younger than I am today, my girl and I did
something that was dangerous as all hell.  We had to be very careful, and
neither of us were scared at the time, but long after the fact I realized
how dangerous that was, and even had a very real dream or vision about how
that event could have gone very wrong.  It didn't: the other party is alive
and well, there were no injuries.  But that event that never happened has
somehow created multiple copies of itself in my mind.

 

BillW, have you ever heard of this?  Is there a name for it?

 

spike

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