If I had a dollar for a number of times I’ve heard a variation of “That test gave me PTSD,” or “I just had war flashbacks to when I had a crush on that person,” I would be a freaking millionaire. And do you know where my first penny of that money would go? I would spend it giving a penny for my thoughts to the person who made that joke.

As a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, these jokes grind my gears; however, I can’t tell every person who makes them this because I would sound like a broken record. While I am a person who believes that “jokes are jokes” and shouldn’t always be taken offense to, I am also a person who finds that it’s best when you are aware of how your words may affect others.

With that said, the jokes about my disorder do not upset me because I am “hyper-sensitive” or “a baby” - the jokes upset me because while I have been through years of therapy to work through it and learn how to cope with my anxiety disorder, I am empathetic to those who are newly diagnosed or maybe simply never received the proper treatment.

PTSD is real for veterans and civilians alike. PTSD is an ugly disorder, there is nothing funny or amusing about it. It strips people who suffer from it of their peace of mind, of their zeal for life, of their feeling of being a person. PTSD is one of the biggest battles that I have ever faced and will continue to because, as I’m sure anyone with it would attest to, the battle is never over. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a beast of an anxiety disorder.

So, when you make a joke about PTSD in reference to a trivial part of your life that caused you a brief amount of strife, inadvertently - even if it wasn’t your intention at all - you are minimizing the impact the disorder has on the lives of those who have it. PTSD already makes people feel small and jokes about it can make someone with it feel even smaller.

I could go on and on about what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder means to me and how it has affected my life - maybe someday I will - but for now, I challenge you. I challenge you to open your mind.

I challenge you to be aware that this disorder affects more people than you think. I challenge you to do research on it. I challenge you to stop making the jokes if you have fallen victim to doing so. I challenge you to speak up if someone around you makes this very real and very life-changing disorder the butt of a joke.