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Monday 20 August 2018

PTSD Adonis and 'Howler' Grayling - your pain is real

You know I really wasn't jesting when I dubbed Adonis and Grayling with their blog monikers. I have the evidence of semi-hysterical radio and TV interviews with pitched, stressed quavery voices, staccato delivery, mental confusion and so on. Plus an assortment of tweets so ill-advised, jejune and illiberal that only some dreadful cerebral confusion could have caused them. And Since neither of these fine gentlemen could have been at the pharmaceuticals, I reasoned, they must have been overwhelmed at the Brexit vote collapsing their secure little universe.

Now it seems I am academically vindicated - Poltico EU claims
For Britain’s pro-European middle classes, Brexit is akin to a psychological trauma which has left many unable to behave rationally, according to two leading experts. Far from being hyper-rational observers concerned only with what is economically sensible, many have morphed into the “Remainiacs” of Brexiteer disdain.

They are acting no differently to what psychologists would expect from those suffering from chronic anxiety caused by loss of control and insecurity, Dr. Philip Corr, professor of psychology and behavioural economics at the University of London, and Dr. Simon Stuart, a clinical psychologist, told POLITICO.
The shrinks have even coined a clinical term for the condition - Brexit Anxiety Disorder, or BAD. But is it curable, or will 'PTSD' and 'Howler' stay that way for life?
Those suffering anxiety might return to more ‘normal,’ ‘rational’ behaviour if the context around them changes,” he said. Clinically, however, this is often a forlorn hope, because contexts don’t usually tend to change enough.

“In that case, what I’d try to do is help the person become more flexible — in short, to learn how to live with the anxiety, tolerate the uncertainty, and work out how they can continue to engage with what truly matters to them in life, rather than getting caught up trying to change things they can’t change.”

In other words, Remainers may just need to relax and get over it.


8 comments:

Bloke in North Dorset said...

We (Chesil Sailibility) recently played host to Help for Heroes who were selecting sailors to go to the Invicta games. A fair proportion had PTSD and functioned normally most of the time, although we were given a briefing of what to look for if they were having problems.

I've also recently read Jonny Mercer's We Were Warriors (I deny anyone to read that book and not have tears streaming down their face on more than one occasion).

Whilst I understand why you use the term I think equating what they went through with Adonis's infantile reactions to the Brexit vote belittles those who really did go through stressful situations, for weeks and months without break.

Raedwald said...

Bloke in North Dorset - I lived for many years with a bloke who had been through combat for months and years on end, from landing on the Normandy beaches at 6am on 6/6/44 to making a reduced battalion stand against against two Chinese divisions on the Imjin river. he saw his mates blown to buggery, shot, torn, dissembled, bleeding out and in small bits on battlefields from France to the heart of Germany, watched as the King David Hotel was destroyed by terrorists with his company CO in it. In twenty years there he knew few periods of peace - and as the first UK baby back to Cyprus I had a taste of it too, when mother and I had a terrorist grenade chucked in the back garden. He was my dad, of course. I do have a certain familiarity therefore with the long terms effects of post-combat stress, thankyou.

You are being oversensitive. PTSD is applied these days - and treated on the NHS - to every minor upset from missing out on a blue-tag sale item, being dumped by a girlfie, not getting the right A lavel grades or simply not getting your own way.

The term stands.

Budgie said...

Remains don't need to "relax and get over it", they're being given Remain on a plate by Theresa May. The Robbins WP, which is government (ie: Mrs May's) policy is a revolving-door Remain - out with the EU multilateral treaties, in with new bi-lateral EU treaties to do the same job - as the executive summary makes clear.

The problems are: a Remain establishment; lack of time; divided Tory MPs. The normal route to remove Mrs May takes months, even if there was the appetite for it in the Tory hierarchy (there isn't). Tory Remains, scenting blood, will not co-operate with a new Leave leader anyeway. The only option is external pressure. That makes UKIP the only viable option.

The only other alternative is for Brexit Tory MPs to vote down the government when Mrs May tries to push her Remain bills through Parliament. But that tars them with the brush of setting up an election which lets Corbyn in. I would be amazed if that happens, but even if it did Leave would be no better off. And however bad a mess we're in now (and we truly are), an election at that point would reduce the country to an utter shambles.

Stephen J said...

Perhaps PTSD is not the appropriate epithet for Adonis then, because he is really ill, ALL of the time.

Maniac...

They don't use that one much any more.

John in Cheshire said...

Could they also be considered as suffering from VEBD; Violet Elizabeth Bott Disorder? I'm sure it's common knowledge this Disorder manifests itself in bouts of uncontrolled high pitched screaming if the sufferer doesn't get his own way.

Dave_G said...


They sound like Conservatives Under Normal Tension to me......

Oldrightie said...

There's still hope that the EU monster will implode of its own accord. With or without Brexit.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps PTSD should be replaced with Victim of Brexit (VOB).

Everybody is a Victim these days. Pretty soon we shall see rapists being aquitted as ‘Victims of Unrequited Love’ (VUL).