Anti-Pseudoscience Trauma Syndrome Denial

The specific rejection of the syndromic classification of this trauma. Deniers argue that grouping these psychological effects into a "syndrome" legitimizes pseudoscientific beliefs by framing their defenders as patients rather than opponents. They contend it medicalizes a social debate and provides a shield of victimhood for bad actors. This denial is a strategic refusal to allow the human cost of anti-pseudoscience activism to be part of the ethical calculus, ensuring the fight remains "pure" and unconstrained by concerns over psychological harm.

Example: A psychologist publishes a case study detailing the PTSD symptoms in a client who was the subject of a vicious anti-pseudoscience mob. Prominent skeptics dismiss the paper, not by engaging the clinical observations, but by asserting, "This 'syndrome' is a fiction created by the pseudo-community to pathologize their critics. Now they want us to feel guilty for defending science? This is the ultimate pseudoscience—medicalizing their own failure to argue effectively." The denial protects the activists' self-image as noble warriors, incapable of inflicting illegitimate injury. Anti-Pseudoscience Trauma Syndrome Denial.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026

Internet Trauma Syndrome

The chronic condition resulting from Internet Trauma, characterized by a pervasive distrust of digital technology, compulsive privacy-seeking behaviors (e.g., using burner phones, disk encryption, paranoia about cameras/mics), difficulty forming relationships due to fear of digital exposure, and existential anxiety about the permanence and searchability of one's identity online. It is the lived experience of having one's foundational sense of security and privacy irrevocably damaged by the networked nature of modern life, leading to a functional disability in a society that demands digital participation.

Example: A cybersecurity researcher who was doxxed and swatted by extremists now lives with Internet Trauma Syndrome. They physically tape over all device cameras and microphones, use a separate computer for every single online activity, employ complex voice changers on calls, and have panic attacks when required to fill out a digital form. Their expertise is in the very technology they now find terrifying. They are functionally disabled from participating in normal modern work, social, and civic life, not by a fear of the internet abstractly, but by the lived trauma of its predatory capabilities.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026

Social Media Trauma

Psychological injury resulting from direct, cumulative, or vicarious exposure to harmful experiences on social media platforms. This includes targeted harassment campaigns (dogpiling), doxxing, revenge porn, cyberstalking, extreme public shaming, and witnessing graphic violence or hate speech. Unlike general internet stress, it's tied to the specific architectures of social platforms: viral amplification, permanence of content, network effects linking different life spheres (work, family, friends), and algorithmically-fueled harassment. The trauma stems from the feeling of being hunted, exposed, and powerless in a space that feels ubiquitously connected to one's social identity.

Example: A teenage artist posts a mildly political drawing. It gets picked up by a hate group whose members flood her notifications with rape threats, photoshop her face onto obscene images, find her school, and call her principal accusing her of crimes. She deletes her accounts but knows the images are still out there. She develops panic attacks at phone notifications, isolates from friends, and feels perpetually unsafe. This is acute social media trauma—the platform's features turned a single post into a life-altering assault.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026

Internet Trauma

A broader category of psychological harm caused by experiences across the wider internet, not limited to social media. This includes exposure to extreme or involuntary content (e.g., stumbling upon gore, or violent extremist propaganda), catastrophic data breaches leading to real-world danger, intimate betrayal via leaked private communications, or sustained harassment across multiple anonymous platforms (forums, email, gaming servers). The trauma often involves a violation of the perceived boundary between the digital and physical self, and a shattering of the illusion of the internet as a "separate" space.

Example: A person's email and cloud storage are hacked in a major data breach. The hacker publishes years of private diaries, family photos, and financial documents. The victim is then blackmailed and harassed across unrelated forums by anonymous users who have pored through their entire digital life. The victim feels fundamentally "unhomed," as their most intimate self has been weaponized across the infrastructure of daily life. The trauma stems from the total digital violation and the feeling that there is no offline refuge left. Internet Trauma.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026

Social Media Trauma Syndrome

The chronic, symptom-based profile resulting from unresolved Social Media Trauma or prolonged exposure to a toxic social media environment. Symptoms mirror Complex PTSD and include: hypervigilance toward notifications, identity fragmentation (curating multiple "safe" personas), somatic symptoms (eye twitching, headaches from screen stress), paranoia about being recorded or discussed, and a disrupted sense of reality from gaslighting or misinformation campaigns. The "syndrome" reflects how the embedded, daily use of these platforms can rewire stress responses, making the digital world a persistent source of psychological threat.

Example: A journalist who survived a coordinated mob attack on Twitter now compulsively checks three different analytics tools before posting anything, drafts tweets in a notes app to scrutinize them for "attack vectors," has lost their authentic voice online, and experiences a full-body freeze response when seeing a certain notification sound. Their offline relationships suffer because they're emotionally exhausted from this constant digital defense posture. Their personality and nervous system have been pathologically shaped by the platform's hostile dynamics. Social Media Trauma Syndrome.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026

Popular Culture Trauma

Psychological harm resulting from cumulative exposure to toxic, degrading, or terrorizing narratives, imagery, and norms pervasive in mainstream media, music, film, and advertising. This is not about one scary movie, but the relentless drip-feed of messages that devalue your identity, glorify violence, eroticize abuse, or normalize hopelessness. It includes the trauma of representation—never seeing yourself reflected, or only seeing yourself as a villain, joke, or victim. It's the damage done by a cultural environment that commodifies trauma for entertainment while making healing and dignity seem uncool or impossible.

Example: A generation of women grows up with pop music that romanticizes jealous, possessive stalking as "love," and movies where the nerdy girl only gains worth after a makeover. A young man internalizes that his value is solely in hyper-violent dominance and emotional stoicism from every game and action film. The trauma is the slow-forming cultural PTSD—the deep, often unarticulated belief that you are fundamentally flawed, that relationships are inherently abusive, and that your worth is contingent on performing harmful stereotypes, all because the stories your culture tells itself are pathological. Popular Culture Trauma.

by Dumu The Void January 27, 2026

Popular Culture Trauma Syndrome

The chronic symptom profile resulting from Popular Culture Trauma, manifesting as a pervasive sense of existential emptiness, performative identity, and relational dysfunction rooted in internalized cultural scripts. Symptoms include: the inability to imagine a life outside marketed narratives of success/beauty; chronic comparison to curated celebrity personas; sexual and relational behaviors modeled on pornographic or cinematic tropes rather than mutual consent; and a deep alienation from authentic desire, as one's wants have been shaped by advertising and narrative conditioning. The "syndrome" is the lived experience of being a character in a story you didn't write, using dialogue written by corporate focus groups.

Example: A person feels their life is meaningless because it doesn't resemble a sitcom friend group or an influencer's feed. They pursue a high-stress career they hate because it's the "villain origin story" trope they admire. Their romantic relationships are dramatic, on-again-off-again re-enactments of toxic TV couples. They feel like they're constantly "acting" but have no sense of a "self" beneath the role. Therapy feels futile because their core reference points for a "good life" are the very cultural products that traumatized them. They are suffering from a culturally-induced personality disorder. Popular Culture Trauma Syndrome.

by Dumu The Void January 27, 2026