Many of us have already heard of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but did you know there’s also a condition called Post Traumatic Embitterment Disorder? Both PTSD and PTED are caused by trauma but in contrast to PTSD where a horrific life-threatening event causes extreme anxiety, PTED is defined as any negative life event that causes severe chronic feelings of bitterness and anger, making the victim uncapable of moving on from the incident. PTED is often attributed to an injustice or to social rejection but it may also be attributed to a traumatic life-changing experience such as assault, rape, workplace harassment, job loss, divorce, conflicts with family/friends or bullying.
The term PTED was first introduced by the German psychiatrist Michael Linden in 2003 but more than 20 years later it still remains an under-recognised problem which is why I decided to write a blogpost about it. So if you would like to find out more about PTED or if you think you (or a loved one) suffers from PTED then please keep on reading.
What is PTED?
Embitterment is an emotion that is familiar to all of us. It’s that feeling of bitterness, resentment and anger at a certain event and the strong sense of injustice at what happened. But just because you remember feelings of embitterment (even in an intense way) doesn't mean that you suffer from undiagnosed PTED.
For example, you’re a disciplined and very loyal employee and you’ve worked very hard to get a promotion. Your boss has already promised you the promotion but in the end you not only don’t get the promotion you were expecting but you’re not even given an explanation as to why you’re not getting it. I know from my own experience that this is something you don’t easily forget or get over although my story had a slightly different ending: I had been sacrificing my social life, hobbies and pretty much everything else for my job for years when my boss told me I would soon be getting a well-deserved promotion. He then kept on repeating this promise for a period of more than two years after which all of a sudden he told me the promotion would go to someone with “the right political connections”. When he saw how devastated I was by this news, he simply said “that’s just how politics works” and left my office. I felt betrayed, used and taken advantage of. I couldn’t shake off my boss’s words and how he had treated me these last couple of years: I was constantly going above and beyond my normal duties and working long days without hardly any recognition, appreciation or compensation and now this?? When I was completely honest with myself, I had to admit that juggling two jobs for the price of one had worn me down to such a degree that I was on the edge of a burnout. But ignoring my gut feeling, I kept on working there for two more months untill I finally completely crashed and was signed off work by my doctor due to severe work related stress. It took me quite some time to come to terms with everything that had happened but as time went by I began to loose that crippling feeling of frustration and anger that had initially made it unable for me to move on with my life.
People who suffer from undiagnosed PTED however become so obsessed with what has happened (and the injustice of it) that they neglect all other areas of their lives. A person with an embittered mind will also experience a whole range of emotions, including bitterness, anger and aggression, frustration, remorse, helplessness, depression, stress and anxiety, self-blame, rejection and feeling trapped. Constantly feeling these emotions also has a serious impact on your mental health and overall well-being which in turn leads to other mental and physical symptoms such as suicidal thoughts, repeated and intrusive memories of the event, sleeping disorders, loss of appetite, panic attacks, phobias and a complete lack of motivation in all areas of your life.
What are the causes of PTED?
PTED is officially described as “a response to injustice, humiliation and breach of trust” but that doesn’t necessarily mean an extraordinary life-event has happened. The causes of PTED can even seem trivial to other people so it really depends on the person whether a negative life-event leads to a severe and lasting reaction.
Some causes of PTED could be legal disputes, conflicts with family / friends / neighbours / public authorities, divorce, loss of job, breaches of trust such as infidelity by your partner, workplace harassment and bullying.
There is a way out
In case you recognize yourself or a loved one in the description of PTED: please know that there is a way out through a combination of coaching and retraining your mind while also addressing lifestyle, life-planning and life interpretation. But things like anti-depressants and mediation with the individual or party who is causing you stress in an attempt to talk through and resolve the conflict aren’t the answer when you suffer from PTED.
©HolisticHappiness2025
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