What mental illness(es) have you been dx with before finding the correct one?

[Peter Deadpan]

[MENTION=31348]Peter Deadpan[/MENTION] and I know someone else said it but post is gone...

I have never heard the term, what differentiates complex PTSD from normal PTSD?

PTSD is the diagnosis for someone who experienced a singular traumatic event (seeing someone be killed, for example). C-PTSD is the diagnosis for someone who was trapped in a traumatic situation for an extended period of time (being a prisoner of war, or having a highly traumatic childhood, or being stuck in an abusive relationship, for example). With C-PTSD, the flashbacks involved are not visual in nature, but rather emotional. So, when something happens that reminds the individual of the traumatic time, the individual will respond with emotions (including anxiety and depression) as opposed to visual flashbacks, but it's still like being thrown into the past and feeling what the individual felt at the time of trauma.

This is a very basic explanation of the difference, but there's a fair amount of information available online should you decide to research further. Many people with C-PTSD do not know they have it because of the lack of flashbacks/nightmares, and because they aren't able to draw connection between the reaction in the moment, the trigger in the moment, and the connected trauma/feelings from the past. Most of them suffer from toxic shame because they feel broken and are embarrassed and confused, so they withdraw and do not open up to others about it.

 

[prplchknz]

I've been told by professionals that I look normal because i hide things so well to a point then i have a major breakdown and either get an emergency appointment or get hospitalized

 

[Red Memories]

PTSD is the diagnosis for someone who experienced a singular traumatic event (seeing someone be killed, for example). C-PTSD is the diagnosis for someone who was trapped in a traumatic situation for an extended period of time (being a prisoner of war, or having a highly traumatic childhood, or being stuck in an abusive relationship, for example). With C-PTSD, the flashbacks involved are not visual in nature, but rather emotional. So, when something happens that reminds the individual of the traumatic time, the individual will respond with emotions (including anxiety and depression) as opposed to visual flashbacks, but it's still like being thrown into the past and feeling what the individual felt at the time of trauma.

This is a very basic explanation of the difference, but there's a fair amount of information available online should you decide to research further. Many people with C-PTSD do not know they have it because of the lack of flashbacks/nightmares, and because they aren't able to draw connection between the reaction in the moment, the trigger in the moment, and the connected trauma/feelings from the past. Most of them suffer from toxic shame because they feel broken and are embarrassed and confused, so they withdraw and do not open up to others about it.

I appreciate you explaining this because...this sounds almost exactly the sort of PTSD I actually experience... so... That kind of helps too. Thanks.

 

[Lark]

PTSD is the diagnosis for someone who experienced a singular traumatic event (seeing someone be killed, for example). C-PTSD is the diagnosis for someone who was trapped in a traumatic situation for an extended period of time (being a prisoner of war, or having a highly traumatic childhood, or being stuck in an abusive relationship, for example). With C-PTSD, the flashbacks involved are not visual in nature, but rather emotional. So, when something happens that reminds the individual of the traumatic time, the individual will respond with emotions (including anxiety and depression) as opposed to visual flashbacks, but it's still like being thrown into the past and feeling what the individual felt at the time of trauma.

This is a very basic explanation of the difference, but there's a fair amount of information available online should you decide to research further. Many people with C-PTSD do not know they have it because of the lack of flashbacks/nightmares, and because they aren't able to draw connection between the reaction in the moment, the trigger in the moment, and the connected trauma/feelings from the past. Most of them suffer from toxic shame because they feel broken and are embarrassed and confused, so they withdraw and do not open up to others about it.

This C-PTSD, is it the same as complex trauma?

I've read a little about that and had a little experience of it in family, friends, myself, although I think that I've experienced symptoms or aspects of both PTSD and C-PTSD, I'm not sure of the relationship between the two or if they correspond to organic/biological diagnostic criteria/symptomatology or something else.

 

[ayoitsStepho]

I definitely have PTSD from a singular event, but a lot has been coming out about childhood abuse I endured growing up and the possibility that I wasn't just depressed with anxiety, but that I've been dealing with symptoms of Complex PTSD since I was about 12. It's been one hell of a year.

 

[Yuurei]

PTSD is the diagnosis for someone who experienced a singular traumatic event (seeing someone be killed, for example). C-PTSD is the diagnosis for someone who was trapped in a traumatic situation for an extended period of time (being a prisoner of war, or having a highly traumatic childhood, or being stuck in an abusive relationship, for example). With C-PTSD, the flashbacks involved are not visual in nature, but rather emotional. So, when something happens that reminds the individual of the traumatic time, the individual will respond with emotions (including anxiety and depression) as opposed to visual flashbacks, but it's still like being thrown into the past and feeling what the individual felt at the time of trauma.

This is a very basic explanation of the difference, but there's a fair amount of information available online should you decide to research further. Many people with C-PTSD do not know they have it because of the lack of flashbacks/nightmares, and because they aren't able to draw connection between the reaction in the moment, the trigger in the moment, and the connected trauma/feelings from the past. Most of them suffer from toxic shame because they feel broken and are embarrassed and confused, so they withdraw and do not open up to others about it.

The latter does sound familiar.

I wonder if it is often dismissed because so many people asociate PTSD with the visual flashbacks.

 

[Lark]

The latter does sound familiar.

I wonder if it is often dismissed because so many people asociate PTSD with the visual flashbacks.

The way I've understood it to date is that trauma from a single incident will under normal circumstances for a resilient individual recede, possibly without manifesting symptoms, including "flash bubble memories", although short lived nightmares and aversion are a thing.

The disordered bit in post-traumatic stress is that it is persistent and involves the symptoms people are more familiar with, ie flashbubble memories, aversions that become habitual and triggers to re-experience stress and anxiety.

Complex trauma, as I understand it, may or may not involve development trauma, which can include attachment disorders or disorganized attachment styles, is more to do with persisting change to brain and body chemistry. It can involve changes to cortisol or serotonin uptake in the brain, which has motivational knock on effects for people who might already be self-medicating or becoming habituated to certain sorts of thinking or feeling or acting.

The C-PTSD is something I've not heard about to now but seems to maybe be explaining the same things or at least possesses some overlap with the ideas I am familiar with and the emotional memory idea and affective responses rather than visual or cerebral responses is something that definitely interests me and is new to me at this point. I really appreciate people posting stuff like this, its a real chance to learn and illuminates experience I've had no end

 

[Yuurei]

The way I've understood it to date is that trauma from a single incident will under normal circumstances for a resilient individual recede, possibly without manifesting symptoms, including "flash bubble memories", although short lived nightmares and aversion are a thing.

The disordered bit in post-traumatic stress is that it is persistent and involves the symptoms people are more familiar with, ie flashbubble memories, aversions that become habitual and triggers to re-experience stress and anxiety.

Complex trauma, as I understand it, may or may not involve development trauma, which can include attachment disorders or disorganized attachment styles, is more to do with persisting change to brain and body chemistry. It can involve changes to cortisol or serotonin uptake in the brain, which has motivational knock on effects for people who might already be self-medicating or becoming habituated to certain sorts of thinking or feeling or acting.

The C-PTSD is something I've not heard about to now but seems to maybe be explaining the same things or at least possesses some overlap with the ideas I am familiar with and the emotional memory idea and affective responses rather than visual or cerebral responses is something that definitely interests me and is new to me at this point. I really appreciate people posting stuff like this, its a real chance to learn and illuminates experience I've had no end

Thanks for the information.

The aversion thing stands out to me and is something many people have suggested to me.

I am REALLY bad at taking medication I need to live. It isn't out of obstinace, it isn't even intentional. I TRIED every thing to make taking it a habit but nothing works. I know I'll end up dead if I don't take it so I am desperate to find a solution but NOTHING works. It's like when it comes to this medication it just does not exist in my mind.

Growing up the stuff was an enormous negative influence. My Grandmother was abusive about it, screaming, insulting, berating me about it, treating it like my only purpose for living, like I was nothing without it. I was even grounded for a year and half for not taking it once.

My close friends have suggested that the past abuse is why I don't take it.

My obvious response to this was always " That makes no sense. My grandmother became abusive BECAUSE I didn't take it. So logically I should want to take it out of that fear."
That is when some suggested the idea of avoidance, that it was something SO negative that my subconscious just refuses to deal with it at all. I would be very appreciative of anyone's input on how to deal with it because, ya know, I'll die if I don't figure it out.

This is the first time I have heard of C-PTSD myself but it makes a lot of sense. TBH, I never knew there was a difference between PTSD and complex PTSD. I just assumed that it could be either on set by one instance or several over time.

 

[Lark]

Thanks for the information.

The aversion thing stands out to me and is something many people have suggested to me.

I am REALLY bad at taking medication I need to live. It isn't out of obstinace, it isn't even intentional. I TRIED every thing to make taking it a habit but nothing works. I know I'll end up dead if I don't take it so I am desperate to find a solution but NOTHING works. It's like when it comes to this medication it just does not exist in my mind.

Growing up the stuff was an enormous negative influence. My Grandmother was abusive about it, screaming, insulting, berating me about it, treating it like my only purpose for living, like I was nothing without it. I was even grounded for a year and half for not taking it once.

My close friends have suggested that the past abuse is why I don't take it.

My obvious response to this was always " That makes no sense. My grandmother became abusive BECAUSE I didn't take it. So logically I should want to take it out of that fear."
That is when some suggested the idea of avoidance, that it was something SO negative that my subconscious just refuses to deal with it at all. I would be very appreciative of anyone's input on how to deal with it because, ya know, I'll die if I don't figure it out.

This is the first time I have heard of C-PTSD myself but it makes a lot of sense. TBH, I never knew there was a difference between PTSD and complex PTSD. I just assumed that it could be either on set by one instance or several over time.

I've heard it described as Trauma and Complex Trauma but have never heard of complex ptsd or the shorthand of c-ptsd but I didnt think there was ptsd and c-ptsd but it could make sense.

PTSD itself is a disorder in the processing of traumatic stress, which a lot of people who experience trauma are more or less able to do without ever developing a disorderly processing faculty. If that makes sense. Its the persistent factor issue that matters. In that respect.

In terms of aversion its a habit formation thing, so far as I know, so most remedies for it are along the lines of behaviour modification ideas and conditioning. Sorry if that's not helpful.

I've read, a little, about something called "behavioural activation" in relation to PTSD, its mainly about identifying triggers, which you are likely to be avoiding intentionally or unintentionally, that cut into or against rewards which are usually reinforcing rewards, like say socializing, getting motivated, mainly by or through tracking and successfully surmounting difficulties and tracking it. Its similar to some weight loss regimes or fitness training. That's a rude summary but its one of the only behaviour modification ideas I'm familiar with in relation to PTSD.

 

[Zhaylin]

[MENTION=29849]Yuu[/MENTION] have you tried setting the most annoying alarm/timer you can find? Like, set it to go off right before bedtime (or breakfast etc- whenever you're supposed to take it). Then train yourself NOT to turn the alarm off until you've actually swallowed the medicine.
Alarms helped me, a great deal, until it became a hardwired habit and I could stop using them.
I don't have PTSD though.

 

[Yuurei]

[MENTION=29849]Yuu[/MENTION] have you tried setting the most annoying alarm/timer you can find? Like, set it to go off right before bedtime (or breakfast etc- whenever you're supposed to take it). Then train yourself NOT to turn the alarm off until you've actually swallowed the medicine.
Alarms helped me, a great deal, until it became a hardwired habit and I could stop using them.
I don't have PTSD though.

Yep!The problem is there are several steps between the alarm and the meds. Get up, find meds, find water, get food-I absolutely HAVE to have food with it. That's one of the obstacles; I'm often times just not hungry, can't find something quick or I just plain get distracted somewhere along the way.
Another is that I need to take it at 3am and I'm definitely not hungry then. It's imperative that I take it every 6 hours so if i miss the 3am dose the rest are somewhat pointless.

Anyway, I thank you very much for your support but I've apparently offended some people by deigning to post here and doing so isn't worth the shit I'm going to get for it. So I will no longer poison this thread with my presence. Feel free to continue this discussion-or any of a lighter subject- through VM/PM.

 

[Lark]

[MENTION=29849]Yuu[/MENTION] have you tried setting the most annoying alarm/timer you can find? Like, set it to go off right before bedtime (or breakfast etc- whenever you're supposed to take it). Then train yourself NOT to turn the alarm off until you've actually swallowed the medicine.
Alarms helped me, a great deal, until it became a hardwired habit and I could stop using them.
I don't have PTSD though.

In the same train of thought I'd recommend setting up or setting out the medicine the night before, making it simple and something that its easy to form a habit around, over time not doing the thing could become more irksome than the other way about.

 

[Greed]

So do we just assume that EVERYONE has mental issues now?

i'd argue yes. everyone does have some sort of mental issue. does it make it a diagnosable clinical illness? not necessarily, no. but this is a psych-focused forum with psych-focused subforums, so i don't understand how you think this was implied in the op.

It appalls me that we are much quicker to diagnose and drug than we are to make the slight improvements to society which would make many people's lives so much better.

what if, and hear me out, diagnosing someone with a clinical illness is the first step to assessing and treating the illness, whether it involves some kind of drugs or not. does a single diagnosis help to explain your problem in detail? no, but it helps give mental health professionals get a starting point in ways to address and treat the problem (again, be it with drugs or not).

i'm not qualified to say what qualifies as a clinically diagnosable mental illness, but that's what psychologists and psychiatrists are for.

you seem to be getting triggered over nothing in particular. it's ok for people to share their condition.

disclaimer: i haven't read past page 1 because i don't care enough.

 

[Pionart]

i'm not qualified to say what qualifies as a clinically diagnosable mental illness, but that's what psychologists and psychiatrists are for.

I honestly doubt that even most psychologists/psychiatrists are really that good at properly diagnosing mental illness. The categories used are likely far from perfect, and the criteria is probably too vague to really be applied correctly, and hence the occassional psychologist/psychiatrist who is good at their job is relying on years of experience of being able to recognise psychological conditions beyond what the manuals say, and knowing what sort of treatment works and doesn't.

The system as a whole just isn't valid to the point that being educated in it would be sufficient to determine what constitutes a condition, or whether the signs shown are indicative of a problem or merely an abnormality, potentially a positive one. It's kinda like how most certified MBTI professionals don't actually know how to type people, so although their opinion might be above average, it's not strong enough to use as the deciding factor in determining one's type. So too, you can't necessarily trust a psychologist/psychiatrist to give you the right diagnosis or treatment - diagnosis will differ from clinician to clinician, and many of the treatments lack the proper scientific evidence or conceptual foundation to really be said to work.

Some kind of system-wide upgrade is necessary, along the lines of orienting the clinician to really being able to read people, and not just use heavily biased/faulty interpretations of interview questions, or whatever it is clinicians base their opinions on.

 

[typologyenthusiast]

I suffered from hypersomnia for months before finding this jungian psychology.

 

[Schrödinger's Name]

I never really got the wrong DX. Only went to a school psychologist when I was 14 because I thought I had ADD (and because I was suicidal, but I was afraid to talk about it). She sent me away with some 'Google tips'. The last time I saw her I was almost crying because she just didn't want to look any further. She told me I didn't have to give a 'socially accepted answer'. Well yeah...

Few years later when I was 16, went to an institution for +-3 weeks. No DX or anything, hella weird (especially for the reason I got there). I was sent to a "social skills training" thing. Didn't work for shit (more in the way; I didn't have to learn anything, I knew how to behave) and the psychologists were shit too. When my sessions were over, they asked me if I still wanted/needed help. I told them I wanted to keep in touch. They would call me back they said. Never heard anything again. Maybe for the better tho, one of them once asked me if I really wanted to die or if my suicide attempt was just for attention.

When I was 18 I finally got the diagnosis ADD. They never gave me medication for it before, though they gave me Abilify because I thought I was bipolar. Made me fill in a list and it was ok. The medication worked for a while but it made me tired/sleepy (can't have moodswings while you're sleeping eyy!! :')).

So when I just turned 18 she told me 'Now you can get your medication, but since you are 18, you will have to pay the full price for it.' (It's cheaper in my country when you're under 18, don't ask me why...)

On my DX they also wrote 'possibly chronically depressed'. Like thanks, no further investigation is needed I guess. No seriously, it kinda annoys me that they just seemed to brush that part 'off'. Since it's possible that the depression is comorbid with the ADD. (They also focussed on diagnosing me with ASD because I once got 'upset' when my psychiatrist forgot about our appointment. I sure may have some ASD traits, they labelled it as 'light ASD' but yeah... I don't know. I think they looked over a lot of stuff/symptoms.)

I feel for the people out there who still have to 'find'/get the right DX or treatment. It's not easy. Especially finding a good therapist, I think that's the most difficult part. Some of them seem to have bought their diploma on eBay.

 

[neko 4]

I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder at 13, Schizoaffective Disorder at 18.
I take meds because they work, not because a doctor told me to.

 

[Mind Maverick]

First depression then bipolar and borderline which I believe is correct.

 

[Polaris]

I've been involved with psychiatrists for years, so I've had ample opportunity to get misdiagnosed. My misdiagnoses have included that one condition with a similar name to OCD, where you're very perfectionistic; and, very briefly, schizophrenia. My current diagnosis--and I'm not altogether sure it's correct--is bipolar.

 

[Cellmold]

I'll find out 10th October.