Difference Between PTSD And Complex-PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
Aug 3, 2014
I was recently diagnosed with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The difference between C-ptsd and PTSD is that Complex happens over an extended period of time, and usually originates in childhood. Whereas PTSD is typically a one-time traumatic event (such as rape, war, etc).
After spending my entire life in pain, confusion, and emotionally abusive relationships, I finally have an answer. While it is a big relief, the process of recovery is not easy. I feel like there are two versions of me: The chameleon who has put on a good act and adapted for the sake of everyone else, and the real me, who has been hidden all these years. I'm just now starting to get to know the real me.
This is a relatively new diagnosis, and it didn't make it into the new DSM, but I read where someone said that Complex PTSD is at the core of a great many mental health issues.
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I am too scared to ask my psychologist about this, i have been having flashbacks for a long time now of sexual assault when i was much younger (ages 3 to 5 most likely). they can be triggered by events or come out of nowhere. i am feeling a bit better now, but for about a month it felt like i was having non-stop back-to-back panic attacks because of this.
i can remember the event but i still have a lot of doubt and feel like my mind is tricking me into thinking that it's real. i've told my psychologist, but i don't want to right out ask if this is ptsd. i really just want something to call this.
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I don't agree with my bpd/eupd diagnosis and believe that this is the condition I'm actually suffering from. I'm not self-diagnosing just wonder if anybody has this and can tell me a little bit how it affects them?
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i've suffered from social anxiety since i was 13, i'm now 34. almost 4 years ago the stresses in my life got to much and something happened where i felt overwhelming stress, anxiety, panic and fear. i still to this day don't know what happened to me. these symptoms would last from morning till the evening for upto 2 months. it was the most scared i've been in my life and the fact i never got a break from the feelings made it literally unbearable.
i did manage to calm down after taking a different medication but the same thing happened again a year and a half later, maybe more disturbing as i knew what to expect. over 2 years on from whatever it was that happened to me and i've had those feelings again. i've been under stress again and some of those feelings have came back. i thought i could control it but my obsessive thoughts about feeling that way again have started to make me panic again and now i'm really worrying. someone said to me that i have to process what happened to me in the past else i won't get over this.
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I think I am losing my mind. I am a 37 year old female firefighter married to a firefighter. I have been doing this type of work for nearly 18 years. This morning, I got my 3 older kids off to school and came in and started reading the news. Long story short, I heard mayday calls from Boston's 9 alarm fire and I think I had a panic attack from there. I had problems hearing initially, everything sounded like it was far away. I was cold, chattering teeth shortly after, then I threw up. It has been a downhill spiral since. My husband thinks this is all related to a ceiling collapse I went through in November. He think PTSD is at play. But I really have never felt any anxiety over that after getting out. So I'm not sure. I don't know what to do but every minute is longer then the last and I feel fear that is making it hard to breathe. I don't know what to do.
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The first twenty years of my life had a variety of chronic torture & abuse. As a child my home life constantly shifted and alcohol, physical and mental violence was the order of the day. I felt wholly unworthy as a person to be alive. It drove me into drug addiction for eight years. Within the first year, the dealer and his friends cornered me into the back of his shop and raped me, protracting the incident over three days. My addiction exploded and it forced me into dealing with the rapist for a length of time after the incident occurred. I did not develop PTSD at the time, my drug addiction was becoming life threatening and I spent the next twelve years in and out of rehab until I finally one day carved out a functional routine for myself. Life became better, I worked in a shop, got creatively involved and got married (Although I was never able to fall pregnant). Years later we decided to immigrate to Australia. My husband collided with the culture from day one. Within a short period of time he became manic. We had just given everything up and returning back would be security suicide I felt, so I found work, moved us out. My husband tormented me for the next two years until it exploded one afternoon with police coming to arrest him. In the last days of my time in Australia I worked abnormally long hours to pay migration costs, as I wouldn't be able to, once returning to South Africa in an unemployed state.
Landing back in S.A I was hit with the chronic diabetic condition of my mother, who had not gone to one doctor about her condition. I dug in to get her health back to a manageable level for almost a year before I found employment and finally moved out. The nightmare began then. After a court order against my now ex-husband, I landed in a strange town, with new work, where no-one knew me.
Nightmares began to pour into my sleep about the rape that happened over twenty years ago. Functionality levels became dangerously low. I sought help, but without any real finances I was thrown into a system of waiting and small bits of attention here and there. Being alone also didn't help. I had already lost my first job, after flashes bled into my waking hours. A friend came from Australia, three years after my landing back here and saw my condition. These episodes have already taken on a form of torture that has made me terrified to talk about them. Somehow one of the men who raped me, detached themselves into a character that would invade my mind throughout the day and talk to me, telling me of new ways to torture me, that I will never be okay again, that I will always be stuck here. My friend is adamant about me leaving work and seeking help...I am terrified that I will be put away into an institution.
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After years of trying to deal with this on my own I finally got help with a diagnosis of PTSD. I was prescribed Hydroxyzine for anxiety and Prazosin for nightmares. I have not taken either yet as I am wary of taking anything...even when the doctor says it will help. Has anyone tried either of these medications?
My trauma stems from very violent situations a few years ago that are so difficult to talk about I can barely breathe when I even try and get the words out of my mouth. It has left lasting scars both physical and mental that seem a daily reminder or like having a giant necklace of rocks hung around my neck constantly pulling me down.
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I feel like I'm on the outside of everything. I don't feel much of anything, most of the time, and I always just want to be alone because I feel I have to pretend in front of other people. I've been through awful things during my life, the most recent being the loss of two beloved pets within 4 months of each other. Yes, I consider their passing to be awful. I've been through cancer, abuse, abandonment, etc. My earliest memory is witnessing my mother being beaten by my father.
I'm not a miserable, unhappy person, normally. Lately, I just haven't been able to feel or care about much. I'm tired. Mentally and emotionally drained. I have zero energy for other people, which saddens me deeply. Often, all I want is to be left alone to stare at the wall or bury myself under the covers.
Maybe it's depression, but the reason I suspect some kind of PTSD is because my brain feels as though there's a block that prevents me from processing any new experiences. I don't know how to explain it...it's like wanting to run from the room, covering my ears with my hands to keep from hearing any bad news or having to deal with anything unpleasant.
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I've been living with depression for ever (or does it just see mike that!) and have been taking cit for about 6 months with a real relief from the despair and hopelessness. I'm also suffering from PTSD following a horrible trauma and wondered if anyone has taken cit as an effective treatment for this?
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Most who have ptsd ask for space from their partner.
Can you please tell me how long is this space: weeks, month, or months
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I had ptsd for a few a years and was getting help(cbt treatment),then i was involved in a minor accident and iv had to quit work.i suffered severe concussion after it,not sure if it has anything to do with me getting worse.I just wonder do i have complex ptsd now?i have never felt so bad.
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I have suffered PTSD for over 6 years now and my PTSD has started to flare up again with vengeance this time. My PTSD hasn’t bothered me for over a year and now it’s started to come back again like it did before when I was at my worst time. To the point of me not caring about my friends or my family about what they think about me and me not really caring about their feelings, have augments with my wife over nothing but make it sound like the first thing in the world. Do you have any advice on how to get through this at the moment? I’m really struggling and just don’t know if this is normal (to have flare ups) or if I’m just giving up on the people I care about because they are selfish. Any advice would be very helpful.
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I was assaulted nine years ago and I cannot seem to get past feelings of anger and feeling depressed about it. I just want to put it behind me as it is causing problems in my life. Could I be suffering from ptsd? After all of this time since it happened to me?
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I'm 13 years old I am an honors student who has big dreams and one who loves animals. I have been diagnosed with PTSD and pseudoseizures. I'm struggling to be a normal person and I cry myself to sleep each night, but I also have nightmares. This has become extremely difficult and I feel like I'm going insane and I thought posting in here would help clarify my feelings with people who not only suffer from the same thing, but would understand my pain. Will this end? What if medications don't work? What are other options that will work better for me? Being so young I don't know what to do.
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I suffered an extremely abusive home, foster care, hospitalizations, and loss. That was 30 years ago! I eventually moved out of state and just stopped focusing on my life. I married, divorced, remarried, changed jobs and have worked for over 20 years in one job. After several years of medical problems and being diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis and Chronic Pain I just am losing my mind. I was diagnosed with PTSD many many years ago and it is horrible right now. I am not sure I can continue working and resolve this! I desperately need to retire and can on recommendation from a Doctor. I am seeing a therapist now and have a psychiatrist appointment at the end of the month. Has anyone else had experience with retiring on disability due to PTSD?
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So my main issue when dealing with my PTSD is the really vivid terrifying nightmares. I was controlling them for a while with trazodone, which I will admit I did not have a prescription for and received from a friend, but as I really don't feel like becoming addicted to medications, I've stopped taking it for the time being. Most of the other symptoms of my PTSD have so far not affected my day to day life but I cannot get a good night's sleep to save my life right and I was wondering if there was any type of meditation or something that you might recommend? I don't have the time or money right now to see a therapist or trauma expert.
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Need female support and hugs, was raped at 19 and buried it for 22 years, tried counselling, speaking to a c.b.t therapist and my doctor, the last one was the best I'd have to say! I am trying to conceive and have found the c.b.t has highlighted ptsd due to events in the past ie this. Don't like sex all sorts of hang ups due to my past and nearly lost a really close friendship due to this, just feel dreadful as I'm sure but need evidence that it is events from the past that are stopping me from conceiving. Does anyone know where I can turn or what I can do next, just desperate to have someone else share my life, am aged 42 and feel he's ruined my chances forever!
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I'm 27 almost 28 and was diagnosed with delayed PTSD as the trauma was 8 years ago and as the DR said there's other things going on through hiding the trauma but we will start today with trying a drug called sertraline for a week or 2 and then through psychologists or CPN's we will look at multiple medications for the other problems as time moves on and as i tell them more of what happened they can better understand how to treat me. chronic nightmares, panic attacks, anxiety about going outside, bouts of anger. Anyone similar story or else close to this or know anything about the kinds of medications and stuff? Im hoping this is a step forward
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How it affects me..is subtle...I don't' always realize it always.
For example: I am in a relationship.
If that b/f says something similar to my past...I freak out on him...He is NOT the person that hurt me...but he suffers my wrath.
When I hear a police car...I shake and think something has happened to one of my boys.
I really think it is MY HOUSE that I live in that causes me all the anxiety...If I could move...I think I could move further away from all the memories..all the walls I was hit into...the shower I had to think about who would bother me in.
The cellar...my boys lived in and destroyed.
Etc....I don't have alot of nightmares...but I have alot of familiar sounds, and situations that set me to the past and cause much anxiety.
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I would like to ask if it's possible to have PTSD 8 years after a traumatic event that happened in childhood. My father died when i was 11 and now as an adult,memories are interfering in my life. So much that i'm not able to function properly.
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I have ptsd following severe septic shock in 2013 with no memory of being in ICU for 5 days and then Sudden cardiac arrest 2 times this year, Now have pacemaker. Do not sleep well, startle at slightest noise, become agitated or angry at slightest provocation ,occasionally suicidal thoughts. What can I do ? No one seems to understand.
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