It’s been a while since my last piece on PTSD, but now I will continue it, as I have recently been experiencing some PTSD breakthrough symptoms.
Before I was diagnosed with PTSD, I described my PTSD symptoms as echoes of the voices I heard before being medicated for schizoaffective disorder. I associated it with psychosis when in reality it was PTSD flashbacks.
The current diagnostic tool for mental disorders, the DSM-5, has a rather outdated criteria for PTSD that is limited to one of a handful of particular events that can cause the disorder. Mine is one of many cases that don’t fit into the first criterion, which, much to the dismay of my treating psychiatrist, caused one trauma therapist to talk down to me about my lived experiences and discount the diagnosis entirely.
Many events can cause PTSD. There’s also a subcategory of PTSD called complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: c-PTSD or CPTSD. This is not an official diagnosis in the DSM yet, but I believe they’re considering adding it (and amending the criteria for PTSD) in future DSMs. CPTSD is generally defined by cause of the onset of PTSD symptoms. With PTSD, it’s generally one, defined, traumatic event that causes onset. CPTSD is typically associated with a series of prolonged exposure to traumatic events or situations in which the individual cannot escape.
CPTSD is also associated with less control of emotions and less ability to form and maintain relationships with others. It also usually involves a lack of trust in others and the world in general, as well as feelings of distrust.
There’s a lot of discrepancies about PTSD versus CPTSD as far as diagnostics go. I believe that if CPTSD were an official diagnosis in the DSM-5, my psychiatrist would agree that I have that diagnosis instead of the base disorder. Perhaps in my next post I’ll talk more on CPTSD, as it does have additional symptoms and supposed causes than PTSD.
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