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Undiagnosed Hi Everyone...are My Symptoms Ptsd ?

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scotsnap

New Here
Hi Everyone

I'm delighted to have found this forum as I think i may have PTSD but I am so far undiagnosed.

I have always thought of PTSD as something which may affect the military or people who have witnessed horrific events , and Im sure that is often the case , My experience is quite different from what i used to imagine the cause PTSD to be and to be frank I'm a little worried that its not quite traumatic enough in evreyone elses view to be seen as PTSD !I hope that some of those here may recognise or identify with my problems.

I guess i need a little guidance first of all on where i should post my experience and symptoms and hopefully get some feedback from fellow forum members
 
Welcome to the forums! I highly recommend to visit a psychiatrist, they can help a lot in determining diagnosis. Otherwise, you can post here in this intro thread in the start, but later I suggest to move to specific sub-forums for triggers, anxiety, panic, depression, and so on.

Traumatic experiences are very subjective, so depends on the person, not everyone gets PTSD from the same event, or sees something as of same severity

I recommend going through threads, comparing, and also passing through PTSD criteria on the DSM-V or IV. They are very specific and a good outline

Welcome again, and hopefully this place helps you! Hugs! :)
 
Here we go !

8 months ago I became worried I had contracted HIV or perhaps another STD as a result of a very poorly judged and drunken sexual encounter.

I normally consider myself to be pretty unshakable but from that night on my health has fallen apart.

Within 1 week I was suffering from agonising testicular pain , night sweats and only sleeping for 2-3 hours per night. Within 2 weeks i had anxiety which was crippling..I was literally pacing up and down and shaking .

Underlying all of this was the worry that i had contracted an illness. I visited my GP who initially suspected ( from my physical symptoms ) that I had epididmitis ( testicular swelling )as a result of an infection. I have since read that testicular pain is a common symptom of anxiety.

He prescribed antibiotics and i had a full set of STD tests carried out all of which proved clear....I had to wait 3 moths for a definitive HIV test , during which time i was really on edge , constantly googling about HIV and only sleeping 3 hours or so each night.

My muscles were aching , i felt totally tired like i had flu , i was getting strange pains all over my body , headaches , shooting pains in my jaw , difficulty swallowing etc

Every walking moment i was convincing myself i had aids , would die in disgrace , lose my family etc. I kept it all to myself.

i would fall asleep ok , but wake up worried. I couldnt get back to sleep.

I would need to go to the toilet soon after waking to clear my bowels ( just like i was nervous for an exam ) Occasionally I would cry , I got to the point i didnt want to get out of bed . Getting up felt like such an effort , I was so tired but couldnt sleep.

If i did try to go back to sleep i would just be drifting of when WHOOSH i had a feeling in my head like a rush of adrenaline , was i falling or had someone just shaken me awake...nope It was awful. I just had to wait until i was exhausted before my body would let me sleep.

After 3 months I tested all clear and expected all my worries and symptoms to disapear.

Now 5 months aftr the all clear on HIV , and having had a negative result on every blood test and scan the doc can think of I am still up and down like a yo yo.

Everyday my brain feels foggy , I often wake feeling a pressure in my head , some times my brain feels like it is fizzing , other times it feels like it is floating in fluid..concentration is difficult.

Sleep is better , sometime 6 hours , sometimes 4 or 5 but always short of the 7 hours i used to enjoy.

I have fatigue , awful fatigue , I cant bring myself to exercise or sometimes to go to work....Lying down makes me feel better though.

Other symptoms come and go , including numb hands and feet , blurred close up vision and a sharp headache rising from my neck which lasts 2 or 3 seconds.

The testicular pain is always there too..always in the background but not quite as bad.

If i power through the fatigue , i end up exhausted , crying and with a feeling of total despair

I have been to a therapist who encourages me to talk , but i stopped that...i didnt feel it was helping me . I haven't seen a Phsychiatrist

I still have part of me that thinks i have an illness , virus or infection...maybe the doc missed something ?...but with every passing negative test only the increasingly rare and unlikely conditions remain to be explored.

I am coming to the conclusion that living with all encompassing worry , convinced i was going to die ( irrationally ) for a solid 3 moths has left me with PTSD.

I do feel i am a little better than I was , but just dont know if what I have is PTSD ?

Oh I should add that my doc suggested anti depressants , setraline a couple of months ago..i took them for 3 days.

Within 6 hours of taking the first one i had anxiety like i never knew was possible. I was hyperventilating and pacing. .I persisted for 3 days before giving up.

Is my experience typical or consistent with PTSD...I cant believe that i have gone from a confident man , running 2 businesses and constantly buzzing around to a wreck .

Your thoughts and experiences and feedback would all be gratefully received .
 
Well, not typical. Wierd... I am really not sure, but it has some resemblance, I guess you check out medical traumatization, e.g. anxiety disorders due to medical procedures and similar, this awfully resembles that. It's seems like its not PTSD, but it could be an anxiety disorder.
 
Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you're experiencing a level of stress, but only a proper process of diagnosis can decide whether it's PTSD or not. I'm not sure that unprotected sex constitutes a Category A trauma, which is needed for a PTSD diagnosis but I can see how much upset it has caused you. It may be worth talking to your GP and therapist about how you're feeling and take it from there?
 
Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you're experiencing a level of stress, but only a proper process o...

For me it was that 3 month period of total stress , i dont think i could have been any more stressed during that period when i had to wait until 12 weeks had passed before i could get an HIV test.

I dont want to ovedramatise but i recall thinking that if i was stood on a wobbly chair with a noose around my neck i couldnt have felt more on edge.
 
That sounds awful for you, I know what it is to feel very close to the edge. It's worth knowing however, that you can have incredibly high levels of stress without it being PTSD. It doesn't make your experience any less valid or mean that your suffering doesn't matter, or that it's not debilitating, it just means that it may not be PTSD. To be honest, on some level it's doesn't matter hugely in that a therapist will be able to support you in developing grounding and coping skills based on your own experience. If diagnosis is important to you it would be worth asking your GP for referral to a psychiatrist.

In any event, I sorry that you're suffering so much.
 
That sounds awful for you, I know what it is to feel very close to the edge. It's worth knowing however,...

Thanks Suzetig...I guess im also not too worried about what its called either , PTSD , Anxiety , depression etc but I hoped some of the physical symptoms I am experiencing would be recognisable to some here on the forum and give me some reassurance that they may lessen in time or with help

I have seen references to these symptoms in anxiety forums , but General anxiety just doesnt seem to fit and i kind want to find others who may be going through something similar.
 
@scotsnap
They will pass, nothing lasts forever, but theraphy is useful.

Learn more on coping, and anxiety medication might help, depression meds can be shit to anxiety
 
Physical symptoms of the nature you describe aren't part of a PTSD diagnosis. Some of us do have physical things that we experience but physical effects aren't definitive of the disorder. Have you researched and read up on the official PTSD symptoms?
 
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