Is this ptsd?

[Empathizing]

[Quick note: I am not the survivor, I am a supporter who listens on 7 cupsoftea)

A person I listened to was raped at one point and is now currently at a foster home.

At this point, she is taking a lot of medications (of which I do not know).

However, she is telling me that she is now suffering from a variety of conditions:
-Feels lost or unfocused
-Nightmares
-Feels jumpy at touches
-Cries often
-Foggy and blurry memory (takes great effort to recall anything)

After she moved in the foster home, she has not continued therapy (did not ask why yet). My (unprofessional) instinct/research is telling me that these are all symptoms of PTSD, and from what I know of it, taking medication alone is not enough. Should I suggest that she should try therapy again, particularly CBT (which is, unless I'm mistaken, the therapy thatt is used to treat PTSD)? She did not "like" therapy, and doesn't feel comfortable talking to others about it. How should I approach this viewpoint as well? It's not that I dislike talking to her, I just feel that - as a layman- I would not be qualified to **EFFECTIVELY** treat PTSD, especially not online
. Thanks everyone!

I'm also not sure if these symptoms of the medication.

 

[Justmehere]

I wouldn't try to diagnose her. It's a complex process, best handled by a mental health care professional who is evaluating her in person. What you do know is that they have been raped, a serious trauma. If they are in the US, I'd suggest connecting them with RAINN - which can connect them to proper resources and therapists in their area. Sometimes a therapist will be a bad fit, but other therapists might be able to help a lot more. It's really common for someone to need to consult with a few therapists before finding one that is the right fit with helpful tools.

 

[EveHarrington]

I'd gently encourage her to seek therapy, but not push her. She may not be ready to heal yet.

 

[UnicornSightings]

She may not be ready to take on therapy. I love that you're on there helping. So awesome! I know you consider yourself to be just a "layman" but maybe right now she just needs support and someone to listen. At a point you can ask her if she's interested in some resources like RAINN that Justmehere mentioned. It's great she's on 7 cups of tea. Maybe tell her about this forum as well? And if this gets to be too much for you, make sure YOU are getting support as well.

 

[Empathizing]

I wouldn't try to diagnose her. It's a complex process, best handled by a mental health care professional who is evaluating her in person. What you do know is that they have been raped, a serious trauma. If they are in the US, I'd suggest connecting them with RAINN - which can connect them to proper resources and therapists in their area. Sometimes a therapist will be a bad fit, but other therapists might be able to help a lot more. It's really common for someone to need to consult with a few therapists before finding one that is the right fit with helpful tools.

I'd gently encourage her to seek therapy, but not push her. She may not be ready to heal yet.

Yeah, I definitely don't want to push her into anything that she's not willing to do. She's not in the U.S, although I will try to find therapist related hotlines/resources/organizations in her area. The only thing is, I don't want her to think that she's alone. She semi-recently faced a variety of vast changes which probably does not help her comfort levels.

She may not be ready to take on therapy. I love that you're on there helping. So awesome! I know you consider yourself to be just a "layman" but maybe right now she just needs support and someone to listen. At a point you can ask her if she's interested in some resources like RAINN that Justmehere mentioned. It's great she's on 7 cups of tea. Maybe tell her about this forum as well? And if this gets to be too much for you, make sure YOU are getting support as well.

Thanks for this! Yeah, I have to admit I did panic when I learned what happened (and she was one of my first people to connect to me on 7cups, so I didn't have as much experience). Luckily, I've managed to stay calm through this. I will look for support if I do need it. However, its honestly more frustrating that all I can do is sit in front of a computer screen instead of helping her directly :(

 

[Friday]

One thing that's probably pretty important to know is that the symptoms of PTSD aren't unique to the disorder, all of our symptoms are found in other disorders. There are also quite a few different disorders resulting from trauma, and most others can be exacerbated by it.

When someone has qualifying trauma + the symptoms of PTSD, it may well not be PTSD at all.