Does anyone else have PTSD from different traumatic experiences?

[jade53]

Yup, a lot of us do. The term you’re looking for is CPTSD or Complex PTSD. There are some differences from more straightforward PTSD but like @LuckiLee said, most people here have had multiple/varied traumas.

I think for most of us, even if only one incident was at the root of it, the causes of the manifestation are exponential by the time anyone sees the light and stops adding fuel to the fire. This is really about the only safe place I know now.

 

[WhiskeyTango]

I got home early from work one day to find my wife in bed buck naked with one of my trainees. Good bye marriage, good bye business, good by house. Not a combat situation, but it kind of sort of freaked me out.

I was a victim of the 2008 organized world wide bank robbery referred to as an "economic crisis" when it was actually an organized financial tsunami. Good bye career, good bye income, good bye retirement fund, "sorry about your luck".

One of the going away prizes from the 2008 disaster was paid for visits with a therapist. When I laid out all the nitty gritty details, her jaw hit the floor, and she diagnosed me with PTSD. My reaction at the time was "no way, I wasn't in the military and saw war atrocities, you're crazy". Based on my subsequent research, it appears that it's possible that she may have been correct and ptsd is not limited to war stuff. I did not share the diagnosis with my family as most of them had seen active duty service, but never in combat. I wonder sometimes if the diagnosis was inaccurate, but it did hit all the items on the checklist.

Thank you all for being here for me to be able to ask, because I don't and haven't felt safe sharing with my family--a military family--because I have a good idea that if I did they would have the same reaction as I did upon diagnosis.

 

[Ronin]

Do you have a criterion A trauma in your history, @WhiskeyTango?

Because no, seeing your wife have sex, living normal life during economic crisis of any sort, are not cutting it. Nowhere near. That is just normal life stuff.

 

[WhiskeyTango]

Do you have a criterion A trauma in your history, @WhiskeyTango?

Because no, seeing your wife have sex, living normal life during economic crisis of any sort, are not cutting it. Nowhere near. That is just normal life stuff.

Maybe it's just me. Seeing your wife having relations with your employee behind your back ruining everything in your life is acceptable? I didn't see that clause in the marriage contract. The economic crisis wasn't just a bad day at the office, it stole everything you busted behind for decades, but "no big deal"? On what planet is that normal?

So I am just to accept that life sucks and then you die?

Thanks for understanding.

 

[Ronin]

Cheating does not give you a trauma disorder.

Not everything hurting is traumatic, not everything traumatic is a trauma.

and, yeah. Life sucks and then you die.

 

[Kubash16]

Maybe it's just me. Seeing your wife having relations with your employee behind your back ruining everything in your life is acceptable? I didn't see that clause in the marriage contract. The economic crisis wasn't just a bad day at the office, it stole everything you busted behind for decades, but "no big deal"? On what planet is that normal?

So I am just to accept that life sucks and then you die?

Thanks for understanding.

Just bear in mind that Crit A is taken very seriously around here given that it is necessary for a legitimate diagnosis of PTSD as the DSM currently stands. Yes, things other than Crit A can be traumatic and life changing but aren’t considered to contribute to PTSD.


***Edited to add, this describes what is considered Crit A PTSD Diagnosis

 

[WhiskeyTango]

Just bear in mind that Crit A is taken very seriously around here given that it is necessary for a legitimate diagnosis of PTSD as the DSM currently stands. Yes, things other than Crit A can be traumatic and life changing but aren’t considered to contribute to PTSD.


***Edited to add, this describes what is considered Crit A PTSD Diagnosis

Thank you for the link, I scored 100%. I guess the therapist was more on target than I was. We can't fix or manage what we don't know. Education is a good thing. ?

 

[Kubash16]

Thank you for the link, I scored 100%. I guess the therapist was more on target than I was. We can't fix or manage what we don't know. Education is a good thing. ?

So you do have a history of Crit A?

And there’s no scoring so I’m a little confused. . . Are you indicating you meet every cause and every symptom? To be honest, it’s pretty rare for someone to meet every single item. . .

 

[WhiskeyTango]

If this is any explanation of what this is, then yes, I fit the mold.

Exhibit 1.3-4, DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for PTSD - Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services - NCBI Bookshelf

So maybe I got a B+. I don't know, this is a complicated issue. Last I checked, a B+ gets you the degree. I witnessed my second wife effectively die from a stroke before my very eyes and there wasn't a gosh darn thing I could have done to to stop it. Or fix it. Just like I could not have stopped the ex (the junior varsity) from doing the help in my own house in my own bed. I understand that stuff happens, but I did not sign up for that when I entered the marriage contract. Now if that's just life, I guess I'm just a wuss and the professional who diagnosed was incompetent.

Please understand I don't mean to say this to minimize others that have experienced other types of trauma that led to ptsd. I'm just trying to understand how to deal with it. The " don't be a weakling and keep moving" mantra is not cutting it. If people have better suggestions, I'd love to hear it. If I was erroneously diagnosed, I need to know that as well.

 

[bellbird]

Hey, @WhiskeyTango .
I'm going to quote a post that @Muttly wrote, and I'd encourage you to read it.

What often gets missed in these discussions is that the statement that a "trauma" does not meet the DSM or ICD criterion of a trauma and therefor didn't *cause* PTSD, doesn't mean the person doesn't have legitimate issues. Changing context for a moment. Say like someone has a lump. They are told that the lump isn't cancerous but it is a symptom of a very serious glandular disease.

The lump is still an indicator of something very wrong. If that person appeared on a cancer forum talking about how they have cancer, they might get told that they don't actually have cancer and that some of the experiences and advice given aren't necessarily all going to fit the person's disease. Now, the person could react by saying "No, I have cancer and you aren't being sympathetic!" and feel rejected and misunderstood. Or the person could say, "ok, it sure feels like I have cancer, you mind if I stick around and find out what advice/experiences match mine, while I also try to understand my specific issues better." And that will work to some degree, but the shared language and treatments will be different in some areas. Stage 1 in cancer and stage 1 for the glandular disease could well mean very different things and chemotherapy might never be used for the glandular disease.

Another possibility is that the lump is a symptom, not the cause. So the person says "This lump caused my cancer!". Again when folks say that the lump doesn't cause cancer, that person has different ways to approach it. They could say "It causes cancer, you are all wrong." Or the person could choose to respond by saying that they have all these symptoms of cancer and they want to learn more about cancer. In that process of learning more and talking with folks who have cancer they could come to understand that the lump is a symptom and the real cause of the cancer happened years earlier or they could learn that what is going on really doesn't match cancer and that understand helps them to reach out for better treatment and support.

In either case, the real issue to explore isn't a back and forth insistence on what is and isn't the cause or disease of cancer, but the willingness to learn and have a discussion. Back to the OP. If there was no past trauma history and it was a completely ordinary and harmless doctor's appointment and the person feels traumatized years later from it, something is going on. That is real. Is it PTSD? In one sense, that doesn't even matter because clearly the person is struggling. Clearly the person *feels* traumatized. The sense that it matters, and folks here have been trying to explain, is that to get proper understanding and treatment, categories (diagnosis) matters

I am sure that finding your wife cheating on you must have been really difficult, and I am sincerely sorry you had that experience.

Unless you had Criterion A trauma in your history, however, then you wouldn't meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.
And that's ok; PTSD isn't a badge of honour.
People can go through awful experiences and not develop PTSD (either because they didn't experience Crit A trauma, or because they experienced Crit A trauma but didn't develop PTSD) and the awfulness of what they experienced is still entirely valid.

ETA: my post obviously crossed paths in the ether with your above post!

 

[Kubash16]

I witnessed my second wife effectively die from a stroke before my very eyes

So this ^^^ would be Crit A. I still don’t quite know what you mean by the scoring because honestly I cycle through different sets of symptoms at different times and I think quite a few people do here as well. I’m not trying to be snippy or invalidate you. I am just trying to be informative on what is required for the diagnosis.

 

[Kubash16]

Hey, @WhiskeyTango .
I'm going to quote a post that @Muttly wrote, and I'd encourage you to read it.

I am sure that finding your wife cheating on you must have been really difficult, and I am sincerely sorry you had that experience.

Unless you had Criterion A trauma in your history, however, then you wouldn't meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.
And that's ok; PTSD isn't a badge of honour.
People can go through awful experiences and not develop PTSD (either because they didn't experience Crit A trauma, or because they experienced Crit A trauma but didn't develop PTSD) and the awfulness of what they experienced is still entirely valid.

ETA: my post obviously crossed paths in the ether with your above post!

This.