Article On Spectrum Of Dissociation

[Powder]

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A Dr. has a short article with references that offers a spectrum of D Disorders. PTSD is, interestingly, on that spectrum. I have not seen that done before.

Information seems current and relevant. This is a good one for trying to see if you should go for dissociation tests. This is a difficult thing to assess; often it takes years of therapy (in the past) and is now becoming a more common thing to look for.

Muse

 

[jka37]

PTSD often includes dissociation, and if I understand correctly, flashbacks can be considered a form of dissociation. DID is really a very extreme version of PTSD, and DID sufferers nearly always have PTSD (although not all people with PTSD have DID).

Anyway, yes...

 

[crazytrain]

Thanks, Muse! What an interesting and thought-provoking article! Sheds some light on what I have been experiencing lately (again!)...it seems like I always end up hurting the ones I love the most, probably b/c I don't really believe that I am worth loving in return...

 

[Eleanor]

Interesting! Thanks Muse.

What is a "fugue?"

 

[anthony]

DID is really a very extreme version of PTSD

Not even close... DID and PTSD are nothing even close to similar in diagnostic criterion.

PTSD is the extreme end of anxiety disorders based on trauma.

DID is an extreme disorder at the dissociative spectrum. Whilst DID patients are typically based on trauma, the two are not synonymous.

One has nothing to do with the other.

 

[crazytrain]

Anthony, am I right in thinking that dissociation is a rather common characteristic/symptom of PTSD?

Or is it just me...:)

 

[wife of]

Everyone experiances dissociation to some extent in thier lives..."normal"(sorry I hate that word,cant think of a suitable alt)people label it as daydreaming....In some conditions such as ptsd it becomes uncontrolable and therefore a disorder...

It is definatly not just you,It is not uncomman.

 

[crazytrain]

Thanks for the encouragement...I guess!;) I, too, have a hard time defining "normal" at this point in time. My normal and the "normals'" normal are entirely different, as I am sure you know. I look forward to my Ambien lately, just to escape from my "reality" for a while. I would be willing to bet that you've been there before!

 

[wife of]

Whilst not being the sufferer(I hate that phrase too) I am a supporter and yes I realy do feel the need to get away a lot....

In reference to "normal"...I've met lots of people who class themselves as "normal " and I'm proud to say that I bear no resemblence to them...

Stepford people and clones,of little interest to those who have had a few challenges and zestiness infused into thier lives.;)

 

[Eleanor]

"I tried reality once, but as a lifestyle, I found it too confining."
-Lily Tomlin "Life at the End of the Universe" :D

 

[anthony]

Anthony, am I right in thinking that dissociation is a rather common characteristic/symptom of PTSD?

Yes, dissociation is one symptom of PTSD that falls into category C: "Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following."

Dissociation is part of PTSD, however; a dissociative disorder / any disorder for that fact, is given when the issue presented is larger than the scope of fitting within another disorder, that creates significant impairment all by itself, which is when a comorbid diagnosis is added as its own disorder.

You had dissociated beyond normal spectrums your entire life, without trauma, then the diagnosis would not be comorbid, it would stand alone and PTSD would stand alone as well. If the dissociation was after the trauma and due to the trauma, even of clinical significance that it creates its own disorder, without the trauma itself (PTSD) it would otherwise not exist by itself, thus comorbid to PTSD.

 

[Powder]

From my research, other diagnoses, such as schizophrenia, which were once thought to be either partly biologic/heredity/genetic, and also triggered by "something," now are being looked at in terms of trauma. What this means is that other diagnoses are starting to be noted as highly correlated to childhood trauma, but the connection, if any, is still not fully clear. This is a new direction. In the past, the criteria and the theory was that everything fit into neat boxes that didn't overlap at all, or very little, in order to keep the scientific method clean and to bring greater respect to the profession.

If trauma may go into OCD, PTSD, Dissociative, and other areas as a response, then trauma is more important to be analyzed on its own for all its potential. This is an area that is hard to study because you cannot traumatize people in an experiment (unethical and unthinkable) so you cannot use the lab to study traumas well.