What Are The Main Differences Between Ptsd And Complex Ptsd?

[Meadowsweet]

PTSD is the diagnosis, but from what I understand, the other things that are included on the above criterias for CPTSD and DESNOS, come up in therapy anyway. Perhaps this is because the DESNOS/CPTSD stipulations are just what lies behind many of the PTSD symptoms anyway.

PTSD is a diagnosis that indicates the need for trauma focused treatment. But, one of the first things my therapist asked me to do, was to make a time line and list 'significant' life events along it. She wasn't just asking about trauma, it could have been anything I felt had impacted on me. My point is, that a therapists job isn't just to treat the diagnostic symptoms, it's to treat the person. So if a person with PTSD has experienced complex trauma, the therapist will treat the complex trauma without need for any other diagnosis.

I always wondered on my notes why it says I have PTSD and severe anxiety. I can't understand how it would be possible to have PTSD without severe anxiety. Same with the diagnosis for depression - it's not that I'm suffering depression, it's just that re-experiencing what I re-experience and the fact that I have no social contacts, has me feeling a bit crap and puts me off living another day of it sometimes. The diagnosis is like someone has rubbed their chin and gone "how strange, this person has PTSD and is not happy?... hmmm, it must be that they also have depression."

 

[anthony]

I would just honestly think, that if they're going to call anything xPTSD, even PTSDx, then it would be atleast close to the diagnosis, and not completely different other than the clustered approach it uses compared to most diagnoses. Geez... why don't we toss a whole lot of symptoms into a PTSD clustered approach and make our own? That is really what has been going on the entire time with CPTSD. Bits of dissociation, bits of BPD, bits of PTSD, bits of other disorders as well, all tossed in.

As the APA have recognised dissociative traits that are due to PTSD already within the new subtype system, maybe those researching complex trauma should try more for the correct additions as a subtype IF they want to hold onto this PTSD naming convention many seem to have. Otherwise... they need to standalone and call it uniquely so it fits within the trauma category. I still like Complex Traumatic Stress Disorder (CTSD) just personally. PTSD and CTSD... both as catchy and recognisable uniquely to accurately describe a persons symptoms, recognising trauma as the key component.

Lets be honest here... the majority of people who endure longevity trauma, the symptoms are not post anything, they become a part of you, hence complex usage.

I will stick with their branding failure being a key component in overall failure for official recognition. Until they get something to adequately cover complex trauma, these discussions will just continue, and misdiagnosis / fake diagnoses will continue being applied, perpetuating mental health as a cluster f*ck of a health system within itself.

 

[Lucycat]

Lets be honest here... the majority of people who endure longevity trauma, the symptoms are not post anything, they become a part of you, hence complex usage.
.

It is post my trauma. My trauma has stopped. My disorder and symptoms persist. It is really important to me that there is a recognition that the trauma is over - otherwise what is the point?

 

[Red Feather]

I don't understand what the problem really is. I got diagnosed with PTSD at one of the best trauma clinics in Germany and there they call it PTSD Type II, meaning that it is due to prolongued trauma instead of one event. I am not sure what criteria they are using for this, but for me it makes perfect sense.

I've been diagnosed with PTSD, Depression, Depersonalization Disorder, PTSD II, Borderline, and Adjustment disorder by the various professionals I have come in contact with. Many medical practitioners who are not specialized in trauma, find it their duty to eliminate any complex trauma diagnosis and resort to either the Borderline diagnosis or eliminating any diagnosis altogether. It is quite sickening, but I gave up on trying to define myself with a diagnosis anyways. Here in Germany there is also socialized medicine, and it doesn't really matter. As long as I am getting help, which I need very much, than its all good.

 

[Meadowsweet]

@Lucycat that is an important point, and as adults, I think that recognising the abuse happened in childhood and separating the circumstances of the child from the new circumstances of the adult is healthy.

But, when I was younger, I couldn't/didn't manage to do that. I had a squwey view of what was right and wrong. I didn't recognise that society required me to get a job. I knew that drugs were illegal, but that just meant that it was something I didn't want to get found out. And also, I didn't register the seriousness of me being abused - it was something that I knew others would say was wrong, but to me, that just meant it was something that I should hide. Life was like a film and the emotions weren't completely connected.

even when I was taken out of all that, it was still like a film. It took a few years of being emotionally numb and learning to act like an adult to change my view and get some perspective of right and wrong. But I was in a relationship with a father figure, 20 years older than me and very controlling. When I left him, I got involved again with some dubious people and became friends with a man who went on to believe he owned me and would try to kill me. That's not my fault, but I didn't see, or I minimised and normalised some odd behaviors he (and his friend) exhibited.

That last incident left me with symptoms of PTSD that I didn't have before that. But, as well as address the PTSD, in terms of looking to the future, I do also have to look at the fact that it isn't a coincidence that I keep finding abuse and I need to address my inability to engage healthily on an emotional level with people. That's not just happened since developing PTSD, that is like @anthony said the symptoms are not post anything, because they have become a part of me.

 

[scout86]

@anthony, I understand (I think) what you're saying about why the diagnosis "cPTSD" hasn't been officially accepted. There are a couple of things that I THINK you're saying that I'm having trouble following.

When you say that with "cPTSD" the symptoms "aren't post anything, because they have become part of me." How is that experience different from someone who has "regular PTSD"? It seems like any long terms symptoms become part of who you are, in a way. At the same time, you can choose to think "that's not ME, it's a symptom" (which I find is often useful), but you can look at any condition that way, can't you?

You have said, that the symptoms of "cPTSD" really aren't like "regular" PTSD at all. Would you explain that a little more specifically? (I think it was you. There has been a lot said here, by a lot of people, and I may be confusing you with someone else! If I am, SORRY!)

Earlier, @Butterflywings mentioned PTSD coming and going. I asked about that because that hasn't really been my experience. I'm ALWAYS hypervigilant, for example, it's just that sometimes it's way more noticeable than others. The reply I got was to the effect that it's more likely I have BPD than PTSD because the symptoms are consistent. I'm really pretty sure I don't have BPD. I might come close to meeting a criteria or 2, but nowhere close to meeting enough for the actual diagnosis. Granted, I haven't dealt with a bunch of people in the mental health field. I have one diagnosis from one person. I suppose, if I shopped around, I could find someone who'd diagnose me with something else. But, it seems like you either meet the criteria for PTSD or you don't. If it "can't go away" then you may be more or less aware of it, it may have a greater or lesser effect on your life, but it's either there or it's not.

My therapist likes to remind me that ALL this stuff exists on a spectrum and ALL people exhibit fewer or more characteristics along the spectrum. (He goes on to say that I just happen to live my life pretty much out towards the higher end of this particular spectrum. More than the average person in my part of the world.) He says that none of this matters, unless it's a problem. If it's a problem, something ought to be done about it, regardless of where you fit on some arbitrary scale.

Now I'm going to have to take the time to figure out how to use the new and improved "quote" feature! :)

 

[Deleted member 1860]

@scout86,
If you look at a list of PTSD symptoms and a list of CPTSD symptoms, there is almost no overlap between the two. The one item of overlap is mood disregulation. Hence why CPTSD could possibly stand alone without PTSD.

 

[Lucycat]

'In the proposed ICD-11, diagnosis of complex PTSD requires the presence of PTSD as well as the presence of at least one symptom in each of three self-organization features (affect, negative self-concept and relational disturbance).'
from;
http://www.ejpt.net/index.php/ejpt/article/view/20706/html

 

[Deleted member 1860]

But, the ICD-11 is just a proposal and won't be released for 3 more years. As it currently stands, there is no official relationship because there is no diagnosis.

 

[Lucycat]

As it currently stands, there is no official relationship because there is no diagnosis.

So therefore it is impossible to say

If you look at a list of PTSD symptoms and a list of CPTSD symptoms, there is almost no overlap between the two.

 

[Pencil]

PTSD coming and going.

I know this issue has attracted a bit of attention (I think - for I could not follow all the detours and brawls), and I'll try to explain from my perspective as it has been my experience.

I am able to live a relatively stable life (apart from things that are always present, such as irritability, having more than one 'me', which is apparently what DDNOS / OSDD is about, etc). But since I have an attachment disorder, apparently, I am fine as long as I (actually the one child) don't form an attachment of a specific kind. When that happens I have a full-blown 'episode', with flashbacks etc. The last time this happened was in August 2012 onwards, and it took me nearly a year to calm myself down. I'm now on an even keel again.

It makes me wonder if PTSD is not to some extent situation or context dependent. I would like to know how others experience this 'waxing and waning' or 'appearing / disappearing' of hectic PTSD symptoms, or C-PTSD symptoms. Uhmm what are we actually talking about here? And this raises an interesting question: if there is no or little overlap between PTSD and complex trauma, can we actually compare symptoms?

 

[Pencil]

And this brings me to another thing that has baffled me:

Why do the proposed diagnostic criteria refer to 'alterations'? When we speak of childhood trauma, there is no before and after, and 'alterations' are therefore not applicable. Could someone help me out here?

And this brings me back to my original post which said that I suspect we are dealing with MANY things under the C-PTSD non-existent umbrella.