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Undiagnosed self-diagnosed with C-PTSD, diagnosed with depression

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ninecatlives

New Here
Greetings everyone, and may the force of healing be with you!

Doctor YouTube, through its mysterious algorithm, presented some videos over Cptsd to me. From the first one that described symptoms and possible causes, I thought OMG, all the unexplained episodes in my life when my rational brain seemed to go AWOL, now make perfect sense. One thing, one symptom really struck me: survivors think they are this way, they were born this way and this is the way they are wired. So true. Having a diagnostic all of a sudden opened the possibility of a cure, of doing something about it, even at the tender age of 59.

I had 18 years (from 1 year old to 8 years of age) of physical abuse 4-5 times per week - heavy beatings and being slapped over the face I was not allowed to protect. This would go on for 2-3 hours per session. All accompanied by guilt-inducing verbal abuse, over things from 2-3 years past. Anyway, how could I have believed for the whole of my life that this did not affect me at all, and it was all in the past, I cannot conceive now after the realization of what I am carrying inside?

It has surfaced in insidious ways every time I had a major financial decision to make, shutting down my brain and putting me in a high emotional state that messed up my thinking and decisions. Same for relationships. Rescue fantasy is-was a particularly strong fantasy for me.

Trying to do all I can to get myself out of my own mental traps. I have seen psychologists, not many and not for a long time because they were not trained in CPTSD, and I could see they were concentrating on the wrong things. I have seen psychiatrists, and they diagnosed me with major depression and prescribed SNRI pills (desvenlafaxine) which I did not take.

I was born in Europe, I lived in the UK for more than thirty years, and I am based in Brazil, close to the Amazon these days.

The journey goes on!
 
Welcome to the forum! I have had depression and ptsd together and it's truly awful.

Oddly enough, desvenlafaxine was prescribed for me only after a conga line of other psychotropics that didn't work, and it's been the only one that has actually helped with my depression, which made my ptsd heaps easier to manage!!

Keep striving for recovery:)
 
Hi all! New here. I too have been prescribed desvenlafaxine after trying many other medications and suffer from ptsd and depression and anxiety. My dose was recently doubled and while the first few weeks are difficult, I can confidently say it has helped, most importantly, mixed with talk therapy to simply get suppressed trauma and emotions off my chest. Even if the mental health professional doesn’t seem to focus on the right things, they seem to know when it’s time to simply listen.

I’m grateful I found this forum, keep moving!
 
The only treatment with CPTSD, depression anxiety issues have worked for me is EMDR. It's very challenging but with the right Therapist, nothing works better for me. Make sure your therapist is EMDR certified and uses grounding techniques before and after treatment to keep you stabilized
 
The only treatment with CPTSD, depression anxiety issues have worked for me is EMDR. It's very challenging but with the right Therapist, nothing works better for me. Make sure your therapist is EMDR certified and uses grounding techniques before and after treatment to keep you stabilized
Thank you for the recommendation, Paula! I have heard of EMDR as being effective indeed. Unfortunately, I live in a very remote region of Brazil at the moment, so there are no accessible therapists around me. I thought of remote EMDR, however, I am deaf in one ear, so this would make the stereo sound used in remote EMDR not accessible to me. I will keep it in mind for when I will be moving to a bigger city.

Welcome to the forum! I have had depression and ptsd together and it's truly awful.

Oddly enough, desvenlafaxine was prescribed for me only after a conga line of other psychotropics that didn't work, and it's been the only one that has actually helped with my depression, which made my ptsd heaps easier to manage!!

Keep striving for recovery:)
Thank you for the desvenlafaxine feedback Sideways!, I will give it more thought!

The same to you, keep striving and keep moving towards recovery!

Hi all! New here. I too have been prescribed desvenlafaxine after trying many other medications and suffer from ptsd and depression and anxiety. My dose was recently doubled and while the first few weeks are difficult, I can confidently say it has helped, most importantly, mixed with talk therapy to simply get suppressed trauma and emotions off my chest. Even if the mental health professional doesn’t seem to focus on the right things, they seem to know when it’s time to simply listen.

I’m grateful I found this forum, keep moving!
Thank you for the desvenlafaxine feedback, barberella! Sideways, a moderator, recommends it too, I will reflect more on it, maybe I will start taking it.

Grateful for the forum too, keep striving for recovery!
 
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