I Need Help.

[Tefed]

It's saddening to me that I have to explain this to you all, but you don't have to experience something that is physically harmful in order to have PTSD symptoms. Isn't PTSD just when you over-react to something because it triggers a reflex in your amygdala that originated from a traumatic event? Not necessarily a "life threatening" event as Oguh had mentioned. Your life doesn't have to be in immediate danger to experience a level of trauma/anxiety that causes PTSD symptoms

The treatment for cancer is chemo. The treatment for TB can also sometimes be chemo. That does NOT make tuberculosis like cancer.

The treatment for PTSD can include medications which can include antipsychotic medications. The treatment for schizophrenia includes antipsychotic medications. That does not make schizophrenia like PTSD.

Autism and brain tumors and Hypothyroidism and even the neurological damage that can come from the blood disease that you have - all these can all cause "fight or flight" responses to be heightened. However, that does not make any of those conditions like PTSD. The treatment and path of recovery and even the symptoms of all these conditions are very different than PTSD.

When ones' life is in imminent harms way, the nervous system is affected in a very specific way that does not happen with other kinds of difficult and awful life events.

I do believe you have a very difficult disease, but it's not PTSD. Misophobia must be very hard to live with. It may be significantly contributing to what mental health problems you have now. You don't have PTSD.

 

[Ehobub]

What are you seeking from this forum of people that have a diagnosis different than yours?

 

[Enojo]

I respectfully disagree with the comment above. We need to remember that what is in the DSM of whatever version, is strongly affected by the agenda of the psychiatric community, which is not always pure or benevolent.
What is accepted as official truth is constantly evolving, but that doesn't mean the truth itself has changed. Think of it this way: a few hundred years ago the official version of the truth was that the earth was the centre of the universe and the sun revolved around it. If you didn't believe that you could be burned at the stake. Now, while you won't be put to death for expressing such an opinion, you will be severely ridiculed. All the while, the only thing that changed was what version of the truth is accepted, not the truth itself.
What trauma does to people hasn't changed. Our understanding of the reasons, diagnosis, and accepted treatment has changed and will continue to change, so all we can really say is that the current diagnostic and statistic manual diagnoses PTSD by certain criteria, which might be helpful for insurance and some other purposes. For me anyway, I read the official diagnostic criteria and shake my head in despair. It leaves out so much that I know can cause PTSD. Trauma is subjective. If it feels traumatic to you, it's traumatic, no matter what the DSM says. Maybe the next version ten years or so from now will contain a broader definition and you will be "allowed" to say you have PTSD because whatever it was that traumatized you is now on the allowable list, but are you going to hold your breath waiting?
To address the OP's concerns: I'm not familiar with your condition, but it sounds excruciating. It doesn't sound like PTSD to me however, except in terms of being constantly triggered and having to avoid normal activities because of your triggers. I do want to validate what you are saying about being the only one who can see the falseness of global systems for what it is. You sound really lonely and I just want to assure you that you are far from being the only one who can see what is going on, and there are lots of people doing something about it. Your condition does sound like it would make going out and participating particularly difficult, and I hope you can get some treatment for it.

 

[Kemic]

Isn't PTSD just when you over-react to something because it triggers a reflex in your amygdala that originated from a traumatic event?... Misohponia is very similar to PTSD.

Neurologically, you are wrong. Misophobia involve suspected problems not with the amygdala, but another part of the brain.

This is from Wikipedia, but other sources state this as well:

"Misophonia has not been classified as a discrete disorder in DSM-5 or ICD-10, but in 2013 three psychiatrists at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam formulated diagnostic criteria for it based on the largest cohort of misophonia patients so far, and suggested that it be classified as a separate psychiatric disorder.[5]"

"A 2013 review of the most current neurological studies and fMRI studies of the brain as it relates to the disorder[6]postulates that abnormal or dysfunctional assessment of neural signals occurs in the anterior cingulate cortex and insular cortex. These cortices are also implicated in Tourette Syndrome, and are the hub for processing anger, pain, and sensory information. Other researchers concur that the dysfunction is in central nervous system structures.[7] It has been speculated that the anatomical location may be more central than that involved in hyperacusis.[8]"

Neurologically, you have more in common with Tourette's than PTSD.

Why did you post in the anonymous forum? Was this just the first forum you saw?

 

[Gomew]

Sorry - just realized I can't edit in an anonymous thread. When I said I disagreed with the comment above, I meant the comment about what feels traumatic to you being different from what is traumatic.

 

[Owu]

There is a reason why your doctors didn't diagnose you with PTSD in addition to Misophonia.

This may be a helpful thread for you to read from this forum:
https://www.myptsd.com/threads/casual-use-of-term-ptsd.49085/

 

[Wife]

@Enojo
Well stated
Compilation of the DSM is done in secret, the evidence used is not made available for wider scruitiny - if the inclusions were actually evidence based, then why the secrecy?

That secrecy suggests that much of the decision of what goes into the DSM is based on the emminence of individuals(and their big pharma backers), rather than the evidence.

Even with an evidence base, as you point out, mistakes in interpretation are possible - a map does not determine a territory.

Let's not blame the territory when it fails to conform to a map.

Anarchy

 

[Utikes]

I agree @wife/anarchy

However, it still doesn't mean the original poster has PTSD.

 

[Cewu]

I don't know what the OP has

Getting away from the self medicating for a few weeks, and re assessing at that stage might give a clearer picture of what is actually going on.

In terms of PTSD, what I'm increasingly coming to see is that the long term effects of neglect and trauma, especially in childhood are far more diverse than the model which has developed based largely on combat PTSD. Arguably, the symptoms of the "hysteria" described by Janet and Freud in abused women during the late nineteenth century (which would include today's diagnoses of bi polar, and schizoidal, histrionic and borderline personalities etc) were post traumatic disorders.

The late teens through to mid twenties is also a time of life when the frontal cortex is reaching maturity, and a few interesting effects can be developing, add in the complications of Iron metabolism and self medicating with dope - and heavens only knows.

If the OP is still reading / hasn't been chased away - I'd suggest getting off the self medicating immediatly, keep a diary of what's going on, and try to see a clinical psychologist in about 3 weeks time - when the effects of the dope are gone.

Anarchy

 

[Azuzi]

I also agree with anarchy about what you posted, on every point.

However, I also agree the OP is unlikely to have PTSD. He does remember his childhood, and mentions nothing of any level of childhood abuse or neglect.

While suffering from the various conditions that he is suffering from is terrible, it's different than life threatening trauma. Diabetes is terrible. OCD is terrible. Many conditions are awful and anxiety provoking to endure and can lead to depression and anxiety. That doesn't mean they lead to PTSD.

 

[Cehok]

I have had a brain scan done on my. My amygdala is extremely over-active. That's not something I'm even putting up for debate on this forum. i am not going to argue about whether or not my condition falls under a very specific, under-studied, disorder or not. Also, misophonia isn't even the root of my problems. Misophonia is just with sounds, but I also have the same disorder with visual triggers too, and in case anyone is confused, it's not like I just decided to get mad at certain sounds, there have been sounds that have been present my entire life that I have had to hide from and it took until I was a pre-teen for my parents to see that it was becoming very serious. Maybe I don't have PTSD. I can tell you that every day I am on edge. It feels like there is always adrenaline pumping through my blood but at the same time I feel sad and lonely, because my reactions to triggers appear very similar to those caused by a traumatic event. The only difference is I don't consciously think the triggers are traumatic or life-threatening when I'm bothered from them, however they still cause me to go in fight-or-flight. It's gotten to the point now where a part of me feels like stress that feels like everyday it's slowly building up.

Also, someone called Misophonia Misophobia. It is not a phobia. I'm not scared of sounds. Sure I feel exterme anxiety if put in a situation where I know I have to be around them, but it isn't fear that I feel. It is anger, which I think makes it most different from traditional PTSD. When I'm triggered I can lose myself and become violent, mostly to myself, not so much violent towards others.

thank you all

 

[Iwud]

I do not negate your symptoms. Sounds like you have clear problems with your nervous system. People with autism and sensory integration disorder have serious problems with fight or flight symptoms. They get triggered by specific sneaker input too. Does that mean they also have PTSD? No. Not without abuse and neglect or other specific events in their life.

What you are not understanding is that a diagnosis of PTSD is not based on symptoms alone. While the level of abuse and neglect needed to lead to further PTSD symptoms is questioned by a few, NO one debates that POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER is a condition that happens after TRAUMA. Hence the name.

I don't know why you are arguing you have PTSD.

Your symptoms do not even sound like PTSD symptoms - but, even if you had all the symptoms - you are missing the key feature of PTSD: the trauma part.

In the end, only docs can diagnose and assess - not any of us online. Please continue to work with therapist and doctors to come up with appropriate treatment.

Please stop trying to convince yourself and us that you have the incurable condition of PTSD without actually having any T. You can't have a condition that develops from trauma without any trauma.

Every symptom you describe can easily be due to so many other factors that fit much much better than PTSD and are more treatable and curable than PTSD. This should be something that is good news to you. I don't know why you fight it. If you have not been a victim of trauma, then you can't have post traumatic stress disorder. It's in the freaking name.