Intrusive Thoughts?

[Acer]

Do you have to have intrusive thoughts about a specific incident that probably instigated PTSD to have PTSD? Can you just have every other symptom except for intrusive thoughts and still have PTSD?

 

[waif123]

I found this on the net. do you re-experience your trauma in other ways?

The diagnostic criteria for PTSD, per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (Text Revision) (DSM-IV-TR), may be summarized as:
A. Exposure to a traumatic event B. Persistent reexperience C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (e.g. difficulty falling or staying asleep or hypervigilance) E. Duration of symptoms more than 1 month F. Significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning

 

[Kathy]

There is also a complete version of the criteria here, if you are interested:

[DLMURL]http://www.ptsdforum.org/thread6366.html[/DLMURL]

 

[Acer]

"I found this on the net. do you re-experience your trauma in other ways?"

I'm not sure. I know I REACT in anger, agitation, frustration, emotionally. I know that the bulk of my traumas were as a kid and that when I was younger (in my twenties) I did experience recurring dreams (night terrors) and couldn't sleep. Those have passed for the most part. I don't feel the way I handle things now is healthy or even under my control often.

When you ask if I re experience it in other ways, could you give an example?

 

[Acer]

Kathy, I know what the diagnostic criteria are. And I have read the link you supplied. I am curious why waif123's link was removed? Also, the question was 'can you have ptsd without intrusive thoughts?'

 

[anthony]

I am curious why waif123's link was removed?

[DLMURL="http://www.ptsdforum.org/faq.php"]Read FAQ section[/DLMURL], [DLMURL="http://www.ptsdforum.org/faq.php?faq=v_rules#faq_v_rules8"]editorial policy[/DLMURL], and that will tell you why.

Also, the question was 'can you have ptsd without intrusive thoughts?'

What Kathy is eluding to no doubt above, is that if you read the link she provided you would also find the answer, in that each section tells you how many of the criteria you must meet as a minimum for diagnosis, which equates to answering YES to your question. Read the information in full at the link provided above and you will discover more than just criteria.

 

[waif123]

Hi Acer,

First off if there was a link on my post it was purely accidental, I don't even know what the link was.

Have you ever thought that maybe your emotions are your flashbacks, during therapy there have been times where i have felt sad or angry, or other emotions, and my therapist would ask me if maybe this was how I felt at the time of the trauma, and there it was I didn't always have mental images, or intrusive thoughts but my body was responding subconsciously, and I was feeling it through emotion.

You may want to consider seeing a therapist, and discussing with them, how you are feeling and explore whether it is related to your trauma.

 

[Kathy]

Acer, I apologize if my response seemed cryptic. In actuality I was simply supplementing Waif's response to you, not commenting to you on my own. Sorry for the confusion. Waif's link was simply a link to the full diagnostic criteria for PTSD, and since we do not allow direct links to outside websites, I removed it. I replaced it with a link to the full diagnostic criteria available on the forum itself. Completely identical information, you did not lose anything by my removing the link.

As Anthony stated, you needn't have every symptom of PTSD in order to have PTSD. Everyone is an individual. Intrusive thoughts are not required if you have the minimum number of other symptoms of the illness, as outlined in the criteria.

 

[Acer]

thanks for the clarification all.
Waif, thanks, I hadn't thought of my emotions being intrusive, but yes, they are. They are disabling at times and often outside of my understanding (like, where did that come from, and why?). I am talking to a psychologist, and will bring this up to her when I see her. She kept asking me about intrusive thoughts (as I have many or most other symptoms) and I just couldn't say that I did have those. But emotionally, those are intrusive. It seems that if you have intrusive emotions (or an inability to control how you respond to them internally or externally) the theme is to say you have a personality disorder. That confused me a lot.