Back then, it was not okay (on this forum) to diagnose yourself
It is never ok, anywhere, to diagnose yourself. With anything. You could be very, very, wrong. And now you are working possibily the wrong therapies and working towards the wrong thing.
Perhaps you are just experiencing grief and not able to see that the grief and trauma are possibly temporary.
The reason one should never self diagnose. It is very dangerous to self diagnose anything but especially mental health disorders. Would someone say they have cancer when they have something different entrely? And if then they start chemo and radiation (as an example) but have a complete different health disorder? It is the same for mental health.
Since I hadn´t gotten an official cptsd diagnosis yet
Then advise you may have cptsd but haven't yet been diagnosed. That is what I do and what I will continue to do until the DSM follows suit with the ICD and I am offically diagnosed, likely the BPD & PTSD diagnosis dropped and CPTSD put in it's place. Just my hunch as there are key features of someone with "true" BPD that is missing in me. But the emotional roller coaster of BPD I certianly have.
are you traumatized enough to claim you have cptsd?
I am traumatized enough to have it but you cannot claim any diagnosis without actually being diagnosed with it by a professional. And in America that isn't even possible as CPTSD isn't in the DSM. Which is what the US uses for mental health diagnosis.
His argument was that a lot of people invalidate their own feelings, and thus don´t feel like they are worthy of seeking help. He said that people should´t be afraid of diagnosing themselves with cptsd if it made them feel valid.
That's a ridiculous starement. A dignosis or not doesn't vailidate or invaildate your symptoms. Which is what a diagnosis is. A set of symptoms. But you have them, diagnosis or not. So why would you need a diagnosis to vaildate symptoms or suffering in general?
For me, I suspected BPD for a long time. I never self diagnosed but I did research it a ton for years before my current therapy. It was the first to be diagnosed and because I had high suspection, I expected it.
PTSD was the shocker for me. I faught it at first. My first statement was "no way my past was as bad as war". It took a while for it to sink in that yes, yes it was. I accepted the PTSD diagnosis after my therpaist went through the DSM with me and all criteria and we agreed on which symptoms matched up but I accepted it reluctently. It took a good year or so to really accept it. I think much of that was because that was about the same time where I didn't call my past abuse or bad nor did I see it as traumatizing. So the more I saw it for what it was I accepted the diagnosis more and more.
It really didn't vaildate anything but once I grabbed the diagnosis and really accepted it, it did give me releif. That I wasn't "crazy" after all and that what I am dealing with is a "thing" that has a name and therapies. I then did a shit ton of research. Bought the PTSD sourcebook my therapist has. Researched therapies, etc. Now that I had a name for what I was dealing with I really wanted to know how to get better. That's empowerment. But I think that is quite common.
I think that so many want a name for what they are dealing with. I think that's common and normal. But you don't need a name to work with the set of symptoms you have. I think that is what most don't get. My therapist and I went to work right away working on the most blaring symptoms right away, before any diagnosis was made.
