Undiagnosed It Lies Beneath

[Aarow]

I will also say this. Stumbling upon a stash of pornography years or decades into a relationship that depicts, let's say, children being raped, redifines reality for a partner, of who they are living with. It explains, in that moment, thousands of moments suspected but not fully perceived. This person, who is the pillar of your family and safety, represents love and nurturing....well not so much anymore. What if there was rape or molestation in your background that compounded your discovery?

Imagine finding this when you are pregnant or raising small children. Or you have a child on the edge of puberty, you find bondage and disciple on the home computer. Then you find your child's underwear in a his pocket? Of course their are horrible examples for what men go through, if the addict is a woman, less common, but there. And if this is not an addiction, why do all of the addictive tendencies exist? Lying, lying, lying, controlling, manipulating, going to prison, loosing jobs, spending into bankruptcy, contracting and spreading AIDS, in some instances?

Not everyone knows that when you are viewing pornography you are witnessing what, in fact, are rapes. That those women are, in fact, children. It is getting more brutal all the time, and children are now viewing it at younger ages than ever before. (If you've got a child who has access to the internet, the statistics are mind numbing.) And those children sometimes chase the chemicals produced in their brains by porn until they are extremely sexually and emotionally damaged. Until they are adults....

I just say that for other people who might step into this forum. If it is percieved as trauma, doesn't the possiblity of PTSD exist?

 

[Kintsugi]

I'm not sure if you meant to create a new thread or respond to a previous one, but I will briefly respond to what you've posted here.

There is a difference between something that is traumatic and a trauma that fits the Criterion A definition of potentially PTSD-inducing trauma in the DSM.

If such a discovery were compounded with a history of criterion A trauma (the aforementioned possibility of rape or other sexual assault), then yes, PTSD may develop. Or PTS/an adjustment disorder may develop. Or it may not. PTSD itself is relatively rare among survivors of trauma. The statistics shift based on a huge number of factors, such as age of exposure to trauma, environmental factors... etc.

What you are describing does not just sound like porn addiction; it sounds like a predator. Carrying around their child's underwear in their pocket? Come on. That's not porn addiction. That's a predator who is addicted to porn. And if the porn they're addicted to is child porn? Predator.

 

[Aarow]

The name of the thread should have been: Sex addiction and PTSD in partners of an Addict. I don't know how to change it now.....

<mod edit: done>

 

[Ed Norton]

I'm not sure what you mean, Aarow. Child pornography is a serious felony.

 

[Namenotdiagnosis]

Hey please don't leave the forum I'm really pleased you have found somewhere to vent ur feelings and upset and can offload to us X Friday Jones was just trying to steer you in the right direction to enable you to recieve the support you need X everyone is welcome here that needs some degree of support X you need support so your most welcome X please don't give up X

 

[Aarow]

I'm not sure if you meant to create a new thread or respond to a previous one, but I will briefly re...

Vey poorly thought out before posting. I was responding to something, but wanted to pose a question to the group as well. The question is

"Can the discovery of sex addiction tip someone's mental health into PTSD?"

Partners of sex addicts are being treated for PTSD. Even if the vehicle for the addiction is pornography, if I understand correctly. Even if there is no physical trauma.

If the addict is also a predator, wouldn't that make the trauma even worse? That this is not only predation, but is an unchecked, uncontrollable appetite? How would you make such a distinction at the time of discovery?

I had to walk away from my computer before I could edit. And I am reported?

 

[Ed Norton]

Discovery of a sex addiction can not cause PTSD. I don't know why they are being treated for PTSD.

Child pornography isn't a 'sex addiction' it is a paraphilia and although it's very bad I still don't think that it meets Criterion A for PTSD because it's nonprofessional exposure to it.

I don't think that you were reported.

 

[Friday]

Although, after treating me for my childhood scars from an alcoholic family, my therapist told me it was a possibility over 25 years ago. I grew up terrified. My father was physically and emotionally abusive to my mother.

This would be the piece right here, that would make PTSD possible... The criterion A event... Witnessing, in person, the violent beatings of your mother.

It doesn't require PTSD....Not everyone who experiences a CritA event will go on to develop PTSD. Really conservative estimates place it at about 20%. Once those events have occurred, however? Once there is a history of trauma? Anything can trigger PTSD symptoms to come to the forefront. Any new stress, or any loss of a coping mechanism. From divorce, to quitting smoking, not being able to find a hair tie, to dropping a piece of toast with jam on the floor and seeing how the strawberry splatters across the tiles, from a spouses infidelity, to an innocent argument in a grocery store. Quite literally anything can nudge the domino.

What lined up the dominos, though? It wasn't pornography, quitting smoking, or dropping a piece of freshly jammed toast that caused the PTSD. But people do come in here thinking it was. (People also come in here, with serious disorders that need & deserve help, that have absolutely zero trauma in their history, but think that stubbing their toe means it's PTSD. Nope.) PTSD isn't caused by stubbing you're toe, not being able to find a hair tie, or quitting smoking. Pre-existing PTSD can be triggered by just about anything. The last straw didn't break the camels back. It was adding it to all of the rest of the straw already there.

Triggered by anything. But caused by the life threatening CritA event(s) in their history.

 

[Friday]

Can the discovery of sex addiction tip someone's mental health into PTSD?"

As in cause? Nope. In fact, it's very specifically excluded from being able to cause PTSD, here in the diagnosis.

Note: Criterion A4 does not apply to exposure to electronic media, television, movies, or pictures, unless the exposure is work related.

The exclusions exist for very good reason. They may well signify other disorders, for one. As an example, there are trauma exclusions in delusional disorders (aka, if the kidnapping and rape the client is envisioning actually happened to them? It's not a delusional disorder. It's a flashback. Turn to trauma & stressor related disorders.)

It can, however, be a stressors that triggers pre-existing PTSD that already exists from another source. But, no. Discovering photographs, or looking at media of your own volition, cannot cause PTSD.

Reading this should help to explain:

What Is Traumatic Enough For Ptsd?

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/ptsd-diagnosis.87466/

Stressor vs. Trigger - What Is A Trigger?

 

[Friday]

What if there was rape or molestation in your background that compounded your discovery?

Then the rape & sexual assault caused the PTSD.

 

[Aarow]

Wow. I definitely drank far too much coffee for this day right here. Thank you everybody for all your input. I don't have any answers about some partners of sex addicts being treated for PTSD, I just know that some of them are. I hope if they are seeking help, they get it somehow.

I DO understand sitting in a therapists office feeling like I am getting raked over the coals, going nowhere for about 75$ an hr. The thought of going back makes me want to rip out my tongue.

But emotions are rising to the surface like those weird little animals that live their blind little lives way deep in the ocean. I'm just trying to calm down. It's---kind of terrifying. I want to come right out of my skin. Holy crap. There is something that needs attending to in this noggin of mine, that is for sure. Thanks for listening.
I'll make the appointment tommorow.

 

[Aarow]

I just went to the page on this site that explains trauma as applied to PTSD. A few events in my life I'm fairly sure meet the criteria. I count seven of those. I woke from a surgery in a psycotic state and stayed that way for three days, reaction to ketamine which was being pumped into my vein until the genuises figured it out. That was naked terror, from start to finish. Horrible fear, unbelievable physical pain. Couldn't talk or express what was happening to me.( Surprised that is not on the list, or the worse experience of waking during a surgical procedure.)