Dear Lionheart,
I used to have a lot of CPTSD symptoms with stuff that could be considered co-morbid, such as dysthemia, extreme dissociative symptomology that would fairly easily be considered severe dissociative disorders, a lot of pain, muscle spasms that could be considered for somatisation disorder, symptoms of full blown panic disorder and some other stuff. For me it has all been part of the CPTSD cluster of symtomology, by treating the CPTSD everything else has gradually come to levels where I would consider them part of the CPTSD rather than co-morbid disorders. It has been distressing but I am over half way healed in my journey, having been in therapy for over six years. I'm not sure with the dissociation as to whether at this point I would consider a co-morbid diagnosis of DDnos (dissociative disorder not otherwise specified) as I have and am learning to dissociate less, but I will see in the next few years as to whether this becomes re-triggered to a high clinical level. I have an understanding of the dissociation and as with CPTSD, although I am likely to become over 95% symtom free within the next three to five years or so, I will need to maintain an awareness of the two central symtom clusters/ conditions in order to avoid becoming clinical/ encountering clinical level symtomology again.
Apart from Asthma medication and some pain killer usage I have avoided drugs other than a few months on Citelopram several years ago which did not even touch the sides. I have used canabis all of my adult life and I genuinely find that it is the only drug that has hit the spot. It is the only thing that I have found that has the ability to to bring me down and assist me in managing symtomology, when I have been highly clinical and having chronic depersonalisation with severe flashbacks and flashforwards that have been like severe visual hallucinations. I still smoke it but less because it I need it less. Ironically it can bring symtoms of de-personalisation on briefly, but so can tobacco, acidic foods and other stuffand I find that this trigger doesn't tend to last. Other people report the same effects with de-personalisation and alcohol or coffee, whereby the same substances that can help one manage the symptoms can also at times trigger the symtoms but often at a much milder and more brief level. Compared to taking anti-depressants and anti-psychotics I would choose cannabis any day of the week for side effects as I enjoy being voluntarily stoned and spaced out, compared to thirty years of being off my trolley through CPTSD from other persons actions.
Part of the key with cannabis, IMHO, is that varieties of the species cannabis indica rather than cannabis sativa tend to have far higher levels of CBD (cannabidiol) rather than D9 THC (delta 9 tetrahydracannabinol). Scientific tests so far show far more evidence of anti-psychotic properties in CBD, where as with THC there are less anti-psychotic properties and there is a far higher but still statistically a small risk of cannabinoid induced psychosis, mainly in susceptible individuals. Personally I go for good old fashioned hash over newer skunk varieties any day. There was an interesting documentary in the UK a couple of years ago, with a professor talking about CBD's anti-psychotic effects and how the psychotic effects of the drug are real but occur incredibly less commonly in scientific terms, which sure isn't what the press would have us believe. This professor was busy preparing an anti-psychotic drug for testing in the UK. I am sure that there are lots of "witch-hunters" out there who would disagree, but my personal experience is that for me it has helped and compared to the damage caused by taking other drugs over several years I would vote cannabis myself. Ironically my younger brother blames my mental problems upon my drug use, which to me is utter horse sh*t as I have had all the symptoms since I was a child, long before taking illegal substances. From what I read on the forum it is quite normal for families to blame mental symtoms on the individual and their behaviour, rather than at least part of the responsibility on the family unit that helped create and maintain the original causes.
If I remember which documentary I will post a link to it sometime, as it might be worth watching. Ilook forward to being able to use legal and medically prepared forms of the drug before I die, however I look forward to trascending my symptom clusters in the next half a decade, which is likely to be far sooner. Hope that this post isn't too long. Best wishes upon your journey.
