Undiagnosed Ptsd Or Not?

[cherryblossom]

Hi Frankie, you cannot possibly have PTSD. The clue is in the name really - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. No one can have PTSD, unless they have lived through a serious traumatic event. The first criterion for PTSD is

DSM IV-TR Version (Current)

The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

(1) the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others
(2) the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Note: In children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior

My advice to you is: Please listen to all those different doctors and mental health specialists, and the people on this forum who live with PTSD daily (either as sufferers or by supporting loved ones with the condition). Accept the diagnosis you have been given and work on how to get better, instead of trawling the internet trying to convince yourself you have PTSD. Be grateful that you do not have PTSD, and find a therapist who can support and help you with your current difficulties. Perhaps find a forum for anxiety and depression, because right now, I think you are looking for support in the wrong place.

I hope you find a solution to your current problems, and wish you well.

 

[Frankie111]

I did witness, as a very small child, a relative being beaten by another relative on more than one occasion. Could this be considered a traumatic event? It isn't something I have ever really thought about over the last thirty years, but I am now wondering of this has anything to do with what's happening now?

 

[cherryblossom]

All the doctors that diagnosed you clearly didn't think that it was considered a traumatic event.

 

[catjudo]

I did witness, as a very small child, a relative being beaten by another relative on more than one occasion. Could this be considered a traumatic event?

You've asked and answered this question yourself on this forum in more than one place.

But this is not something I have even thought about over the years and even now when I think about it I don't feel stressed about it and it doesn't concern me, it's just I have been trying to think of an excuse as to why I may have PTSD

You haven't thought about it since it happened 30 years ago. It hasn't concerned you in the 30 years since it happened. When you think about it now it does not stress or concern you. Nope...not a traumatic event that would qualify for a PTSD diagnosis. Please stop trying to find an "excuse", as you say, for having PTSD. Accept the diagnosis with which you have been given and seek help, support and treatment for your depression and anxiety. All of the symptoms you have described fit very well within that diagnosis.

 

[anthony]

By your own admission, you have not been diagnosed with PTSD, nor do I find anything significant in your writing to believe you have PTSD. This forum is for those with PTSD and those who support PTSD, not those who are looking for answers to possible issues that can only be actioned by a trained physician. I think you need to see a psychiatrist to be perfectly honest, and put all your fears to rest.

 

[Frankie111]

I have been to see a psychiatrist, however, I have read on the Internet that it can take quite a few years to be diagnosed with PTSD as professionals would rather treat it as other things first, before diagnosing something that has no cure. I still think it is PTSD as I really can't see anything else that would completely change me literally overnight and take every single emotion from me overnight. I was a very happy person, with everything going for me, two wonderful young children who I was thoroughly enjoying the summer holidays with and then this happened to me. Since then I have also averaged about four hours sleep a night too, even with sleeping tablets. Insomnia is another symptom too isn't it? I am not wishing for this to be PTSD by any means, but by posting on here and hearing other people's ways of coping with these symptoms I am experiencing does help me slightly.

 

[catjudo]

Have you even read the diagnostic criteria for PTSD? You can't just blatantly ignore some of the criteria because they don't apply to you. You either fit the criteria or you do not. And more than one psychiatrist has told you that you do not.

A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

1. The person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others
2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Note: In children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior

B. The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

1. Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. Note: In young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.
2. Recurrent distressing dreams of the event. Note: In children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.
3. Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur on awakening or when intoxicated). Note: In young children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.
4. Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.
5. Physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

1. Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma
2. Efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma
3. Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma
4. Markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities
5. Feeling of detachment or estrangement from others
6. Restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings)
7. Sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following:

1. Difficulty falling or staying asleep
2. Irritability or outbursts of anger
3. Difficulty concentrating
4. Hyper-vigilance
5. Exaggerated startle response

E. Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in Criteria B, C, and D) is more than 1 month.

F. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Note criteria B, which I have put in bold for you. From everything you have written on this forum, you do not fit that criteria. I've also not seen/heard anything from you that would indicate you fit criteria C, either, for that matter. But based purely on not experiencing the criteria has described in section B, you don't have PTSD.

ALL of the symptoms you have talked about can be explained by the diagnosis which you have been given. You say your symptoms all came on overnight. How would you even possibly explain a sudden, overnight onset of symptoms that were a result of a traumatic event that occurred thirty years prior and you had given no thought to since?

Please stop grasping at straws and trying so hard to find a way to prove your multiple psychiatrists wrong. It is frustrating to people on the forum. I find it disruptive, and quite frankly a little insulting.

 

[KP the nut]

I still think it is PTSD as I really can't see anything else that would completely change me literally overnight and take every single emotion from me overnight.

As has been said above you do not meet the PTSD criteria. In 1993, I also changed overnight. I was settled in a new house, I had a husband in work, 2 lovely young daughters and we were all very happy.

One morning I took my youngest to play school, came out and sat in the car. I began crying and couldn't stop, luckily a friend found me and arranged help. I was emotionally numb, not sleeping and it seemed to me, in tears all the time. I lost time and couldn't cope. I did not have PTSD, I had depression and anxiety. It took a long time before I felt better. PTSD is completely different to what I experienced then.

Depression and anxiety can change you overnight, it did for me and I am sure for others. Accept your diagnosis and move on, listen to your docs and take treatment they offer. You do not have PTSD, IMHO.

 

[Meadowsweet]

Frankie, I feel for your situation, it must be very hard not knowing why things changed so suddenly. And I relate to wanting to check and re-check a diagnosis. I've been told I have PTSD, but when I begin talking to a therapist, I'll be quite happy to be re-diagnosed as many times as it takes if needs be.

From what I've read or been told (I am no expert), PTSD does incorporate lots of symptoms that are symptoms of numerous other conditions also. And it might be different for other people, but the subject of my anxiety, reactions and the images in my mind, relate quite directly to experiences.

I wrote on another post, that I was numb for some years. But just before that, I was attacked, threatened, left a long term abusive relationship, gave up drugs, began a new relationship and moved to a completely new area in the space of about a week. So even though it was quite sudden, there was a distinct catalyst.

I think if there is no obvious cause, then perhaps having some counselling with an open mind might help that come about naturally. And perhaps allowing the diagnosis to change in time is better than self-diagnosis. Also, I can't remember specifics, but I'm sure I have heard of depression being linked to nutritional deficiences, so perhaps it is worth having a good physical check up too.

 

[amethist]

A point some seem to be missing here, and that is "You must have experience some kind of trauma to be even evaluated for PTSD". Which is the first and most important part of the criteria for diagnosis.

So Frankie, as you have not had any kind of trauma happen to you, you cannot and will not be diagnosed with PTSD, ever.

 

[Iam]

Absolutely true Amethist and Frankie......Be VERY, VERY thankful that you don't have PTSD. That doesn't mean that your depression and anxiety are not serious. You need a good therapist to help you work thru what you are experiencing. With hard work, you will be able to have the life you want again. Good luck to you!

 

[Frankie111]

Thanks for all your posts. Just going back to catjudo's post though, I did witness as a young child one of my very close relatives being attacked and badly beaten up more than once, several times actually by another of my relatives, which as a child was very frightening, so does that not meet A1 and A2? I admit I don't meet anything in the B category, but I meet C4,5 and 6 and D1 and the fact it's been five months now definitely meet E and as for F as its totally affecting every aspect of my life.

Kpthenut, it is interesting to hear your experience, did you overcome your emotional numbness once you felt better?