What If?

[The Albatross]

I was in recovery for alcohol before I knew I had PTSD. I sat at the tables with people who were jailed, homeless, suicided, and know first hand the results of ingesting something on the outside to change/cope how you feel on the inside. That being said from a SUDS/PTSD standpoint only as there are many legitimate reasons for meds. It would be easier, for me to take the med, or do the substance... but in the longer term, knowing what I know about myself it would still be lethal because I am an addictive personality. A twist on "physician heal thyself", "[abuser/addict] and/or [insert your mental health diagnosis here] know thyself and get some healthy coping skills quick."

 

[Deleted member 1860]

@Jester
I think its important to keep in mind that we all experience PTSD just a little bit differently. As long as you have symptoms in each of the required areas, then yes, you qualify for a PTSD diagnosis. I rarely have dissociation issues as it only happens in cases of extreme triggering. I can count only 4 or 5 times in the last 5 years, all situations being when I was confronted with my trauma in an in-your-face sort of way (save the fireworks!) I have momentary blanking out during exams, but heck, that happens to even normal people and I can regroup quite easily.

 

[greenleaf]

I bet it's really common for survivors to doubt the reality of various parts of their experience. "Derealization" is a symptom mentioned in the DSM, but I think we can feel that all sorts of parts of our lives were not real too; it can be more limited in scope. I had separated old trauma stuff so strongly that thinking about it in the current context made that whole part of myself feel not real, esp. when I was having to "function" at the moment. That stuff seeming unreal seems correlated with my not having to deal with the emotions involved in it; part of me might be deciding it's more important to "function" at the moment than to deal with those issues. (Though I've done that so much I have loads of trouble not doing it.)

Everyone here has slightly different or very different selections from that DSM list, so you don't have to have every item by any means too.

So re. your post, your cognitive parts might be filling in the scenery with philosophical stuff about reality, but it might be ptsd issues creating the feelings leading you to do so? Just a guess...