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Originally Posted by MattRich
Hello everyone,
I've been a reader of the boards for some time now, but recently decided to participate.
I'm a 29 year old male who has struggled with mental illness for about 5 yrs. now. The short story was that after a particularly stressful final semester in college (a difficult internship, a breakup with a girlfriend, the overall stress that accompanies leaving college and entering the "real world") I had a really sudden, acute onset of mental illness. It literally occurred within the space of a week. I was normal one day and suddenly within a few days I was worried, fearful, and unable to concentrate. My life has not been the same since.
I eventually saw a psychologist who though I had OCD. I even took Paxil for a year (which in no way helped.) For some reason I was never comfortable with the OCD diagnosis. I after a few years ended up seeing a different psych. who gave me a more through psychological screening said I had strong characteristics of PTSD.
I wasn't sold on this theory but it was intriguing. I read up on PTSD and found out that some symptoms fit me to a "T" and others did not. I had never been in combat, I had not experienced some sort violent crime or even seen one. I will admit that I had an fairly unhealthy childhood, which I read can lead to PTSD susceptibility. I will also admit that during that fateful final semester, I was probably drinking more than I should to deal with the stress.
I suppose what I'm trying to find out is if anyone has had similar experience and what has helped for them. Everything I read seems to address PTSD associated with combat or victims of violence.
Thanks for reading and look forward to discussions with with you guys.
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Hello MattRich,
As you know, I'm not a professional anything. Except I tend to whine a lot. (Just kidding.) But, I've had depression, PTSD, was a child of alcoholic parents, and my official and I believe, correct diagnosis is Bipolar II. I've spent many years studying these disorders and am familiar with the symptoms. I would be happy to offer you the benefit of my experience because I tend to be pretty self-observant.
However, I have a few questions. In what field was your internship and how was it difficult? What symptoms did it cause? Did these symptoms have anything to do with the breakup of your relationship? How long had you been with your girlfriend? Had you planned to make it a permanent relationship, as in marriage? Who's idea was it to breakup? How long overall had you been drinking before all of this began to happen?
You don't necessarily need to answer these questions here but my experience has been that a good psychiatrist will ask these questions and more, many more plus evaluate symptoms that you are experiencing currently. They will also ask you at what point the symptoms began and they will ask you the progression of the symptoms. Some illnesses do have overlapping symptoms.
If you have PTSD as a result of combat or as a victim of violence, believe me, you would probably remember it distinctly. It sounds unlikely to me.
However, did your parents drink? If yes, that could set you up to drink excessively yourself and you could experience symptoms similar to PTSD which would make you an Adult Child of an Alcoholic. In the DSM-IV, the symptoms are virtually identical. Also, some old-school psychiatrists still refuse to recognize ACOA as a bonafide disorder.
You might want to read up on Adult Children of Alcoholics. There is a section here on PsychCentral with a lot of good information in it. Hope this helps a little.
