Hi RRU. So sorry you are struggling right now. If you have manic and depressive episodes like this, I am wondering why the Axis I disorder was not bipolar disorder. When a mental health professional diagnoses an Adjustment Disorder, they are saying that you do not meet criteria for another mental health diagnosis, and that your current difficulties are due to a life stressor. It sounds like some of your symptoms may not easily have been accounted for by an adjustment disorder. I am not a mental health professional, but perhaps you were misdiagnosed? Deferring a personality disorder diagnosis is pretty standard when they think it's possible you might have one. Psychologists can't diagnose a personality disorder the first time they meet you. If they changed it to no diagnosis in 2 months that means they didn't see signs of a personality disorder in you over the two months you were under their care. This doesn't raise a red flag to me.

It also doesn't completely raise a red flag that someone knew about your experience of prior abuse and didn't follow up. Although it is terrible and a horror to have gone through, and a therapist would want to hear more about it, someone in a hospital who only cared about your dx might not have worried too much about it if you didn't seem to be experiencing symptoms of PTSD.

What does raise a red flag is that you are suffering from recurrent manic and depressive episodes, and there is no accounting for this in the diagnosis you were given. Were you suffering from these prior to your military placement? What do your current doctors say your diagnosis is? If it is bipolar disorder, I don't know the process, but could you appeal their decision?

I don't know about PTSD. Going through what you went through sounds like a significant life stressor and something that can lead to further difficulties and possibly PTSD, but not necessarily. PTSD involves a range of symptoms that usually include re-experiencing the trauma (like having flashbacks or intrusive thoughts of what happened), hypervigilance and physiological overarousal (increased startle response, etc), and psychological numbing (can't feel strong emotions, feeling "numb," having dissociative experiences).