Mowtown,

With those two lists as is what you posted in this thread, when you are treated as though you are paranoid, or mentally ill, instead of being validated for the list of how you really struggle, it triggers you, and anyone who struggles with "real PTSD".

When someone struggles with PTSD and also has a troubled history, they can have a lot of flashbacks from the past and that is because of the "theme" or "kind of abuse" they suffered and how they were "hurt" at the time.

The important thing to remember about PTSD and injuries is "refuses to be beaten, refuses to give up". So, a past where someone was "injured" yet didn't really experience full blown PTSD, did "survive" and move forward because of that "refusal to give up" can be present and yet confusing to someone who begins to suffer from PTSD.

Having an "authority" figure that is entrusted to "help a trauma patient with PTS" that does not really "understand" PTSD who treats the patient "wrong", can be an added injury that is unfair to the trauma patient who is suffering from PTS. That happened to you Mowtown, and it also happened to me and I am sure it has happened to others as well. The unfortunate thing about that is that a patient can then stray away from reaching out for help, when they do need help and support, but the "right kind of help" and "support".

If a treatment provider, be it a psychiatrist or psychologist has more expertise in treating mentally ill patients as is described in the list you provided, they may treat the PTSD/trauma patient as though they are mentally ill and mistaken the symptoms of PTSD as other mental illnesses, including Bipolar Disorder, or major depressive disorder, or Borderline Personality disorder, or Accute Anxiety disorder, or Parnoia verses Hyper Vigilance.

And as is explained in the material I posted in another thread that you are taking this information from, if a person who has PTS and is suddenly put in with genuinely mentally ill people in a psych ward that can be even "more traumatic" to an already traumatized patient. That was the case with myself, as well as for you too Mowtown.

I even have described how in that kind of environment I was empathetic to the concerns of the other patients despite my own injury. That could have been clearly recognized by the other health professionals, IF they knew what to look for "as I had needed desperately at the time".

If professionals are allowed to treat a trauma patient as a patient with paranoia even considering them to have "delusions of grandeur" and also allow family members to treat the "victim of trauma" that way as well, the "victim of trauma" will get worse and it will be ABUSE. That is the "last and worst and cruelest" thing to do with a trauma patient. That is how I was treated "over and over and over again". In fact the person/people who caused so much damage to me that it traumatized me have consistently treated me that way and still do. For myself, I have not been able to "leave the place of trauma".

Here is the link again for anyone who needs to read more about PTSD, verses Mental illnesses.

Complex post traumatic stress disorder (complex ptsd, pdsd, shell shock, nervous shock, combat fatigue), symptoms and the difference between mental illness and psychiatric injury explained