Teacake, I understand what you are saying, but I had a lot of capabilities before, a lot of coping capabilities and what I experience with PTSD is very different than what I had been before. I do not have Borderline Personality Disorder and I don't have NPD, I have not been diagnosed with any kind of personality disorder, just PTSD. I did have other traumas but I did have a "caring adult" in my life.

That being said, I do understand what you mean by "something missing" , however, it is important to review it in a more "complete" way and not diagnose another person based on "some" of the things they discuss here in this forum. It doesn't even matter what you know either, not even if you could practice either, because you are still "only" getting "some" of the information shared here in this forum and you are not seeing anyone here in a "personal way" where you can get to know that person in all the ways you "should" know the person "if" you were a true professional.

If you listen to that information given in that link, this was discussed and mentioned that it is important that "time" be taken with a patient "before" handing out a diagnoses. You were confused about your own diagnoses for a while, even confused NPD with "narcissistic traits" which are two very different things. Personally, I don't see you as NPD, however I would say from what I have seen that you have "narcissitic traits" because you definitely have strong opinions about things, not the same as NPD at all, in fact having narcissistic traits is not unhealthy.

I think it is important to "take care" in making sure that when we discuss different diagnoses that no one in these forums feels like they are suddenly being diagnosed because a person will begin to not feel safe and we don't want that to take place if we can help it here. The PTSD forum is a challenge, anyone can get triggered here depending on where they are in their healing and overall understanding of their challenge.

Also, it is possible that a person can have childhood traumas and other challenges that can predespose the person to develop PTSD from a big life changing trauma too. It is a very delicate psychological ladder we all are climbing in these forums, so we all have to go slowly as we interact and share here. You misunderstood what you quoted in what I was saying. When I saw the brain activity shown in the link provided, it helped me understand that "missing" that I had been trying to articulate when it showed what is not functioning correctly in the PTSD brain.

OE