PTSD?

How do you know if you have ptsd? Therapy about growing up in an abusive family is bringing up some very tough emotions. It’s emotionally draining.

I think the NP that dx'd me knew I had a lot of trauma background before I even knew it (or at least recognized that some parts/the general gist of my childhood may have negatively affected my ability to handle life). She took the picture of what growing up was like for me out over time with occasional questions like "how did your parents get along?" and "does bipolar/substance use/alcoholism run in the family?" (yeah, I'm pretty sure my dad has had manic episodes and I know for sure he uses) then overtime I remembered more and realized that maybe it's a sign things weren't great if you think of your mom raising you and think of a locked door and being yelled at for not doing what she wants when she wants and how she wants.

I was already having nightmares a lot and she knew that but I woke up panicking followed by feeling stupid for being afraid of xyz, and I just thought I was too sensitive.

At one point she got a list of symptoms and we went through them, and I have too many. She also printed out a packet on CPTSD because I have more trauma responses than what you'd expect from a limited-duration traumatic experience and I think the "add on" symptoms like emotional dysregulation and constant shame apply more than any "regular" PTSD symptoms like flashbacks and being easily startled.

But, yeah, a good mental health person will help you figure that out. A GOOD one.

It's a good thing that it's bringing up tough emotions though. If you have a reason to feel a certain way, it's healthy to feel that way instead of separating yourself from that.

I think if you've gone through ANY trauma whether growing up or otherwise it's hard NOT to have PTSD. I get flashbacks of things, bad memories that feel like reliving the event, crap I've never worked through. Some people may get through trauma without PTSD, but I think they are definitely in the minority.

I don't necessarily disagree with you there, but I'm not sure I 100% agree either.

There's evidence that suggests the amount of support a person gets during/right after a traumatic event is inversely correlated to the development of PTSD. Now, my thinking is, there are a lot of variables involved in this. The characteristics of the trauma, environment/situation, and what the person's life beforehand looked like would heavily impact the type of support they received after.

We'll take someone who was chronically sexually abused as a child by a family member where anybody that knew never really stood up for/believed the child. They were young, had nobody during/after (and given the fact the abuse wasn't just a one-off, abuser got caught early and prosecuted type of deal, probably before), and there is a huge stigma around people who were/are sexually abused. At that age, you're likely going to develop some ways of reacting and coping that won't mesh well with seeking healthy support, thus casting them further out. High likelihood for PTSD or some trauma-related disorder, I'd think when that fight/flight response has absolutely no chance of going away because there is no sense of safety from anyone anywhere and the feeling of being dependent/trapped is constant, of course that person is going to become trapped in the trauma.

Compare this to a healthy, successful, comfortable adult with a loving family who ends up in the path of a tornado and loses their house but everyone in the household survives. They'd probably be less likely to develop PTSD because they're able to quell that fight/flight response when they get/give support to others they love that were there with them and it'd be even less likely if this person had a mindset that allowed them to tell themselves they're grateful they lived, they're safe now, it's over, etc.

In the first example, also, the trauma is from another human, while in the second it's from godly forces. I think it's easier to mentally recover from something that can be construed as a random event than being violated by another human--a family member that "loves you" at that. Not saying the tornado person won't develop PTSD or the child will for sure, but there are different chances, and I think there are clusters of situations with similar chances.

Another cool little thing. In The Body Keeps the Score they use this kid that witnessed 9/11 and people jumping out as an example. He straight up used his imagination to lie to himself (that's just the wording I use in my head, I hope you get what I'm saying). He drew the buildings and a trampoline at the bottom and envisioned a situation they lived. He (supposedly) didn't develop PTSD (his parents were also rock solid too).

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There are also non-PTSD maladaptive trauma responses. Some experts are saying most if not all personality disorders are responses to growing up in certain (not healthy as you can imagine) environments. Some children develop reactive attachment disorder (I met someone IP who had that, and it felt like someone smooshed traits of all the cluster B PDs into one. I felt so bad for her.). Dissociative disorders I believe are caused by trauma too. With either, you for sure had "trauma" and it's effects are called a "disorder" but it's not really diagnosed as "post-traumatic stress disorder."

(I'm sorry this is long and might not make sense. I have to agree it's hard to go through trauma and not develop PTSD especially when practically everyone I've gotten close to has PTSD, but again that's just anecdotally speaking and of course if we're in a similar location and are "of the people we'd open up to" those are going to skew any sort of info to draw a conclusion from, and of course with anything in psychology finding a way to get close enough to proving/disproving a hypothesis is going to be next to impossible with so many uncontrollable variables and having no situation being the same and not even having all the information of a situation.)

You could be right @MuddyBoots I've had a lot of trauma I haven't worked through and haven't had support/understanding for and have tons of trouble calming my fight or flight response as an adult, every time any trauma hits me now, I get PTSD from it, ugh and I have flashbacks of so many traumatic events, pdoc wants me to do EMDR but all the therapists who do EMDR near me are a 30-45 min drive away, it just seems like so much trouble to set up and it's a financial burden too having to make all the copays for treatment