ASD & PTSD

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There's also complex PTSD which (as far as I remember) is what happens when someone is stuck in a bad situation for a long time. Apparently, the symptoms are a little different than standard PTSD. I'll try to post something about it later.

It's not something I'd consider traumatic, but that doesn't mean it's not. However, I believe we are supposed to be understood and protected from things that are too much for us as children and that being emotionally abandoned and alone because no one is trying to really understand enough can be traumatic. And it's hard to imagine that no traumatic events happen if a child is pushed to their limits to engage in those activities. I suppose anything is possible. I also think that what is most traumatic for us may not be the big events that everyone thinks of. But a lot of times people feel more traumatized by surrounding circumstances than by what seems like a bigger issue.

Are you talking about sports or hugging relatives or something else, though. I feel like I am missing something.

I'm talking about a program I participated in 2 years ago which was run for people with disabilities. The program was called "connect." I was there as a support person but I was told by another staff member that I must join in the activities. The activities involved a lot of touching which I wasn't comfortable with. I tried to stay out of the activities but I was literally forced into the group by someone physically pushing me in. I was told it would be 'good for me'.
The activities involved things like walking through a line of people who were swinging their arms windmill fashion in your face, lying on the ground and having people pick you up with their combined fingertips, falling backwards from a height and having people catch you (no way was I doing that one), being made to stand up in front of the group and do something that another person in the group nominated.
Everyone seemed to be having a great time at this program except me. I was so traumatised I had to have time off work and see a counsellor, who told me I was overreacting.
The result is I'm still tramatised.

100% guaranteed NO.
The causes of PTSD are very well-defined and would not be considered 'everyday events' by any human.

Last edited by slave on 13 Mar 2015, 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

and NO it is not.
your responses suggest PTSD, HOWEVER you must be properly assessed.

I'm sry that these things happened to you.

Ok. Then I guess it is called 'being overly sensitive?'

Well, I do not think so. Constant sensory overload as well as social overload can be damaging in its own way. I wrote about that already, but, then, I deleted it.

That is basically the reaction I've gotten from everyone my entire life. :/ When you're as old as I am, you wonder why nobody seems to be taking the hint that the oversensitivity is not going away.

It's frustrating to be told to "get a thicker skin" when everything that's supposed to toughen you up just makes you feel weaker. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"--then how come I feel more helpless than ever?

No mental immune system for such things.

Yeah.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Except when the things that don't kill you make you wish that you were dead.

...this could be true if the person can heal the non physical scars.

I think that phrase shouldn't be applied to repeated experiences.

Sounds like it could cause PTSD.

I mean, think about it. Some sensory sensitivities cause the person to experience actual pain or severe discomfort when exposed to something like unexpected touch or eye contact or whatever.

If someone is subjected to a stimulus that caused them physical pain, and is not able to control the exposure to the stimulus, that can cause PTSD. Say someone is repeatedly administered painful electric shocks - that can cause PTSD.

Another person might get subjected to the same electric shocks, but be hyposensitive to pain and not find them painful. That person won't get PTSD from the shocks. They could still get PTSD if they were exposed to something else traumatic, such as if they were raped or something, but repeated electric shocks would not result in PTSD.

Essentially anything that causes severe enough discomfort can cause PTSD, no matter whether it's something that would cause severe discomfort in anyone else. Research suggests that PTSD is caused by extreme fear (for example, people with certain kinds of brain damage who are unable to feel fear are immune to PTSD). So presumably anything that is capable of evoking a fear response is capable of causing PTSD if the intensity or duration of exposure was strong enough.

I won't argue with you on this - because I'm hardly an expert on PTSD - but do you mind citing the source material for me? Where did you find this information from?

It's not as if PTSD is completely uncontroversial. There's a big-name shrink in the UK (Dr. Simon Wessley (sp?) in some high-level policy-making circles who thinks that PTSD should be reserved for combat veterans ONLY. Attempted murder, rape, etc. wouldn't qualify if it didn't happen in combat (which I think is ridiculous).

And, as someone else in the thread has experienced, good luck not getting your ASD experiences brushed away by a professional. They far from scientific or objective.

---on a different subject:---
Complex PTSD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_po ... s_disorder

What doesn't kill you might make you stronger if you actually learn something useful from it....but you don't learn something useful from being tramatized except for maybe how much stress you can take before it screws your brain up. But yeah I never have related to that phrase lots of things that didn't kill me certainly have not made me stronger. If only it was that simple.

I think it's simple...if you are traumatized by something to the point of having PTSD symptoms from it, you have PTSD. It doesn't matter if it's something that most other people wouldn't be traumatized by. Actually, most people who experience traumatic events don't get PTSD. Some people are more susceptible to it than others.

I totally understand why this would be traumatic...I think the worst thing about this, is you were forced to do it. No one should ever be forced to participate in something that involves physical contact if they don't want to. The supposed purpose of doing exercises like that is to build trust (which I think is a crock anyway), but how can you trust people who are forcing you to participate?

I think the physical aspects of this are bad enough...the windmill thing sounds like having to run the gauntlet! But the psychological impact of being forced to go along with it against your will is far worse.

The counselor was absolutely wrong to tell you that you were overreacting. I think it's natural to react to it the way you did. You never should have been required or forced to participate in this event to begin with.