first step in diagnostic path - Debunking PTSD

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eon
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20 Jul 2010, 9:49 am

i've spent my life more or less "in therapy." i have never liked one of these therapists. they are always assuming you can be normal if they just figure out how you can get over the trauma. they are bent on convincing you to do things their way. they never give you the listening ear they would need to actually start to understand your mind and your overall level of intelligence. they dont understand how profoundly different you feel. you could have a hundred or a thousand important statements and they are only interested in 1 or 2. i am not good at effectively translating my thoughts into verbal and non-verbal communication in real-time. my ability to do this is significantly impaired and below the level that it will appear to be from my behavior alone. don't you think there's a reason this social discussion environment has never worked on me after a lifetime of therapy?

End of rant, moving on to useful substance.

This person seems to think they see symptoms of hypervigilance in my social disengagement. They think I'm distracted by a compulsion to check the area for threats. this is the FIRST thing this person said to me when I entered the office ("checking out your surroundings? always like to be aware of what's nearby?"). It's obvious to me in analyzing the experience that this is their perception due to the bias they came into it with looking at my life events on the paperwork they required, and I have no doubt about this. During the conversation itself it is difficult for me to make these types of identifications about people's intent and recommunicate accordingly.

Let's take a moment to objectively consider the criteria being hypothesized - PTSD via wikipedia:

A: Exposure to a traumatic event. This must have involved both (a) loss of "physical integrity", or risk of serious injury or death, to self or others, and (b) an intense negative emotional response.

Let's say that you could put the sexual and psychological abuse I endured around age 9 and 10 immediately after losing my parent to fit this. Just while we are exploring the criteria.

B: Persistent re-experiencing. One or more of these must be present in the victim: flashback memories, recurring distressing dreams, subjective re-experiencing of the traumatic event(s), or intense negative psychological or physiological response to any objective or subjective reminder of the traumatic event(s).

The only item here is the last one. The problems are being viewed as a negative physiological response to several types of potentially threatening stimuli. Social stress is being blamed on the trauma, as a subjective reminder somehow of the events.

C: Persistent avoidance and emotional numbing. This involves a sufficient level of:
avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, such as certain thoughts or feelings, or talking about the event(s);
avoidance of behaviors, places, or people that might lead to distressing memories;
inability to recall major parts of the trauma(s), or decreased involvement in significant life activities;
decreased capacity (down to complete inability) to feel certain feelings;
an expectation that one's future will be somehow constrained in ways not normal to other people.

Ok. But the problem is that I recall and can talk about what happened with clinical precision. I can describe what was done to me and I can describe how close to death I felt when engaging in the inhalant usage. Just because I went through some extreme bullying due to my suggestibility doesn't mean that it is the reason my feelings and moods are different.

D: Persistent symptoms of increased arousal not present before. These are all physiological response issues, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, or problems with anger, concentration, or hypervigilance.

This is not a valid explanation for my mood reactions of anger or my social disengagement.

(I left out the last 2 which basically state it has to go on for a month or more and cause a significant disruption to regular life functions.)

This is in no way based on a composite of all relevant details. It's a snap judgement after looking once at my life events and asking a couple of questions based on them, and seeing matching responses based on the hypothesis. They haven't even begun to engage me or my proposed goals. When I explained that when I feel wound up (typically as a result of social stress) I become fidgety and do repetitive physical actions involuntarily, I was flatly ignored. The only thing to do it seems is to take back this perception and attempt to disprove the hypothesis by giving detailed descriptions of the traumatic experiences.


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Leekduck
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20 Jul 2010, 9:54 am

if your trying to prove you have Autism as opposed to PTSD, You could have both. My Grandad probably had both.



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sartresue
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20 Jul 2010, 11:01 am

Autism and trauma topic

I believe that being autisitic can be a factor in being stressed due to sensory issues. Leekduck's insight into this is sound.

For a moment wehen I saw the subject title I was concerned that this was a scientology rant, as this group is prone to the distrust of psychology, psychiatry, and no doubt neurodiversity.


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Leekduck
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20 Jul 2010, 12:35 pm

sartresue wrote:
Autism and trauma topic

I believe that being autisitic can be a factor in being stressed due to sensory issues. Leekduck's insight into this is sound.

For a moment wehen I saw the subject title I was concerned that this was a scientology rant, as this group is prone to the distrust of psychology, psychiatry, and no doubt neurodiversity.


Scientologists dont think Autism exists

http://thetechnologist.wordpress.com/20 ... usive-wtf/



Willard
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20 Jul 2010, 1:16 pm

Leekduck wrote:
sartresue wrote:
Autism and trauma topic

I believe that being autisitic can be a factor in being stressed due to sensory issues. Leekduck's insight into this is sound.

For a moment wehen I saw the subject title I was concerned that this was a scientology rant, as this group is prone to the distrust of psychology, psychiatry, and no doubt neurodiversity.


Scientologists dont think Autism exists

http://thetechnologist.wordpress.com/20 ... usive-wtf/


I don't believe Scientologists exist.

Oh, I know they think they do... :roll:



bee33
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20 Jul 2010, 1:26 pm

eon wrote:
i have never liked one of these therapists. they are always assuming you can be normal if they just figure out how you can get over the trauma. they are bent on convincing you to do things their way. they never give you the listening ear they would need to actually start to understand your mind and your overall level of intelligence. they dont understand how profoundly different you feel. you could have a hundred or a thousand important statements and they are only interested in 1 or 2. i am not good at effectively translating my thoughts into verbal and non-verbal communication in real-time. my ability to do this is significantly impaired and below the level that it will appear to be from my behavior alone. don't you think there's a reason this social discussion environment has never worked on me after a lifetime of therapy?

I don't have PTSD and was never told by a therapist that I did, but I have the exact same issues with therapists (I've seen 14 therapists). They have their own set of assumptions and they just don't listen.

I also find that talking to someone and having to remember what I want to say or even know how to bring up a topic are stressful if not impossible, so it's a bad model all around for people with AS.



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20 Jul 2010, 3:39 pm

My opinion on PTSD.

It's real, but overrated.

People had to deal with trauma throughout history, but PTSD has exploded in the last 30 years.

1. Likely it's a label handed out too readily.

2. I find (by observation) that cultures where life is hard (war, famine, crime, etc.) you see people not having the problem with PTSD as we have here in America (and likely other 1st world nations).

The ability to cope with trauma is (in my opinion) directly related to one's experience. Even with AS, I learned by enduring traumas to put bad experiences in perspective. The worse an experience I have, the more I can put other experiences in perspective. I used to freak out over something no worse than a paper cut. Then I got my finger snagged in the sprocket/chain of my motorcycle (not badly hurt, but it was not pretty). In contrast, getting a paper cut is no big deal.

PTSD is similar. Coping with trauma is about processing the experience, and people not used to ugliness in the world around them have a harder time coming to terms with what they went through than those who have lived through it on a regular basis.



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20 Jul 2010, 3:41 pm

My opinion on PTSD.

It's real, but overrated.

People had to deal with trauma throughout history, but PTSD has exploded in the last 30 years.

1. Likely it's a label handed out too readily.

2. I find (by observation) that cultures where life is hard (war, famine, crime, etc.) you see people not having the problem with PTSD as we have here in America (and likely other 1st world nations).

The ability to cope with trauma is (in my opinion) directly related to one's experience. Even with AS, I learned by enduring traumas to put bad experiences in perspective. The worse an experience I have, the more I can put other experiences in perspective. I used to freak out over something no worse than a paper cut. Then I got my finger snagged in the sprocket/chain of my motorcycle (not badly hurt, but it was not pretty). In contrast, getting a paper cut is no big deal.

PTSD is similar. Coping with trauma is about processing the experience, and people not used to ugliness in the world around them have a harder time coming to terms with what they went through than those who have lived through it on a regular basis.



eon
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20 Jul 2010, 10:04 pm

Thanks for these responses. the more i consider this, the more it seems logical to print up a lot of what i've written and bring it in... i really don't think i can adequately express all that i've been reflecting in the verbal/non-verbal physical conversation setting. i think they need to see my thoughts in the pure form to begin to be aware of what's happening in my mind that simply can't be inferred from my presence in physical and vocal communicative exchange.



Callista
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20 Jul 2010, 10:25 pm

They did that with me and borderline personality disorder. They couldn't get that a grown woman would have self-injury issues that had to do with anything other than BPD, so naturally they stuck me with that. It's classic bad differential diagnosis; they didn't even consider any other possibilities. (For the record, though, it's possible to get things like that off your record; I've discussed it with a few psychologists and they all agreed that it was a ridiculous diagnosis for me, and it hasn't been on my file for years now.)

PTSD is real now, and has been real before; it's just that we have a name for it now. Once you identify a pattern, you see it everywhere; and we've identified a pattern.

I've read about the history of psychology, and a lot of the stuff they were talking about--reasons why people were put into institutions--had to do with something like PTSD. War veterans through history have suffered from it; so have women who were targets of assault. It's not really such a modern thing. People have had nightmares, flashbacks, and hypervigilance as long as they've been exposed to severe trauma.


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