Complex PTSD as Result of Severe Bullying

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Anyone? My counselor told me today that he thinks I have this. I think the severe bullying was tied up in my having Aspergers and not being diagnosed; in combination with the fact that teachers/administrators tend to believe the popular, pretty, well-dressed, socially acceptable children over those that are not (ie - me).

So I endured severe bullying for about 7 years and ostracism for the previous 5. Long term trauma. High stress. Complex post traumatic stress disorder. This website is pretty good. It's focused on bullying in the workplace, but most of the explanations work for regular bullying as well. Especially the symptoms.

I also found it interesting that one of the side effects of complex ptsd is chronic fatigue syndrome. Look at the list on the site. Look at how closely some of the symptoms are with AS. Strange that people with AS should have such high rates of bullying and then the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome are so similar . . .

Has anyone else been diagnosed with this? Is there anyone who thinks that they might have it also? Any thoughts?

I would not be at all surprised.
Personally I'm not keen on labelling all my problems as some sort of disorder or syndrome but without doubt I just did not choose to remember my school days for 35 years they were just so unpleasant.

Now I am attempting to recall and write down my school experiences I think I will publish them on friendsreunited just so I can let them know what charming and lovely people these kids who would bully and mob me were

I have been diagnosed with PTSD, although not from bullying.

1. difficulty falling or staying asleep;
2. irritability;
3. difficulty concentrating;
4. hypervigilance;
5. exaggerated startle response.

Yup thats totally me. Great, another disorder to add to my diagnosis list. Im almost always in a stressed out/racing state of mind and thoughts of how I failed and how Ive been abused and rejected by everyone my entire life will never leave me. Ive already talked about how I was afraid to go to school every day and then afraid to go home after school, so I guess that makes things even more clear.

Hey, I am like that too, and I was bullied pretty much the first 8 years of school. I throw my arms up in front of my face at almost any quick movements.
I remember like 3 years back, somebody discovered that about me in class, he had a ruler and he kept swatting it at me, and i would have to raise my arms to block it every time, even thought I knew he wasn't going to hit me and he wasn't even swatting it that close to me. I couldn't do my work cause he kept doing it and I couldn't stop "blocking", he thought it was hilarious. I admit, it was kinda funny.
But if I actually cared about my schoolwork and getting good grades, I woulda been pissed!

I jerk at slight sounds. My counselor even tried an experiment with me. He told me that he was going to make a loud sound and he did . . . and I flinched hard.

I liked the bit about the differences between paranoia and hypervigilance. Like, hypervigilance isn't paranoia, because you're so on guard for attacks, that's it's really a protection measure.

A tale about PTSD

My Grandfather was a USMC pilot in WW2 and he also fought in the Korean conflict. One day he was landing on the deck of a carrier and the guy with the two things like table tennis bats (who should have been helping my grandfather land) was talking to his collegue instead. The end result was that my grandfather tore the wing off of his plane and crashed on the carrier deck, but because his plane was low on fuel he walked away from the crash.

He didn't ask for PTSD counselling.

He didn't ask for counselling of any sort.

He just found the person responsible and beat the crap out of him.

The next day he was back in the air and he managed to live till just after his 95th birthday.

Ed Almos

Where? 'Cause I don't see one here.


And you give no indicator he had PTSD, so I have to assume he didn't have it and that's why he didn't ask for councelling.

Seriously, if you're trying to imply that PTSD doesn't exist, then all I can do is say that there's a large body of science which shows you're wrong. Completely, devastatingly, mind-blowingly wrong. It's a disorder which, current studies indicate, is caused by experiences being so intense and adrenaline being so high that the experience isn't moved from the hypoccampus (where experiences are initially processed) into long term memory. This is why people with PTSD experience things like nightmares and flashbacks - the experience is still being stored in their short term/present day memory. While I'd expect bullying would have to be very bad and prolonged for it to cause PTSD, so I'd caution people from assuming that they have it if they had bad experiences at school (not saying you don't, just saying it's very unlikely and I'd investigate other possibilities first), the idea that PTSD could be gotten past simply by keeping a hold of yourself and taking your frustrations out on another is both grossly offensive to the many people who suffer from PTSD and, frankly, pig-ignorant.

Let's not forget two very important symptoms: vivid nightmares and realistic flashbacks. Do you wake up screaming? Do you freak out and 'go back' when someone hits a triger? I mean a serious freak out, where it feels like you can't breath, can't move, and all you want to do is get away because you're so sure you're back in danger again?

I KNEW I had PTSD! Now this proves it! Thank you, lastcrazyhorn! I went on ptsd-forum.com and told them my stories but they claimed that in order for it to be PTSD it has to be the result of a physically life-threatening experience.

[quote=username88]1. difficulty falling or staying asleep;
2. irritability;
3. difficulty concentrating;
4. hypervigilance;
5. exaggerated startle response. [/quote]

That's all the ones I have too! We are even MORE alike than we knew!

Anne, simply seeking the diagnosis of PTSD is a symptom that you don't have it. Most people with this avoid seeking help because of a feeling of guilt, or embarrassment.

AS makes this diagnosis much harder to understand because some symptoms just go along with AS. This includes the inability to 'get over it' that a lot of NT's spout out. "you were teased? Get over it."

What about the severe symptoms, like the flashbacks, this is where PTSD differs from normal mental trauma.

So what do I have then??? I did have horrible social anxiety. Because I sought help for that, does that mean I didn't have social anxiety? No; it means I had social anxiety around people who weren't people known to understand and help.

Social anxiety is different from PTSD. People with social anxiety can wish to seek help, wqhile people with PTSD think their abuse was somehow their fault so they tend to keep it bottled up inside. It takes years of therapy for them to realize that it wasn't their fault. They didn't do anything wrong.

The symptoms username88 posted are just normal defence mechanisms people put in place when to survive hard situations. The difference between this and PTSD are the reliving and the guilt.

Agreed in part with Goche. It's no longer, because of increased knowledge, something that people usually consider their fault, and getting past PTSD has little to do with letting go of guilt. As I said above, it's caused by a memory not being moved into long-term memory, that's why it comes back. Talk therapy is very effective not because it helps individuals let go of the guilt, but because it gives a controlled environment where the patient can slowly relive the experience, in a manner which, because of the pace and control, helps them fully process the event and move it into long term memory.
Ana, username88, those could all simply be aspects of social anxiety (and a learned response to flinch when exposed to certain sounds can simply be a learned response, for that matter). You need to take the DSM as a whole. Given what causes PTSD, I think the key part is this, and not the other symptoms you guys have been listing:

That's the key. If you don't have nightmares, flashbacks, trigger events which bring the original event or events flooding back in a way that causes you to fully experience them - visuals, smells, possibly touch - then you don't have PTSD. None of that is to say that your experiences weren't terrible. It doesn't mean that you're not messed up, it doesn't mean it isn't hard to let go. But it's not necessarily PTSD.
Take a look at the full DSM, not just a part.

Funny. Cortisol levels are usually elevated in PTSD. They're generally low in Asperger Disorder, other ASD. A double-diagnosis is surprising. Low cortisol levels is one of the main reasons I've always reacted to attempts at 'discipline' with moral outrage. Scolding is useful for students of very low intelligence because this lack of intellect is generally due to elevated brain levels of cortisol. This makes them highly responsive to operant conditioning. I had the opposite issue, though, so all it did was piss me off and instill in me feelings of hate and loathing for all figures of authority, no matter who they are. I even know it's irrational, but, although I respect the idea of rules and the necessity of enforcing them, I just go on all-out attack whenever I'm in a situation that arouses these old emotions. It's all because of this cortisol deficit, really. I even suspect it as the main reason for a lot of my symptoms.

learn martial arts.