Topics

Hi Folks - I've had a bunch going on and have fallen behind here at OOTS, but will answer PMs, take care of requests, etc in the next day or two.  Just wanted to let you know I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth or anything.   

Kizzie

Follow on to Parts 1 and 2

Part 3 of the original thread "Today I feel ....."

Hi Everyone - just wanted to make a quick post and let you know I will be going on vacation and will only be checking in to handle admin issues.  Just didn't want anyone to think I had    

Bye   

This topic has been moved to Glossary Project.

http://outofthefog.net/C-PTSD/forum/index.php?topic=3904.0

There is an excellent fact sheet at Blue Knot foundation in Australia for friends and families of someone with CPTSD -  http://www.blueknot.org.au/Portals/2/Fact%20Sheets%20Info/Fact%20Sheet_Supporters%20Carers.pdf.

Please feel free to add other resources to this thread   

[The Difference between CPTSD and BPD]

(Note - this is a repeat post)

As you read through the various threads in the forums you will probably see that many of us have been misdiagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).  Or if not misdiagnosed, many of us worry that we have BPD rather than CPTSD because the two appear to be alike, despite the fact that BPD is a personality disorder and CPTSD a stress disorder.  The good news is that I came across a very current research study that provides some data about the differences. 

Unfortunately, I can't reproduce it/upload it here due to copyright, but here's the reference and a short summary if you want to take it to your GP or T (or just tuck under your pillow so you feel reassured!); no doubt they will be able to access the full version through their databases (and nothing speaks to louder to professionals than empirical evidence):

The Difference between CPTSD and BPD

There has been much debate by clinicians and researchers about whether and how Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) is distinct from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), in particular when BPD is comorbid with PTSD (Cloitre, Garvert, Weiss, Carlson, & Bryant, 2014).  Research into a dataset of 280 women with histories of childhood abuse by Cloitre and colleagues (2014) suggests that there are four main symptoms of BDP which distinguish it from CPTSD including:

•   frantic efforts to avoid abandonment
•   unstable sense of self
•   unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, and
•   impulsiveness 

Their research also suggests that different treatment is required for each (which is key for any professionals in your life to know).  For example:

The focus of treatment for BPD concerns reduction of life interfering behaviors such as suicidality and self-injurious behaviors, a reduction in dependency on others and an increase in an internalized and stable sense of self (e.g., Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Linehan, 1993). In contrast, treatment programs for CPTSD focus on reduction of social and interpersonal avoidance, development of a more positive self-concept and relatively rapid engagement in the review and meaning of traumatic memories (e.g., Cloitre et al., 2006).

Reference: Cloitre, M., Garvert, D., Weiss, B., Carlson, E. & Bryant, R. (2014). Distinguishing PTSD, Complex PTSD, and Borderline Personality Disorder: A latent class analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5.

[Updated Post Feb 2023]

Updated Post Feb 2023- As of 2018 Complex PTSD has been accepted by the World Health Organization as an official diagnosis and will be included in its International Classification of Diseases Edition 11.  It still has not been accepted by the American Psychiatric Association for its diagnostic manual (the DSM).

Huzzah and hurrah!!!!        

[The Difference between CPTSD and BPD]

As you read through the various threads in the forums you will probably see that many of us have been misdiagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).  Or if not misdiagnosed, many of us worry that we have BPD rather than CPTSD because the two appear to be alike, despite the fact that BPD is a personality disorder and CPTSD a stress disorder.  The good news is that I came across a very current research study that provides some data about the differences. 

Unfortunately, I can't reproduce it/upload it here due to copyright, but here's the reference and a short summary if you want to take it to your GP or T (or just tuck under your pillow so you feel reassured!); no doubt they will be able to access the full version through their databases (and nothing speaks to louder to professionals than empirical evidence):

The Difference between CPTSD and BPD

There has been much debate by clinicians and researchers about whether and how Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) is distinct from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), in particular when BPD is comorbid with PTSD (Cloitre, Garvert, Weiss, Carlson, & Bryant, 2014).  Research involving 280 women with histories of childhood abuse by Cloitre and colleagues (2014, p. 2) suggests differences in the symptoms of BDP and CPTSD as shown below:

Symptoms of CPTSD

• Re-experiencing the past – flashbacks, nightmares
• Avoidance – of thoughts, feelings, people, places, activities
• Sense of threat - Hypervigilance (being especially alert constantly on guard) and strong startle response
• Emotion regulation – Anger and hurt feelings
• Negative self-concept - Feeling of worthlessness and guilt
• Interpersonal problems - Never feeling close to another person, feeling disconnected or distant or cut off from other people

Symptoms of BPD

•   Frantic efforts to avoid abandonment
•   Relationships - Unstable and intense relationships with alternating
•   extremes of idealization and devaluation
•   Unstable sense of self - Markedly and persistently unstable sense of self
•   Impulsiveness - that is potentially self-damaging
•   Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
•   Mood changes - Affective instability due to reactivity to mood
•   Emptiness - Chronic feelings of emptiness
•   Temper - Frequent displays of anger, constant anger, recurrent physical fights
•   Paranoid/dissociation - Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

As Cloitre and her colleagues (2014) write there are clear differences between CPTSD and BPD:

In Complex PTSD, as proposed in ICD-11, the fear of abandonment is not a requirement of the disorder, self-identify is consistently negative rather than shifting and relational disturbances highlight chronic avoidance of relationships rather than sustained chaotic engagement. While emotion regulation difficulties are central to both Complex PTSD and BPD, their expression is quite different. In Complex PTSD they predominantly include emotional sensitivity, reactive anger and poor coping responses (e.g., use of alcohol and substances). In BPD, some of the preceding may be observed, but the criteria, perhaps the defining characteristics of the disorder, include suicide attempts and gestures as well as self-injurious behaviors, events which occur much less frequently in complex forms of PTSD than in BPD samples (p. 3).

As a result of these differences, they contend that different treatment is required for each (which is key for any professionals in your life to know):

The focus of treatment for BPD concerns reduction of life interfering behaviors such as suicidality and self-injurious behaviors, a reduction in dependency on others and an increase in an internalized and stable sense of self (e.g., Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Linehan, 1993). In contrast, treatment programs for CPTSD focus on reduction of social and interpersonal avoidance, development of a more positive self-concept and relatively rapid engagement in the review and meaning of traumatic memories (e.g., Cloitre et al., 2006).

Reference: Cloitre, M., Garvert, D., Weiss, B., Carlson, E. & Bryant, R. (2014). Distinguishing PTSD, Complex PTSD, and Borderline Personality Disorder: A latent class analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5.

This topic has been moved to Technical Information and Questions.

http://outofthefog.net/C-PTSD/forum/index.php?topic=3701.0

Hi Folks:

Just a reminder that if you come across a post that contravenes the Member Guidelines, please use the "Report to Moderator" button on the lower right hand side of the post.  Your report will remain confidential and helps the Moderating Team to keep OOTS a safe and respectful community. 

Thanks everyone!

This topic has been moved to Parenting (Children, Teens & Adult Children).

http://outofthefog.net/C-PTSD/forum/index.php?topic=3645.0

[Self-Soothing Techniques]

Self-Soothing Techniques (from http://www.dbtselfhelp.com/html/self-sooth.html)

Some of us may recognize these techniques as things that we already use. But many of us have never learned how to self-soothe, how to do those often simple things that makes us feel better. These are mostly very physical techniques, that use different body senses. Some of us have never had the feeling that we could do things to make ourselves feel better, calmer, feel relaxation or pleasure. I urge you to experiment with these techniques until you find some that are comfortable and helpful for you. And when you find these, practice them. Use them when you are feeling distressed, when emotions feel overwhelming, when situations feel like you can't stand them any more. Instead of doing something that hurts you, try something that gives you pleasure and comfort,

SELF-SOOTHING has to do with comforting, nurturing and being kind to yourself. One way to think of this is to think of ways of soothing each of your five senses: Vision; Hearing; Smell; Taste; Touch

Vision: Walk in a pretty part of town. Look at the nature around you. Go to a museum with beautiful art. Buy a flower and put it where you can see it. Sit in a garden. Watch the snowflakes decorate the trees during a snowfall. Light a candle and watch the flame. Look at a book with beautiful scenery or beautiful art. Watch a travel movie or video.

Hearing: Listen to beautiful or soothing music, or to tapes of the ocean or other sounds of nature.  Listen to a baby gurgling or a small animal. Sit by a waterfall. Listen to someone chopping wood.  When you are listening, be mindful, letting the sounds come and go.

Smell: Smell breakfast being cooked at home or in a restaurant. Notice all the different smells around you. Walk in a garden or in the woods, maybe just after a rain, and breathe in the smells of nature. Light a scented candle or incense. Bake some bread or a cake, and take in all the smells.

Taste: Have a special treat, and eat it slowly, savoring each bite. Cook a favorite meal. Drink a soothing drink like herbal tea or hot chocolate. Let the taste run over your tongue and slowly down your throat. Go to a potluck, and eat a little bit of each dish, mindfully tasting each new thing.

Touch: Take a bubble bath. Pet your dog or cat or cuddle a baby. Put on a silk shirt shirt or blouse, and feel its softness and smoothness. Sink into a really comfortable bed.  Float or swim in a pool, and feel the water caress your body.

Exercises

Try at least one of these self-soothing exercises this week. You may want to choose a whole group of things, say all the visual things, or you may want to choose a single thing to try. As you do what you have chosen, do it mindfully.  Breathe gently, and try to be fully in the experience, whether it is walking in the woods or watching a flower or taking a bubble bath or smelling some fresh-baked bread.

As you begin to overcome your feelings that perhaps you do not deserve this, or guilt, and start to enjoy one or more of these activities, you will be learning very useful tools to help you deal with negative feelings and difficult situations.

You may feel guilty about allowing yourself these pleasures. It may take some practice to allow yourself to experience them. These are really simple human pleasures that everyone has a right to, and that will give us some good tools to use when we are feeling bad.

Discussion

Many of us may feel like we don't deserve these comforts, and may find it hard to give pleasure to ourselves in this way. Do you have these feelings?

Some of may also expect this soothing to come from other people, or not want to do it for ourselves. Have you experienced this feeling?

...a wonderful and very loving husband and son.

Note:   This thread was originally in the Discussion Topic of the month (Feb 2016). 

This topic has been moved to General Discussion.

http://outofthefog.net/C-PTSD/forum/index.php?topic=3446.0

This absolutely blew me away - http://www.contemporarypsychotherapy.org/volume-7-no-1-summer-2015/interview-martin-miller/. 

I found myself saying "This could not be, it's Alice Miller for heaven's sake!"  I realized then how invalidated her son must have felt throughout his life if I as someone who experienced a similar situation had trouble with the notion his well known mother was abusive.  I hope his book comes out in English at some point.

Actually, I should probably title this feeling abandoned  and lonely.  Pete Walker talks about abandonment depression in his book "CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving" and I came face-to-face with mine again at Christmas as I posted elsewhere. My son was coming for two weeks - he goes to university across the country so we don't get to see him all that often anymore.  Before he arrived I had an EF and realized after some reflection that I was afraid to enjoy my time with him fully lest he abandon/reject me; old abandonment feelings from childhood had bubbled up. 

Once I figured that out. I could then reassure myself, calm younger me directly then  let myself connect with him and have a wonderful time with him and my H.  I realized really clearly through this experience how much I have held back over the years, keeping somewhat distance from the joy of my FOC in case I were to lose them.  I know my H and S love me dearly,  but the fear of being  abandoned runs so very deep.  It's one reason I haven't wanted to connect too deeply with friends before either.  But I have worked through much of it and will keep on doing so now that I know what's going on. 
 
Here's an exercise i found in Walker's (2013) book that relates to abandonment.

Visualize yourself as time-traveling back to a place in the past when you felt especially abandoned. See your adult self taking your abandoned child onto your lap and comforting her .... "I feel such sorrow that you were so abandoned and that you felt so alone so much of the time. I love you even more when you are stuck in this abandonment pain - especially because you had to ensure it for so long with no-one to comfort you. That shouldn't have happened to you.  It shouldn't happen to any child. Let me comfort you and hold you. You don't have to rush to get over it.  It is not your fault. You didn't cause it and you're not to blame. You don't have to do anything. Just let me hold you.  Take your time.  I love you always and care about you no matter what."

I highly recommend practicing this even if it feels inauthentic, and even if it requires a great deal of fending off your inner critic.  Keep practicing and eventually, you will have a genuine experience of feeling self-compassion for he traumatized child you were. When that occurs, you will know that your recovery work has reached a deep level (pp. 240-241)

My H and I just watched this last night and one line that popped right out for me was when one of the victims told the Spotlight reporters that not only had he been sexually abused, his faith had been taken from him - a double loss.   

Good movie if you haven't seen it yet.  Made my blood boil and my heart sing at the same time.

I did post about this earlier in the fall and got some positive feedback, but  then work got busy and I didn't get back to it.  Anyway, I'd like to revisit the idea of looking for guests to answer questions about CPTSD.  For example, I did ask Pete Walker (author of "CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving") if he would and unfortunately he is busy writing a new book just now, but did say he would once he was finished. 

If you have any thoughts on this positive or negative, please weigh in here (or PM me).  If it is something you are interested in, who might you be like to have as a guest(s)?