Diagnosis questions

[Boatsetsailrose]

Hi
Here in the uk complex PTSD isn't diagnosed and so I'm wondering what tact to take with psych services. Someone in recovery told me she was diagnosed with PTSD from child trauma -
Does anyone else have experience of this ...
I seem fixated on getting a diagnosis - I just want to be taken seriously and get the right treatment - plus so I can take it to my work and say 'look this is what I have
I dunno if I think about it too much I get worked up .....

[tesscaline]

CPTSD isn't an official diagnosis in the US either (or anywhere, really, though it's being pushed to be added to the DSM).  Commonly, it's diagnosed simply as PTSD, regardless of the source.  That's what my "official" diagnosis is -- PTSD.  It's just that mine is the result of long term childhood trauma. 

[Tam]

How can I get diagnosed? I know I have these issues and would like some official help with recovery from them. I have been in counselling for five years  and during that time my amazing therapist did EMDR therapy with me. It was extremely helpful. And when I looked up with EMDR is usually used for, PTSD came up. So I did some research on what that meant and started seeing major connections and finally came down to CPTSD which is exactly what I have.

However, I have never had any official diagnosis. I received therapy from a nonprofit organizations focused on helping women and children recover from domestic violence. I went there because I was dealing with an extremely violent ex husband who was simultaneously threatening my life and taking me to court over custody of our child.

I have tried talking to a local doctor about my concerns, however it's just the lowest bottom price range doctor who typically deals in Medicaid patients and the mental health experts there didn't assess me for PTSD even though I tried hard to express to them my concerns. They just gave me some information on general anxiety and depression.

I don't have any health insurance and I've never been able to keep a job for long. I'm now 30 with a family and my husband is the breadwinner, however he doesn't make a whole lot.

How do I get this taken care of?!!?

Please help, I feel so lost.

[Kizzie]

From what I've been able to dig around and find in the clinical literature, the diagnosis of CPTSD, at least an "official" one is a work in progress, this despite the fact that many clinicians/ researchers do use it  regularly. See  here .

The better news is that based on the articles at the bottom of this post, it looks like it will be included as an official diagnosis in the World Health Organization's 2017 edition of its diagnostic manual.  All of this is to say, the diagnosis of CPTSD is coming, but in the meantime you may have to "make due" with a diagnosis PTSD:

Shared Symptoms of PTSD and CPTSD

•   Re-experiencing the past – flashbacks, nightmares
•   Avoidance – of thoughts, feelings, people, places, activities
•   Sense of threat - Hypervigilance (being constantly on guard), startle response

Symptoms of CPTSD Only

•   Emotion regulation – Anger and hurt feelings
•   Negative self-concept - Feeling of worthlessness and guilt
•   Interpersonal problems - Feeling disconnected, distant or cut off from other people

It seems like the best thing would be to keep pushing for a proper assessment of PTSD,  perhaps leaving CPTSD out of it for now. It's crappy to have to do that, but that's probably your best route into treatment.  Once you're in, you can talk to the T about the symptoms of CPTSD that are separate from PTSD and hopefully go from there.

Hope you can get assessed properly!   

Clinical Articles

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.

Elklit, A., Hyland, P., & Shevlin, M. (2014). Evidence of symptom profiles consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder and complex posttraumatic stress disorder in different trauma samples. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 51-10. doi:10.3402/ejpt.v5.24221

Hyland, P., Shevlin, M., Elklit, A., Murphy, J., Vallières, F., Garvert, D. W., & Cloitre, M. (2016). An Assessment of the Construct Validity of the ICD-11 Proposal for Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy, doi:10.1037/tra0000114

Knefel, M., Garvert, D. W., Cloitre, M., & Lueger-Schuster, B. (2015). Update to an evaluation of ICD-11 PTSD and complex PTSD criteria in a sample of adult survivors of childhood institutional abuse by Knefel & Lueger-Schuster (2013): a latent profile analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 61-6. doi:10.3402/ejpt.v6.25290

[Tam]

Hope you can get assessed properly!   

Thanks! My problem is getting someone to recognize my PTSD at all. I have told one person about it in a mental health appointment and they seemed to think I was just suffering from regular anxiety and depression. It's hard to figure out exactly what to say to let them know that it's a much bigger problem.

Thanks for the support!

[Boatsetsailrose]

Hi tam
Pete walkers book 'surviving to thriving ' seems good to getting more understanding of what cptsd entails -- also Google I have found some good resources to get to put words to our experience --
I know what you mean though -- I find it hard to explain too --
Emotional regulation
Relationship with self and others
Dissociation - flashbacks
These all seem to be the main areas - I do struggle with how my experiences match these areas though sometimes - I find cptsd confusing right now --
The anxiety and depression I suffer seem to be the end product of these other issues

[Talisien]

I live in the UK. As it happens today I went to a Therapist assigned by my GP for a Mental Health Assessment. We talked at some length about PTSD although he did not call it that but talked about the symptoms of acute ongoing trauma and its results years later. My appointment lasted one and half hours instead of the assigned 40 mins and he still had not finished assessing me. I am to have a phone call Monday to finish the assessment. I will let you know what comes of it and if I am clinically assessed as having C PTSD.

[Boatsetsailrose]

Talisien
Thank you for sharing
That is very good to hear
I would be very interested to hear what else has happened
Best wishes 🌿✨