[eponai]

romwell, I'd just like to say your comments here on this topic are stellar, relatable, and 100% true for me.

>* Paradoxical reaction to stimulants (in particular, amphetamines, anesthesia, caffeine). In practical terms: coffee can make me sleepy if it's very strong, so does Adderall.

:nods: My psychiatrist was waffling between cPTSD and ADHD as a cause of my concentration issues until I told her that one time I tried cocaine and promptly took a nap.

>* Feeling calm in emergencies: that's the situations where ADHD people thrive in. Particularly, jobs like EMT seem to be a great fit.

Oh hey, I've worked in tech support for the past 20 years where high profile clients are freaking out when their servers go down, everything is an emergency, and every day is different. :)

There's one thing that's been left out of this discussion thus far, relating to this comment:

>> I can roll down the entire list you posted and pick out one thing after another that might be related to CPTSD ... it can get really hard to differentiate, even with experienced professionals diagnosing people.

ADHD is caused by a dysfunctioning pre-frontal cortex. [1] cPTSD is caused by ongoing chronic trauma. I had a QEEG done and it was clearly apparent my pre-frontal cortex was low-activity.

I also agree with the theory that cPTSD and ADHD/ASD can go hand in hand, because the ADHD or ASD can cause mal-treatment. I was severely abused as a child precisely because of my (un-diagnosed at the time, because girl) ASD and ADHD.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2894421/

[taurath]

One point I’d make is CPTSD is not necessarily ongoing trauma, but unresolved trauma esp in childhood since that’s an inescapable position. It’s a little bit of a chicken or egg problem as trauma can also cause symptomologies similar to ADHD, just as ADHD can exacerbate traumas.

For me I’ve just found it’s helped when finding treatment methodologies for pure ADHD to be able to do a differential diagnosis - ADHD is at least much more commonly diagnosed or thought of as a possibility while CPTSD is a relatively unknown.

[eponai]

What I meant by ongoing is that it is not one specific event like being hit by a car that you can point to...but something that happens over a long period of time. It's why I never pursued EMDR as a therapy. I cannot put one traumatic thing in my mind's eye, rather my entire childhood was trauma.

[taurath]

One of the traits of CPTSD is specifically memory loss/suppression around the traumatic memories. EMDR for me is specifically helpful for surfacing those memories - its not exclusively used for single traumatic events! Also, IFS therapy is another methodology that has helped me make sense of sometimes contradictory emotional needs due to unmet needs in childhood.

[romwell]

Thanks for this comment!

And sorry it took so long to get a diagnosis!