I had NO IDEA… I lived with and suffered daily form PTSD due to long-term extreme stress caused by my multiple s
erious medical challenges related to living with a rare genetic mitochondrial disease. I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and given an SSRI, and nerve-relaxing medication, I was talking with my therapist every week, but not one of my doctors, or therapist considered my issues as being caused by PTSD… or CPTSD (complex PTSD) to be more specific.
Complex PTSD can be caused by any long-term stress, things like childhood abuse/neglect, domestic abuse, living in a war-zone, or crime-ridden neighborhood, AND from chronic stressful medical problems.
My symptoms manifested as: cognitive issues; memory loss, difficulty concentrating, impulsive decision making, radically swinging moods including anxiety and depression, but also easily getting very overly excitable, as well as intense frustration/anger. I also experienced frequent tingling and numbness in my face, hands and feet often when I was at my worst, and would feel very forgetful and clumsy. My all-day, everyday was a struggle, and intense struggle and that is of course on top of the other physical health challenges of my illness.
I am immensely grateful that I decided to change my mental health care provider and was finally diagnosed correctly, and I am happy to say that now after a year and a half of regular 1-2 per week treatment of ART (active release therapy), combined with cognitive behavior therapy, daily writing practice, meditation, art therapy and a whole lot of praying to God to help me find a way through the darkest longest tunnel of my life, I am finally feeling relief.
I still have my better days and hard days, and because of the nature of medical PTSD with a condition which is not cure-able like I live with, I most likely will always struggle to some degree, but just like when I finally received the diagnosis of what my illness was after a 5 year search many years ago now, the power in the knowledge of exactly WHAT the problem is can make all the difference in the world to getting the help you need and feeling better.
I truly hope this helps someone tonight.
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