Question:
Hi Bill! —- long snip of stuff I don’t need to know —– > Does > this sound like ptsd to you?
At the risk of sounding mean, I believe that only professionals can diagnose PTSD properly. And, even some professionals have troubles with the diagnosis, confusing PTSD symptoms with symptoms of other mental health problems. Please consult a professional. Smile and there will be something to smile about! Nancy
Response:
>At the risk of sounding mean, I believe that only professionals can diagnose >PTSD properly.
I agree, Nancy. I don’t understand why folks come on here and ask us if they have PTSD since only a specialist (or two, or three) can diagnose this. Best, Luanne
Response:
SR <to…@m.is.invalid> wrote in message
news:8F587CDD0tr0aDv3txf59mS2Rpf4t@207.126.101.100… > luan…@aol.comelately (LuanneP) > <20000619090243.15851.00009…@ng-md1.aol.com> on Mon 19 Jun 2000 > 09:02:43a, wrote in alt.support.trauma-ptsd: > >>At the risk of sounding mean, I believe that only professionals can > >>diagnose PTSD properly. > >I agree, Nancy. I don’t understand why folks come on here and ask us if > >they have PTSD since only a specialist (or two, or three) can diagnose > >this. > Some people could self-diagnose pretty easilly using Matsakis’ book: "I > Can’t Get Over It: A Handbook for Trauma Survivors"
**Whoa there, I think anyone who self diagnoses is treading very dangerous ground. Not a good idea to encourage this avenue. Ptsd can be controversial as it is without folks diagnosing themselves. If someone realises that some of the symptoms they are suffering seem to be pointing to the direction of ptsd then they should take themselves to a *psychiatrist* not a psychologist or a counsellor or therapist. We cannot tell people if they have ptsd or not. Helski
Response:
>If someone realises that some of the symptoms they are suffering seem to be >pointing to the direction of ptsd then they should take themselves to a >*psychiatrist* not a psychologist or a counsellor or therapist.
A psychologist can also diagnose PTSD, not just a psychiatrist. My psychologist diagnosed me. My psychiatrist just does my medication management. "I started to accept the mess I’m in. I know that mess spelled backwards is ssem, and I felt much better armed with that information. " – Tori Amos
Response:
Hi! > A psychologist can also diagnose PTSD, not just a psychiatrist. My psychologist > diagnosed me. My psychiatrist just does my medication management.
Well, I’ve had both diagnose me, and until the third professional came to the same conclusion as the first two (with no help from me 
, I didn’t believe any of them. Of course, it took another round of testing for me to confirm the first 3 diagnoses. Then … all the professionals told me that I was a classic case of PTSD. After about 5 years of treatment I finally accepted the diagnoses enough to stop fighting the treatment and meds. It took me a looooooong time to get sick and tired of being sick and tired. IMO, PTSD is becoming a pretty ‘trendy’ diagnosis. Maybe it’s my hypervigilance, but … ‘Everyone’ seems to want to have the diagnosis; few want to have the symptoms Smile and there will be something to smile about! Nancy
Response:
Nancy <ki…@cris.com> wrote in message
news:8ioomv$9vf@chronicle.concentric.net… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Hi! > > A psychologist can also diagnose PTSD, not just a psychiatrist. My > psychologist > > diagnosed me. My psychiatrist just does my medication management. > Well, I’ve had both diagnose me, and until the third professional came to > the same conclusion as the first two (with no help from me , I didn’t > believe any of them. Of course, it took another round of testing for me to > confirm the first 3 diagnoses. > Then … all the professionals told me that I was a classic case of PTSD. > After about 5 years of treatment I finally accepted the diagnoses enough to > stop fighting the treatment and meds. It took me a looooooong time to get > sick and tired of being sick and tired. > IMO, PTSD is becoming a pretty ‘trendy’ diagnosis. Maybe it’s my > hypervigilance, but … ‘Everyone’ seems to want to have the diagnosis; few > want to have the symptoms > Smile and there will be something to smile about! > Nancy > ** This is exactly what I was referring to when" I said ptsd is
controversial as it is." I think the onslaught of diagnosis is coming from many psychologists who really do not have the experience nor expertese to diagnose ptsd.It seems to be the trendy ‘ modern’ diagnosis in The States. For me I was finally diagnosed in ‘89 and same as you I have only embraced the symptoms,the concepts,the awareness,the stigma,limitations etc etc in the past few years.My family only began to know the different me when I accepted the different me.We all carried on as if I was the same person but with ‘problems’.Whew it has been one hell of a trip. Thanx helski
Response:
>IMO, PTSD is becoming a pretty ‘trendy’ diagnosis. Maybe it’s my >hypervigilance, but … ‘Everyone’ seems to want to have the diagnosis; few >want to have the symptoms
Boy Nancy, every once in awhile, you say something that hits the spot exactly right!! I too, feel that many folks would ‘like’ to believe that they have PTSD; that is why they come to this newsgroup and ask if WE think that they do? <g> Nobody, but nobody, truly WANTS full-blown PTSD – the combination of symptoms is too much to take for some and it takes a LOT work (as we all know) to crawl back to recovery. I’ve had so many ups and downs – even right on this newsgroup, that it isn’t even funny. Many, including you, Nanc, have inspired me to seek MORE help, which I have. Even Lea and Risa have pointed out some of the things that I have said and done in the past and made me see what kind of a mess I was really in. It’s been awhile since I have raged badly, and I seem to be pretty much ‘in control’ these days. I can see all the positive things that everyone has been pointing out. I still have a hard time believing how well-functioning that some can be, but I am learning more as every day goes by and who knows? Maybe I will get to be a little more ‘high functioning?’ Best, Luanne
Response:
Hi Luanne! >Many, including you, Nanc, have inspired > me to seek MORE help, which I have. Even Lea and Risa have pointed out some of > the things that I have said and done in the past and made me see what kind of a > mess I was really in.
We do see our own reflection in others’ PTSD symptoms. :/ > It’s been awhile since I have raged badly, and I seem to be pretty much ‘in > control’ these days. I can see all the positive things that everyone has been > pointing out. I still have a hard time believing how well-functioning that some > can be, but I am learning more as every day goes by and who knows?
Yes, Luanne, you have really worked hard, it seems. Anyone can promise you a better life if you get help; but each one of us must do the work. You did the work! No one else. And, you are seeing the results are worth the work! This doesn’t mean that you don’t have more work to do … as I still do. My congratulations to your courage in continuing to continue onward! >Maybe I > will get to be a little more ‘high functioning?’
I thought I’d cured you of using that phrase! Oh well, back to the drawing board How about ‘I can see some of the colors in my life again’? Smile and there will be something to smile about! Nancy
Response:
Hello, It has been suggested that I may have ptsd. In my former home, I was harrassed by an individual (I never was absolutely certain who it was although I suspected a neighbor who didn’t work and would give me bad looks whenever he passed by my house) I began waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, it became a regular thing (I lived alone at the time). Then one night when I was unable to get to sleep and I thought I heard something moving through the laurel hedge between my neighbor’s (different neighbor) yard and my house – just a few feet from my bedroom window. Then I heard a rap on the outside wall and a second or two later another rap. From that point forward I began waking up at the first rap, hair standing on end. I called the police a number of times but no results. The location of my bedroom was at the opposite end of the house from the outside doors, when I tried to sneak out he was always gone. One night I got out of bed and went in the bathroom and started the shower, waited a few minutes and left for the back door with the shower still running. I came out the back and someone/something bolted – I heard something crash through the hedge I ran up to the hedge but was unwilling to run through my neighbors yard, I heard another crash so I ran around and down the alley behind my house. Didn’t catch him. My elderly neighbors had poor hearing and lived in a concrete block house but they found a potting bench overturned in their back yard. From that day forward, the person who was doing it turned the heat up. I tried all sorts of security lights, a camera, etc. But the stuff continued. I found tracks a few times where I had tilled the soil and once as I was calling the police I looked out the window and saw a clear silhouette of the man leaning up towards the window and he jumped back as he must have heard my voice. So this all was scaring the hell out of me and the more I tried to catch him the worse it got. I would try backing off just for my own sanity – kind of distance myself from the whole thing and that helped some. At least I wasn’t thinking of it constantly – it didn’t stop I just wasn’t as hooked into it. I changed jobs and began working 12 hour night shifts 7-7 and I wound up sleeping on the floor in the hall because there would be objects hitting the wall outside my bedroom – I put aluminum foil on the windows to keep it dark so again I would need to go outside to have any clue as to where it was coming from and nobody is there. I almost went insane during the 18 months I worked nights. So the way I survived was just cover my head up and take herbal remedies, I got some sleep. The guy would take a day off now and then. My girlfriend moved in and we slept in a small bedroom over the garage. She never got hooked into this so if she was awakened she would go right back to sleep. She heard some of the obvious stuff. Banging a few times against the house, etc. The fellow I suspected moved but I kept experiencing the attacks, I’m not sure here at the keyboard that they weren’t just house noises. But when things happen at night I am certain. I lie awake with my hair bristling and my skin crawling. We moved to a town about 25 miles from my old residence but it still goes on. Only a few of the thing that have happened since I moved, am I sure (as I write) were caused by a human and I suppose they could have been caused by a local kid or something and I am just connecting a bunch of nonexisting dots to build this big scenario of the house being bugged or someone using a scanner so to avoid the cops when I call them. I still don’t do much of that because that just insures that I will have a sleepless night. This whole thing has been going on for more that five years. Its just slowly grinding me down. I left a pretty good job because I didn’t have enough energy left to do it, now I’m working part time, looking at a possible bankruptcy. Still terrorized at night. I got some trazedone from my dr. and that helps. When I take it I still think that the things are going on but I don’t give a shit. The problem is that trazedone and I don’t agree. I get some weird side effects and I would rather live my life awake (not sleepless) or aware rather than in a fog. I’m a recovering alcoholic with almost 18 years of abstinence and I spent 28 years in the military (Navy/Coast Guard) I do have a somewhat nervous disposition especially after 18 years aboard various ships. Worked in mills, etc, since. No combat. A pretty screwed up family of origin. Mom died of cirhossis, etc. 57 years old. This thing has been like carrying a big handicap around, I started suspecting a nearby neighbor and actually investigated him a little but he has lived in his home for at least nine years so I’m pretty certain it isn’t him. I’ve called a therapist and made an appointment. I would like to hear some feedback from anyone who has some insight. I feel like packing my bags and leaving but what then? Does this sound like ptsd to you? Thanks, Bill — To get random signatures put text files into a folder called
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