Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-- who here has it?

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I'm curious as to how many Aspies have symptoms of PTSD. Not too long ago I had the following symptoms:

1) I felt like I would die soon.
2) I felt like people close to me would die soon.
3) I was easily startled.
4) I felt like taking dangerous risks...
5)...then, in contrast, I got paranoid and wanted (and still want) to dig a bunker.
6) I had a lot of lack of motivation.
7) Some things reminded me of things I'd rather not remember. Everything I saw looked like those things for a while.
I would be thinking about something else and then suddenly this memory of something, an embarrassing moment or something, would come and I would try to put it away, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn't come back and I tried too hard to forget; as a result I remembered it and kept thinking about it.
9) I felt like many if not all people I came across were out to get me.


I went to a real PTSD website and promptly had another embarrassing moment: eveyrone considered what I said an insult to people who really had PTSD, or even PTSS (Syndrome rather than disorder) or PTS (just Post Traumatic Stress, without the disorder.) I feel so stupid lol but some of them admitted I might have PTS. Some were fascinated that AS could lead to PTSD and then I felt so stupid later when I was told off for saying some things.

5 of those apply to me, although this is probably partly due to two things: one, I've graduated from Uni and have yet to find work, and two, I have come off my antidepressants not so long ago....

Question: These things you were trying to forget, were they traumatic, or just embarassing? Because remembering embarassing moments and hyperfocusing on them is not the same thing as remembering something like violence, or sexual assault, or a horrific car accident, or even planes crashing into the World Trade Center. If you are a student and your school participates in a project called ULifeline, there is a self-test you can take that can give you a general idea if you have PTSD. Other than that, I dunno, but I have probable PTSD as the result of long-term trauma (and I'm not saying more than that), and it is A LOT WORSE than just "kind of" fitting the symptoms. I have an appointment with a counselor, so we'll see if life gets better.

Everyone feels that way sometimes, I think, but what you are describing sounds more like some kind of social paranoia than PTSD, or PTSS, or whatever. Focusing on an event is not the same as reliving it, and PTSD is lot more involved, usually with somatic responses to a trigger in the environment. And the triggers can happen at the most random times. But anyway, if you think you are suffering from symptoms, and if they are debilitating, go talk to someone.

Have you had a trauma?

I sometimes wonder is Aspies would be less affected by trauma and therefore less likely to get PTSD

I understand your symptoms are like PTSD, but without the trauma, obviously its not PTSD. I feel #5-8.

I thought a symptom of PTSD was a temporary loss of cognitive function.

I was diagnosed with PTSD a few years ago after a traumatic event. I usually have a photographic recall of phone numbers but it took me 18 months to get that back after the traumatic incident. It really bothered me that I "lost" my phone number ability for that time.


I am back to normal now.

Well, the embarrassing moments were sort of leading up to violence, and I also sometimes got that about things like the World Trade Center, but if I have anything it's probably PTS, also known as PTSS-- which is not PTSD. I also wondered if we were less susceptible to get PTSD. I personally love "normal" disasters. I mean, I'm terrified during them and will protect myself, but it's a good kind of stress, and I really enjoy talking about them after.

This intrigues me, because though I find it hard to share the way I feel inside, though I'm devoid of feeling when I talk to a lot of people, when I am traumatised it affects me to the core, I lose all control of thoughts, I can't hardly breath, I can't think straight, I guess what I'm curious about is how you guys think it could affect us less?

Do you guys think you feel less than most? Because in my experience people find it hard to understand how I feel music, events, social situations, etc so much.

For me its always an overload of feeling, or little bursts of it, if I felt none at all I would say I have narcissistic tendencies. I always get the impression that a lot of us here seem to think they feel nothing at all, is that the case?

Isn't all passion, desire, anger, love, etc feeling? In my experience I have trouble with the subtle feelings, but the extremes of feeling I know VERY well.

I wouldn't know what you call it, but after a very stressful time, I can't seem to think straight for 3-4 days, as if my brain is recharging, after an overload I have to rework my logical control, because in the day or two after all I can do is feel, not think... If you get me.

I would think Aspies would be more prone to PTSD, even considering what most people would see as non-trumatic events. One of the reasons I think this, is because Aspies have more of a flight or fight reaction. So if they feel threatened, it feels like much more of an intense threat than it would to an NT. I also think, that even though it doesn't compare to rape, alot of Aspies do experience school truma.

A sense of feeling helpless, that nobody will help you, the teachers won't even help you. So you feel the only way to survive is to instill fear in the other students, just so they'll leave you alone. Which is why more Aspies might fall into outcast types of dress during the teen years, aside from liking the music too. Like Punk & Goth clothing. Most NTs will associate that with the student being evil or psycho, so they won't bully them lest they end up being attacked.

This of course, can backfire, and most of the time does. However, it really does affect you and your path in life experiencing what it's like to have to go someplace against your will, where you're a target and you are emotionally battered every single day. Now, I don't know if the Columbine kids were on the spectrum. I do know that they went to school everyday, were hit with soda cans during lunch while the teachers stood by and did nothing. I'm not supporting what they did, however I do know how it feels to feel so helpless and exposed that you feel your only defense is violence.

Towards the end of my time in high school, before my nervous breakdown. I thought of taking a student who bullied me near my locker that day, and locking him in there. All sorts of terrible things, like how could I see to it that he'd have to stay in there till he starved and died. Now, granted I was not on Zoloft and in the wrong mind. However, I was about it after school, saying how I was afraid that I'd end up in jail since the only resort the school gave me to defend myself against those bullies, was violence. Why the heck should it ever get to that point?

I had a nervous breakdown after a few weeks of emotionally shutting myself down daily at school, and feeling like a zombie. My dad called the school and said enough was enough and I wasn't going back. Of course then they suggested I do things like, stay in SPED only and not be mainstreamed..ect ect, it was too little too late. In fact the only way I was able to get a tutor at home was with my dad threatening the school, with telling the paper about how they broke me. I think I slept 2 days straight after all of that.

It's unbelivable, I tried to fallow the rules, I tried to do what's right. I'm punished, while the students who do everything that's wrong are praised. Most definetly this experience caused me to have PTSD. I think people put too little emphasis on the hell that neurodiverse students experience when they are in public school. When the school only cares if someone is a social monster.

Maybe if it was looked into how this causes PTSD, they might stop exposing innocent neurodiverse students to the wolves. Of course, that hasn't happened, and it doesn't look like it will. It's easier to support a organization that tells you as a teacher you won't have to deal with anymore "tards" in the future, rather than see to it that they're not bringing up more criminals and abusers into society.

When I was a kid I experienced various forms of abuse. After it was over, I think I experienced PTSD and still do. On antidepressants I felt numbed of emotion and able to carry on due to this repression. I self-medicated to stop dreaming and get rest due to night terrors, which Zoloft didn't help with. Now I am drug free and feeling more emotion; my night terrors are gone and insomnia has improved. I still hurt about my childhood even though the traumatic events ended about 10 years ago. When I am experiencing trauma, I am in "survival mode", afterwards I feel even worse trying to come to grips with what happened to me.

I have PTSD. It was determined as one of the two underlying reason for my chromic depression (the other being AS). My PTSD stems for two main things - an unstable home (we moved a lot -during one period, I attended 6 diffferent schools in 5 years) and psychological abuse by counselors in a drug rehab center when I was 14. I wasn't dx'd with PTSD until I was 29, although I had been exhibited clear signs of it sincee I was 8.

People on the autistic spectrum are more suspectible to PTSD. We're actually extremely vulnerable psychologically, more so than many of us realize, because we don't readily mature psychologically and learn coping skills in the ways NTS do. That's why autism and AS are considered pervasive developmental disorders, and with good reason - it poses serious challenges to our psychological development that in turn makes us less able to cope and function.

So in pTSD terms, this tends to make us less psycholoigcally resilient to stress and trauma. We don't bounce back as readily, and without good coping skills, the procecss recovering from stress and trauma can become stalled or turn into something counterproductive, unhealthy and chronically self-perpetuating, i.e. PTSD. We often lack good social relationships and other skills to help us cope, so we develop inappropriate means of psychological compensation, like hypervigilance, avoidance, detachment, denial, apathy, anger/rage and depression. Such counterproductive compensations are one of the main charasteristics of PTSD.

Interesting, given the above comments.
I was looking for a lower percentage opinion in the poll.

I was informed by a qualified professional in the field that I was very unlikely to suffer from PTSD. This appeared to be largely based on my long-established world-view not being vulnerable to abusive or traumatic events.

This is not necessarily a good thing, as it requires having a take on the world where bad things happen, without reason, and that isn't really a surprise or a shock. There's not much in the way of optimism to be shattered.

When I've been through a plane crash or a major assault I'll let you know if it's true.
I've been through a couple of car-crashes and a bomb near-miss without much trouble.
I've always known there were people out there liable to kill me, by design or accident.

Don't know how relavent this is, I was just reading a report I asked my ex to write about the time I lost control and pushed and hurt her... It brought me to tears instantly, I couldn't believe that was my only option at the time.

I clearly remember in my mind I had made her my existence, my only obsession, and I thought without her I couldn't exist, so I did everything I could to be what she wanted, when that still didn't make her happy (duh) my top just blew and I couldn't control myself, I remember feeling in the moment if I just scare her enough maybe she'll never come back.. All my logic broke down and I couldn't even THINK, after she left all I remember is collapsing on the floor, to me it was 5-10 minutes, but I found out we'd been fighting and arguing like 3-4 hours...

I'm still recovering, however, I've found my obsession in music, and in the pursuit of knowledge, for the first time in my whole life I'm able to do more than one thing at once, I'm lonely but I have my brothers with me working on sound too. Granted they don't understand how I can feel it so much to the point that I care more about whether people are affected by my music than by me, ( I know its ridiculous ) but to me its a much healthier way of releasing myself to the masses..

Otherwise I'm just gonna be me, if it scares them off thats ok, if it bores them they can go elsewhere, I know there are people that are intrigued by what works differently...

Sorry if I blabbed.

I'm never going to lie to myself again, I'd rather be alone then do that to people.

At least I have had it. Maybe I have a little of it now, not quite sure.