Aspergers or Complex PTSD?

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I want some clarification between the two conditions.

I'm 22 and was diagnosed with Aspergers at the age of 15. My childhood was ridiculed with bullying both at school and home by my parents. I didn't start speaking until the age of 3 and when I did start speaking it was not my native language but instead another.

As a child, I always had a general sensory sensitivity against clothes. I never liked wearing clothes because of how it felt against my skin (especially cloth tags). As I got older, my sound sensitivity became more evident and I nowadays have to wear earplugs in order to deal with daily nuisance. I used to have issues falling asleep but it is now more prominent.

I have always had very specific interests, namely video games and toys. I have always had limited empathethic abilities as a child, often not recognizing how others feel and experience the world. As I got older, I do empathize with others but I frankly do not care for the most part about what others feel and experience. I usually accidentally hurt others feelings or say inappropriate things without being able to recognize my faults until later (hours, days, weeks).

Reason why I suspect C-PTSD is because a lot of the symptoms are very similiar to Autism. I have experienced repeated traumatic events, I experience derealization, I have an inhibited/explosive anger, I have moderate depression etc. My emotions are very faint and I have a hard time describing them in general, this could however be due to an SSRI I have been using for a month or so. I avoid other people (autists usually seek other people but fail due to a lack of social abilities) and lack general social skills. I have a hard time trusting others. I have somatic symptoms.

I don't experience flashbacks but my behaviour is probably interlinked with previous experience, that is, most of my problems likely stem from all the physical and mental abuse I had to endure.

How do I know if I have either Aspergers or C-PTSD? I'm doubting my Aspergers diagnosis, especially since I had to ask them to give me an evaluation rather than them doing so when I was a child without my biased knowledge of the condition.

Over the years I have often heard people here struggle with their diagnosis and deeply question as to whether their problems are: neurological, psychological, or both.

I have been formally diagnosed with HFA and C-PTSD. It has taken me years to intigrate the two and understand that just because one exists the other is not nesessary canceled out. We live in a world that encourages such dichotomous, 'either or' thinking. Many in the spectrum have particular difficulty with this. Just a quick glance here on WP and you will see endless examples of this black and white thinking.

Temple Grandin herself once said that the nervous system of someone in the autism spectrum mimics perfectly someone who has been traumatised. So it's not an easy call to know what is influencing what.

As a result, I have been collecting a list of characteristics which I feel for the most part (I do emphasise, for the most part)
are within the autism not psychological remit. I hope this helps you.

I wish you well.

Chris

___________________

⚫Genetic link
There is autism in both my mother and father's side.

⚫When being in a group of other aspies there is often a sense of deep belonging and kinship (that is, if the group is on the same level of functioning)

⚫Monotone, deep, or voice different in some way. Inflexion. People in the spectrum often naturally develop their own way of using language. They often have very different accents and from those they have grown up with.

⚫Irony and sarcasm a problem.

⚫Difficulty in communicating non verbally one's thoughts and feelings. Including facial expressions combined with eye contact.

⚫Naturally intense and serious
(little professor, or in my case, little philosopher)

⚫Information processing difficulties. Executive functioning difficulties. Ie planning and organising. Many high functioning people in the spectrum overcompensate and become preoccupied with order and systems to manage and control.

⚫Natural systemizers. The ability to form intricate systems in order to compensate and manage information overload.

⚫Intensity with regards to special interest.

⚫Inflexibility and routines, very ingrained.

⚫Peers difficulty. Most aspies form friends with older people.
(though those who have been abused might have difficulty too)

⚫Males often being more feminine. Females more masculine.
(I appreciate many don't fit this model, but this has been my experience)

⚫A sense of innocence. Giftedness. A sense of being
'unusual'. Idiosyncratic ways.

⚫Natural ability to see patterns and finite details.

⚫Not following fashion. Comfortable is best.

⚫Often unsubtlely naive.

⚫Common comorbid conditions:
OCD, TICS, Tourette syndrome, Dyslexia (neurodiverse spectrum, though obviously not exclusively ASD)

⚫Difficulties playing / flirting

Do you know much about your relatives? There is a hereditary component to Aspergers. I see it all over my mother's side of the family.

My father has quite some autistic traits. He genrelly is pretty distanced and cold, doesn't like dealing with people and is unable to take care of himself properly.

I agree that autists tend to think in black and white in a more blatant way I suppose.