Difference between AS and C-PTSD?

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I just stumbled across the symptoms of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was surprised by how similar the symptoms are to AS.

Does anyone know what the difference is? I'm not sure how a therapist/psychologist/doctor/etc could even tell.

I'm confused because I feel that I have all the symptoms of both AS and CPTSD and see only extremely vague differences between the two symptoms.

Childhood Symptoms

1. Attachment - "problems with relationship boundaries, lack of trust, social isolation, difficulty perceiving and responding to other’s emotional states, and lack of empathy"
2. Biology - "sensory-motor developmental dysfunction, sensory-integration difficulties, somatization, and increased medical problems"
3. Affect or emotional regulation - "poor affect regulation, difficulty identifying and expressing emotions and internal states, and difficulties communicating needs, wants, and wishes"
4. Dissociation - "amnesia, depersonalization, discrete states of consciousness with discrete memories, affect, and functioning, and impaired memory for state-based events"
5. Behavioural control - "problems with impulse control, aggression, pathological self-soothing, and sleep problems"
6. Cognition - "difficulty regulating attention, problems with a variety of “executive functions” such as planning, judgement, initiation, use of materials, and self- monitoring, difficulty processing new information, difficulty focusing and completing tasks, poor object constancy, problems with “cause-effect” thinking, and language developmental problems such as a gap between receptive and expressive communication abilities."
7. Self-concept -"fragmented and disconnected autobiographical narrative, disturbed body image, low self-esteem, excessive shame, and negative internal working models of self". Source of quotes[32]


Adult symptoms

Difficulties regulating emotions, including symptoms such as persistent sadness, suicidal thoughts, explosive anger, or covert anger
Variations in consciousness, such as forgetting traumatic events, reliving traumatic events, or having episodes of dissociation (during which one feels detached from one's mental processes or body)
Changes in self-perception, such as a sense of helplessness, shame, guilt, stigma, and a sense of being completely different from other human beings
Varied changes in the perception of the perpetrator, such as attributing total power to the perpetrator or becoming preoccupied with the relationship to the perpetrator, including a preoccupation with revenge
Alterations in relations with others, including isolation, distrust, or a repeated search for a rescuer.
Loss of, or changes in, one's system of meanings, which may include a loss of sustaining faith or a sense of hopelessness and despair

CPTSD would require a form of childhood trauma, as one huge difference. While symptoms might be similar, causation and expression will be different. The criteria you mention also do not take into account issues with understanding body language and social cues. Also, one could make the argument that growing up on the spectrum may constitute a traumatic experience which would explain some of the similarities found in adults.


M.

Yes, and having both, I would never be confused by the two. It's incredibly difficult to deal with them together though.

I was gonna say that, but then you did.

Okay, thanks. That's exactly what I was thinking, that one could cause the other.

I had an extremely troubled childhood and have always (since I was very tiny) had CPTSD symptoms. A few of my problems/symptoms just weren't covered under AS and I think that must be what the difference is.

Thanks for your responses.

I know what you mean. I am also diagnosed as both AS and C-PTSD. I was always an Aspie (undiagnosed until I was an adult and parent of 4 young Aspies), but after a severely traumatic series of events in my life, C-PTSD was added to my diagnosis. They are very different, though they may seem similar to someone with only one of the diagnosis. I was simply awkward socially, oddly behaved, and had my little quirks, prior to the trauma. After the trauma, however, I wasn't like some victims of assaults, I turned into an angry monster that just wanted to get even with the person that hurt me. NO this is not typical, hence my secondary diagnosis. "Typical Aspies" (As if there were really such a thing GOTTA LOVE THE ASPIES OF THE WORLD! A.S. IS EVOLUTION AT ITS BEST BABY!) can still feel hurt, shame, fear, and the like after an assault (though they do usually show it outwardly differently, or are unable to express it appropriately), but some, like myself, go completely different routes with emotions after a traumatic event. My non-typical feelings of rage, hatred, anger, without feeling like a victim, are directly associated with my C-PTSD.

Is C-PTSD actually an official diagnosis now? Or is it expected to be added to the next DSM?
I had at least one psychiatrist diagnose me with PTSD even without an identified trauma. It's caused quite a lot of problems, especially since I don't have an AS diagnosis either, I've had an extremely lot of trouble explaining to professionals what's wrong with me. It's like "mainly social issues, and what looks like PTSD, except without a specific trauma." That's not exactly a clear-cut "problem." Well, if you take AS into account, it's pretty freaking obvious... but almost everyone I've encountered in real life seems to think that "autism" is synonymous with "mental retardation." Nobody actually KNOWS anything.

The trauma for me began immediately after I was born and basically didn't stop until very recently. It must have been very peculiar to my mother, considering the environment that we were being brought up in, to watch this peculiar little professor type child in contrast to her rather significant learning disability. I wasn't however able to ask for a simple glass of water or a blanket when I was cold, to the contrary. I also wasn't able to bond with her in any way. And this is why she targeted me for so much abuse, including preventing me from going to school where I could at least learn. It's all too bizarre and uncanny for me to deal with to this day. The only way I knew how to use language was through reciting those things I saw or heard, like an entire children's fairy tale word for word that I had heard one time at a single sitting at school one day. Or all the bones in the body and things like that. This really intimidated her evidently and I dealt with some very harsh forms of abuse at her hand and others who she allowed also to abuse me. The sensory issues are still really hard for me to cope with to this day but I'm sure coupled with the C-PTSD, it makes it even more painful. I internalized everything and if I had ever misbehaved I might have been killed, so there was none of that. I have only been able to experience anger in recent years and it's very hard for me to deal with on the smallest scale. I just don't seem to have that sort of equipment and don't know what else to think. I had a therapist ask me one time why I wasn't angry and I didn't know what to say or think.

AS has a specific way in that the social deficits manifest, as children and as adults; it can't be mistaken for something else (there's no give and take of social interaction in someone with AS). Plus, you have the all-absorbing interest that impedes upon a person's ability to do other things outside of such.

I have C-PTSD from bullying from peers and emotional abuse from teachers.

Dyspraxia can also manifest many social difficulties similar to AS.

Although not formally diagnosed, I don't see how I can not have it...unfortunately..As to whether I have both or one or the other, I am somewhat unsure. I seem get a lot of my AS symptoms from my mom...also strong Spectrumy traits exist on my dad's side of the family..which sorta explains how my parents managed to hit it off in the first place....Although my dad has very good social skills, he is sort of an atypical neurotypical with strong specializations and high intelligence...blah blah blah....and there are people on his side of the family who had some pretty severe issues...which is how I know that I probably have both and not one or the other...

I am not sure what specifically caused my C-PTSD, but I did have some experiences with molestation and also family violence...and a traumatic accident or 2 (which involved head injuries...another can-o-worms)...and then there was all the bullying...and by the time I reached a certain age, I slipped down a dark tunnel, and my issues got really bad....sleep problems, bed wetting..chronic self-comforting...it my also be why I had such very bad self-care issues...

Before I went down the tunnel, I did have issues, but I was somewhat oblivious to them...and quite a bit more well-adjusted than I eventually became.

Anywhooo...there is a lot that I want to talk about on this subject..but I sorta lost my wind...

Childhood is hard for just about everyone...and sooo many kids went through way worse than I did...The human psyche is so fragile, I frankly find it hard to see how a lot more people aren't a lot more messed up...

I was diagnosed with PTSD at the same time as AS, and now reading over the criteria for C-PTSD, I probably have that instead of PTSD and Depersonalization Disorder separately, considering C-PTSD has dissociation as a symptom.

Anyway, I would say the big difference is the obsessive nature of AS, among a few other things, such as many people with AS long to be with people where it seems that those with C-PTSD have a need to be isolated, which is only true of some aspies.

Then again, I'm just a young'n with no psychology experience.

Dunnow...I always at least tried to make friends...granted, i was really bad with boundaries and social skills...to the extent that a neighboring kid's parents called CPS on my family...

I had issues with irrational fears and insomnia and overeating and a few other things...but I had a few awkward friendships here and there...

That just has problems with verbal articulation, right (problems with forming words and sentences)? This doesn't come under the social difficulties of AS.

Thanks, I relate a lot to what everyone has said and it's helping me understand.

For a long time I considered PTSD but it just did not cover the symptoms I'm experience, so I rejected that as a diagnosis, but C-PTSD seems to hit the nail on the head.

I have classic aspie issues, but also had severe dissociative episodes throughout childhood to the point that I only have a handful of childhood memories. I also started self-harming somewhere between 5 and 8 (I really don't have enough memory to know when more than what house I was living in at the time). Throughout my childhood and most of my teens I looked for a rescuer. From about 9-14 I was obsessed with stories of abuse and rescue. The desire to be victimized never made sense to myself or anyone else before reading about C-PTSD.

I'm also finding emotional flashbacks to be an issue. I get sad/mad/resentful and I don't know why. And also I am incapable of any real anger towards anyone no matter what they say or do. People ask me why aren't you mad at so and so and I honestly don't know why, I'm just not.