Autism and C-PTSD

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I've been wondering. I've always fully believed I have Asperger's syndrome, and I still do, but reading about C-PTSD got me thinking.

Here's its definition:
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) is a psychological injury that results from protracted exposure to prolonged social and/or interpersonal trauma with lack or loss of control, disempowerment, and in the context of either captivity or entrapment, i.e. the lack of a viable escape route for the victim.

This sounds like something that would happen a lot to autistic people, as they often don't know how to escape abuse or let the frustration out one way or the other, and having to bottle it up. I'm not an expert though. I'm just thinking about how it was for me.

Anyway, the symptoms of C-PTSD seem to be so similar to the things I thought of as Asperger's symptoms. Here are some of the child and adolescent 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".

If I saw a child with these symptoms, I'd immediately think of autism/Asperger's. I'm actually beginning to wonder whether I really have Asperger's, or am just severely damaged. It's probably both, but it's almost scary how well that page describes me. For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-PTSD

Anyway, I'm curious how many of you could relate to this condition. I'm surprised I've only recently heard of it. I apologize if there's a recent thread discussing this.

I think that C-PTSD is inevitable for people with undiagnosed and unaided Asperger's, which was not defined (nevermind helped) until 1994. I was born in 1950 - I really think I didn't stand a chance and yet I'm still here and useful though on disability. Thank heaven for computers and for WrongPlanet.

Have you read Trauma and Recovery? It explained so much to me and to others.

http://www.jimhopper.com/trauma_and_recovery/

Dr. Judith Herman (the author) was the first to define C-PTSD and has fought to have it included in the DSM.

I wonder all the time if I'm just traumatized from my childhood too, and not an asperger. I had two alcoholic/drug addict parents who didn't really raise me or nurture me, and I had numerous tragic events in my life that would seriously scar anyone, and grew up embarrassed pretty much everyday.

Traumatized kids show a different profile, though; it's more like reactive attachment disorder (early on) or classic PTSD (later); borderline personality or traits thereof are also associated with abuse. The C-PTSD idea may actually be what happens when someone with autistic traits suffers abuse.

If you can be diagnosed with both autism and PTSD, then chances are, you have both autism and PTSD. Autistic people are more likely to be abused, and react more strongly to environmental influences on top of that.

I think some symptoms are unique to Asperger's/Autism, like perseveration. That doesn't lessen the importance of other conditions, though. Whatever helps, go for it.

I have HFA and was abused as a child.

I was hospitalisedat age 15 with acute
PTSD and anxitiey disorders.

For years I would play my HFA against my
abuse issies.

Now I am more able to hold the two together.
My autistic brain always seems to devide and
seperate.

Now I can feel at ease saying I am an autistic
man who was abused and neglected.

Just heard that Donna Williams wass dx with
DID PTS.......she is an inspiration how she
is a ble to affirm her difference whilst
accepting her trauma.

I have PTSD from the bullies in public school and one teacher in patculiar. I was phycologicaly abused in school and by one of my brothers and by my parents but not as bad as by my teachers and brother.