• Replies 23 replies
  • Subscribers 9 subscribers
  • Views 1521 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Autism or cPTSD? Which?

Damojo

I have a suspicion I have complex PTSD, but I don't really know if some of my traits are just plain old Autistic traits and not cPTSD at all. How would I know the difference?

For example, I feel extremely aware of people in the space around me (in public or private). I am constantly trying to predict how they will move or act or interact and trying to plan how I will deal with all possibilities, particularly if they might do something irritating, or something against the "rules". A lot of the time, I feel threatened (anxious rather than terrified) and under siege (from the relentlessness of it all), particularly if I have no easy means of escape (perhaps I'm masking and trying to stick it out to appear "normal"). It is exhausting and really stressful. Is that Autistic hyperawareness, or cPTSD hypervigilance, or just overthinking, or something else entirely?

Does anyone else have similar experiences and do you know how they might relate to Autism vs. cPTSD?

  • I red, that tge hyper awareness or hypervigilance is a ptsd symptom. I don't have it st all, I'm super unaware of others around me, I merely pat attention to them. For me people are like moving objects. You can have both autism and ptsd, it's very common 

  • I am beginning to wonder something similar, perhaps due to my feelings of imposter syndrome around being on the spectrum. Last time I was going through a burnout/breakdown I couldn’t have people too close to me, even walking in the street was a nightmare, why would someone choose to sit next to me when plenty of other chairs are available was another thought I had. It felt they were invading my space and I quickly had to move out of their way, this got better with increased hours of sleep and withdrawal from the expectations of the world. I don’t particularly like strangers sitting next to me on the bus or anywhere really, I feel they are way too close so I tend to avoid public transport. I suppose it’s down to us to venture into the deep parts of our workings and figure out just exactly what it is that’s making us uncomfortable, is it a perceived lack of control over our autonomy? Are we trying to predict the future to avoid an overload of more raw emotions and trauma because we are already juggling the load we have?

  • Damojo said:
    I have a suspicion I have complex PTSD, but I don't really know if some of my traits are just plain old Autistic traits and not cPTSD at all. How would I know the difference?

    There is an interesting article explaining the two here:

    https://neurodivergentinsights.com/ptsd-and-autism/

    For the terminology, PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) typically results from a single traumatic event, while cPTSD (Complex PTSD) arises from prolonged, repeated trauma over time. Both share similar symptoms, but cPTSD includes additional challenges like emotional dysregulation and difficulties in relationships.

    You can be autistic and suffer PTSD and/or cPTSD, the symptoms are the same but autism means we experience the symptoms differently to neurotypicals.

    To work out which aspects of PTSD/cPTSD can be attributed to autistic experiences, the following diagram is useful: