I am late to read this too.
Yes, ppl on the Autism Spectrum usually come with ptsd and or cptsd as well.

I was dxed at 17, through a psychiatrist my parents were seeing as BPD, I always knew I wasn’t.

I found out on my last (58th birthday) that I am well on the Spectrum. I come with all the problems that late Dxed ppl come with.

I had an eating disorder for 40 years, I suffer from MDD, big emotions, a learning disability, executive functioning difficulties, GAD, horrible shame, insomnia, teeth grinding, phobias, high functioning & high masking.

I have lost friends and family as no one understands.

I live in Canada and can’t find anyone who will work with me, paid ( incl psychology today,) or unpaid bc I am ASD with active trauma.

I won’t call crisis lines anymore, they don’t understand.

My active trauma/cptsd comes from my mistreatment in our (free to all) mental health system.

I validate and am validated by all the blog comments.

And, thank you LWK, getting it. You definitely understand the mental health system; not only in the UK, but all over the globe.

Pls, keep up the fight, our fight, and definitely my lost fight.

Erin 🇨🇦

Hello. Thank you ever so much for getting this article out there. It is a total win for me to finally have arrived at a valid explanation – for the overlap and interplay of different causes and in the resultant condition I find myself living.
My sincere gratitude goes to you and to the publisher. I believe now for the first time, I can safely take steps towards professional evaluation and continue learning about devices of, and for, more positive behaviour.

I am armed with the explanatory capacity to, sadly, audit my own potentially dangerous-to-me diagnosis!!!

Many thanks,
James D

Something I notice about myself is that I struggle to retain information about CPTSD and have to constantly relearn what I knew so well last week. I wonder how common that is.

Jesse D.

2012 – I was told I had BPD. After reading up on it it wasn’t really fitting. I had none of the symptoms. I never self harmed. I had an eating disorder. Anorexia. What I learned now is where there is addiction and eating disorders there is trauma. I fought that provider to remove that DX. A BPD DX to someone with CPTSD is harmful. The stigma attached to BPD that we are bad and will never change really reinforces those core trauma beliefs that are bad. Therapists don’t want to take on clients with BPD and for a few yrs I fought to get that amended from my records.

2016 – Saw a new therapist. She said I did not have BPD and the anxiety/panic I was having was not the biggest issue it was the trauma from my childhood. It was the 1st time in 15 yrs I ever heard complex trauma. Sadly that therapist went out of network and 8 yrs later (2024) I am still seeking a therapist who understands what complex trauma is…….

When you are on Medicare/Medicaid the “choice” of providers are already stacked against you. Let alone find someone who knows what cptsd is and is skilled at treating it is like trying to find a needle in a hacksack at this point. What is mind numbing how can soc sec give me a disability with no way of treating what I have?? I understand it’s all political that CPTSD is not in the DSM…

I have had therapist who are trauma informed tell me I need to forget the past it’s only hurting me. That I should not focus on the childhood part and just get help for PTSD. PTSD is not the same. In a book I read recently said PTSD is as we know a singular event like a car accident. Where as CPTSD is like being in that same car accident every week over 20 yrs…. It’s not the same.

We deserve better help than what is out there!!! When I call places for help they think it’s so simple go up on psychology today and there is a help. Trauma informed doesn’t mean they treat trauma. They acknowledge it so they do not retraumatize the person. Sadly my last therapist who claimed to be a trauma specialist caused harm because she did not know what she was doing. She did not understand the body responses. eSpecially when I was triggered/under a great deal of stress from my interpersonal relationships (key cptsd issue) I would clench my jaw at night. This went on for months the clenching in which I damaged the trigeminal never in my jaw. What is messed up I have to have “brain” surgery in which they do a craniotomy to decompress (microvascular decompression) that nerve. That is a prime example of what bad therapy looks like.

Would you say there is a string correlation with c/PTSD and Autism, ADHD, and other Neurodiversities? I am awaiting to be tested. This further helped me to understand why I’ve been different, to all those around me, my entire life. Of 7 children, I thought, felt, and reacted totally differently, to the others. I was often punished, for my presentations, bullied, mocked, and picked on daily. I still stand out from my peers, which often results in workplace bullying, and being mistreated, by most of the professionals I encounter. They simply do not understand, or choose not to understand the complex nature of cPTSD, combined with additional factors, such as Neurodiversities.