- A lot of people write to me, frustrated and scared
because their doctor hasn't kept up
with recent research about the effects of childhood trauma.
And for some people, an incorrect diagnosis
or a lack of diagnosis of PTSD or complex PTSD
means they can't access appropriate treatment.
And this could be a real problem.
But in this video, I want to tell you why I think
that instead of waiting for a diagnosis
or feeling locked in by it, the most important thing
is whether you can learn to start noticing your symptoms
and learning to heal them.
I'm Anna Runkle, also known as the Crappy Childhood Fairy.
And here are three reasons why I believe
healing your own symptoms of childhood PTSD is so important.
It might even be more important than diagnosis.
First of all, here in the US anyway,
there is still no official diagnosis,
technically, of complex PTSD or CPTSD.
That's the kind that comes from ongoing intense stress
rather than a specific or short-term experience
of intense stress, like with PTSD.
For example, PTSD could be from a battle,
CPTSD could be from spending years living in a war zone.
The symptoms are similar, but they're not the same,
and neither are the treatments.
But for whatever reason,
the US doesn't yet recognize CPTSD as a distinct diagnosis.
Does that mean you don't have it?
Who knows?
What we do know is that people who grew up with abuse
and neglect show a common and distinct set of symptoms.
And if you want to learn more about those,
I summarize them in a 20 question quiz that you can take.
I put a link to that down in the description section below.
And from time to time,
I get a note from someone who has taken the quiz
who wants to know how to interpret the results.
And of course, I'm not a doctor or therapist
and I can't diagnose anyone,
but anyone can look at that list of symptoms
and reflect on whether this sounds like something
that they've experienced.
And if you have had those symptoms
and you resonate with them
and you want to start feeling better,
there's no reason whether you have a diagnosis or not
that you can't start working on them.
It's a process of learning to be aware
and of learning to calm your triggers.
And you can do that,
whether or not you have access to professional help.
Whether or not your provider is knowledgeable enough
to even know about CPTSD
and whether or not they even believe you
that you're having these symptoms.
If they believe you and they'll guide you
toward good treatment that helps you, great.
If they dismiss you and say, you're just depressed
or anxious or a hypochondriac,
you can still heal your symptoms.
You own your healing.
The second reason why I believe a diagnosis
isn't strictly necessary to start your healing
is that CPTSD like many other mental health problems,
doesn't mean the same thing to all people.
According to a study conducted in 2019
at the University of Liverpool in the UK,
and this was published
in the scientific journals psychiatry research,
most psychiatric diagnoses are scientifically meaningless.
And to quote the study,
worthless as tools to accurately identify
and address mental distress at an individual level.
You heard that right.
The researchers analyzed five chapters in Britain's DSM.
That's the diagnostic manual that they use in the UK
to determine who has what,
and then what treatment should be administered.
They looked at bipolar disorder, schizophrenia,
depressive disorders, anxiety disorders,
and also at trauma related disorders.
And they noticed first that there was a lot of overlap
in symptoms across these different diagnoses,
even though each diagnosis uses different decision rules.
Second, the researchers found
that the diagnoses completely ignore
the role of trauma in a person's life
which makes their symptoms into not very good indicators
of what's really going on for them,
and worse, it doesn't tell you
what treatments might be helpful.
The conclusion was that in the words of the researchers,
this diagnostic labeling approach
is a disingenuous categorical system.
And one of the things this study talks about
is that diagnostic criteria wrongly assume sometimes
that all mental distress is caused by a disorder.
And they say that this relies too much
on old ideas about what's considered normal.
And one of the authors, John Read says,
and I got to read this to you, just a minute.
Perhaps it's time we stopped pretending
that medical-sounding labels contribute anything
to our understanding of the complex causes
of human distress or of what kind of help we need
when we are distressed.
So it's worth pointing out
that among all the diagnoses they analyzed,
complex PTSD probably has the least
developed treatment standards.
In the diagnostic manual,
it's still lumped in with standard PTSD here in the US
so it doesn't have its own treatment officially.
And I know one function of an official diagnosis
is that it becomes a code that a healthcare institution
can put in the computer in order to authorize treatment
for you and get reimbursed by your insurance.
And that's important.
So it feels like a diagnosis really is important,
but there are a dozen reasons why
when it comes to benefiting you
that diagnosis is not necessarily meaningful.
What is always meaningful, regardless of what's happening
with your doctor or your insurance is your symptoms.
These are real phenomena that you can notice
and you can start working on them
whether you've got top-notch care
or you're stuck in a two year queue
in some health system to get assigned to a provider
or even if you have no professional help at all.
And that's what my courses are for is to help you be aware
of the signs and symptoms that might be affecting you.
And to start using simple techniques
to calm those symptoms, calm your PTSD triggers,
and start changing specific problems in your life.
So unless you've been involuntarily committed,
it's your right to take charge like this
and to consult professionals when you need them.
They don't give you your healing.
They help you to follow your own healing path.
And this way of viewing it is far more empowering
than waiting to be helped or waiting to be understood,
or being angry that the help that was given to you
just didn't work.
You got to keep trying, keep reaching out.
You are in the driver's seat.
Now, the third reason I suggest that you focus
on healing your symptoms rather than just on your diagnosis
is that it frees you from the identity of a person
with a mental disorder.
If you're experiencing the common symptoms of CPTSD
and you had trauma, you're normal.
These symptoms are a normal reaction
to abnormal circumstances.
Your trauma is something that happened.
Your being is something else entirely.
You are not your trauma.
You are you, and you have the power right now
to take steps towards healing.
If you've been in a position where you felt helpless
and you were waiting, or depending on doctors and therapists
to make it better for you
and yet you're still struggling,
I know that's hard, but it's so important
that you don't give in to despair.
Lots of us didn't respond to conventional treatment
but we do respond to other techniques and strategies
and you can learn about them
by Googling or joining online communities
and talking to other people who've healed.
Now, one thing you can do is what I did
and I call it my daily practice.
It's a simple set of techniques.
I teach them in a free short online course
that you can access from a link below
in the description section.
And it helps to heal brain dysregulation
from childhood PTSD.
And it helps you get a better footing
for taking any other kind of healing steps
that you wanna try.
Now, I've got more advanced courses too
and links to those are also in the description section
but I wanna say, you had trauma and you are strong.
You have a mind that you can use to direct your own healing.
You have the internet and with a little research,
you can make good choices about who's going to help you.
If you can't access the treatment you hoped for
because of wait lists or costs,
there are others where you don't need authorization
or even insurance coverage to just start working
on your healing right now.
My website has a bunch of things you can try.
It has a resources page.
Be courageous about moving your healing forward.
One step at a time.
That's the way it's done, and you can do it too.
(bright music)