CLINICAL TOPICS & PSYCHOEDUCATION

Trauma = PTSD is a myth that...

1. Keeps many people from feeling valid in approaching occupational support programs, like VAC, with mental health complaints that originated during service if they aren’t the classic PTSD symptoms. This means some people aren’t getting to be supported/access to treatment in the way they could be.

2. Makes individuals second-guess their own experiences and self-criticize heavily; “I don’t have PTSD so there’s no excuse for why I haven’t been able to feel [relaxed, happy] since [experience].”

3. Influences even the most skilled therapists to sometimes forget to give equal thought to other conditions responsible for the mental health changes. This directly impacts treatment expectations, planning, response quality and response time. 

4. Creates frustration toward clinicians when a diagnosis isn’t PTSD; feeling the clinician is minimizing the impact of your experiences and the effect of external agents and tragedy on your condition. This generates tension in the therapeutic relationship and unless addressed, recovery can be sabotaged by this interpersonal injury.

5. Perpetuates the idea that PTSD is a chronic condition by leading to poor treatment response to evidence-based PTSD treatments when really, the treatment just wasn’t the right match for the condition's mechanism of action. 

PTSD has a high false positive rate in recent years. This is because systemic/organizational and social pressures have created a bias toward legitimizing mental health concerns with this one specific diagnosis. PTSD is found in the trauma-related disorder group in the DSM-5 because exposure to trauma always precedes onset. Other conditions like anxiety and depressive disorders are in different categories of conditions not because trauma can’t contribute in the same way, but because non-trauma factors can also prompt the onset of these conditions. In actuality, Persistent and/or Major Depression, Substance Use Disorders, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder are more common mental health effects following trauma than PTSD. 

There's even a specific subtype of Major Depression that can mimic PTSD with its combination of symptoms - and is associated with an increased risk of suicidal planning.

These non-PTSD conditions can also be associated with symptoms like panic, nightmares (yes, really!), irritability/anger, difficulty relaxing, excessive rumination about past traumatic event(s), among other symptoms common for people with PTSD. These conditions, however, typically require different treatment focuses for resolution. This is especially true since only recently has there been a research-validated treatment approach that can address different diagnostics with one approach, and most clinicians still treat from the traditional diagnosis-specific validated treatments (which is no issue at all, provided the diagnosis is right!). 

History, genetics, personality, and environmental factors all play a role in determining how trauma will impact you. Not having PTSD specifically does not mean trauma hasn’t directly altered or worsened your mental health, and it also doesn’t mean your symptoms are any less disabling. If you’ve been diagnosed with PTSD, advocate for your recovery by asking your clinician how they ruled in/out PTSD compared to other conditions.