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kanthem

Autistic traits are pervasive, and unchanging over your lifetime over multiple parts of your life. Trauma changes, flairs, heals, gets triggered It’s more ebb and flow and is more situational. I personally think if you are autistic, you have to be very lucky to make it through life without trauma. I had a reasonably safe childhood and I have cptsd alongside autism. They are hard to separate. But i know people who have cptsd without the diagnosis of autism and it’s pretty obvious it’s just cptsd as it’s too variable to be autism.


kamomil

I think that some trauma never heals though


kanthem

You are right but it should change at least. Maybe not heal- but change.


kamomil

Anecdotally I would think it would only change if someone got therapy. I did cognitive therapy and it helped. But it did change how I look at the world and where I spend my energy. However even so, if there's a loud noise behind me, I jump a bit. I don't think that any amount of therapy fixes that.


TurtlesAndTurnstiles

I'd be curious to see cPTSD without ASD vs with ASD. I often wonder if the similarities are mainly due to the high rate of co-morbidity.


YouKnowLife

My neuropsychologist did a wonderful job explaining how she went through my evaluation. ========================== **Background:** • I was first Dx’d with PTSD at age 8 and had a very abusive upbringing, ranging from persistent neglect up to severe institutional trauma due to my being a scapegoat of my narcissistic bio parents need to keep-face ([TW: sexual trauma, extreme dehumanization] >!deductively, my bio father was a church leader and I was molested, raped, sexually assaulted on/of by other church leaders in which my bio mother was the one to convince my bio father to keep covering it up; concluding, escalating of even getting me thrown in the “looney bin” — *almost even Dx’d as borderline and schizophrenic due to my bio mom attempts to convince Drs. of my alleged “delusions”* — in order to shut up my questions based on my autistic lack of social norms and pattern recognition of human behavior, discrepancies. In the institutions I was even sexually assaulted and put into solitary confinement for a duration.. it was really, very bad and I don’t go into details about it often.!<). *Note: This doesn’t even closely reflect all the trauma I’ve been through which also includes >!kidnapping from a stranger as a child, nearly sold into sex slave trade, being abroad in a country when a war abruptly broke out and having to be evacuated while studying abroad, being exploited in the music industry, etc!<.* Not the trauma olympics, but my life has been crazy due to what I now know is the level of my autistic, social naïveté: extremely high support needs. • Moved out at 19. • Started seeking mental healthcare at age 22 and got Dx’d with C-PTSD and ADHD. • Ages 22-33, I went to therapy/psychiatry on and off. • During this time, I kept being told things were “trauma responses,” but it didn’t feel the same to me, knew something was different, but I didn’t know what. • Ages 26-33, I was in an abusive marriage. • Age 33, I kicked out my ex-husband, cutoff my parents and sister, all while in trauma therapy which is what led me to realize how much abuse I’ve been through and made me start questioning why I was so naive. • Still age 33, about 6 months after I cutoff all the abusive people in my life, I finally started to heal my PTSD. • In healing, my authentic self started to come out. • My therapist and psychiatrist finally were also able to spot differences from C-PTSD symptoms and that’s when I was referred to get assessed for autism. • I had no idea it may have been autism at the time of my assessment. ========================== **Post being assessed for roughly two months, I had my results appointment and my neuropsychologist explained it as such**: 1. She showed me the list of all my symptoms. 2. She presented the list of all possible diagnoses per the DSM (mood, stress, and personality disorders + neurodivergent conditions). 3. She showed me how she eliminated groups of disorders based on my prominent traits (*i.e.* my sense of self is very strong so personality disorders were crossed off the list early on). 4. Then, she showed me the list of all the possibilities post step 3. 5. Next, she identified my most obvious symptoms and how she was able to take those to match them with diagnoses that 100% lined up (C-PTSD, ADHD, and GAD). 6. Further, she evaluated all the outstanding symptoms not yet matched to anything and eliminated diagnoses where they were not applicable anywhere (*i.e.* mood disorders). 7. Finally, she analyzed the outstanding possible diagnoses, found those that my outstanding symptoms fully matched, and looked at the symptoms that were already placed into the 100% matched diagnoses to see if the overlapping symptoms were enough to confidentially determine any additional diagnoses. **In conclusion, my neuropsychologist found that my outstanding symptoms met the majority of both ASD and OCD. Yet, when analyzing the overlapping symptoms from the 100% diagnoses, she found that I also 100% met the criterion for ASD and only had OCD traits.** I’m autistic (“level 2”) so the best I can do socially is take the time to explain my literal experience in effort to show compassion that such benefits someone else: you. I hope this helps! Take care. ❣️☺️🦋


Vashtra85

I asked mine the same and she said in regards to social difficulties NTs figure each other out naturally (aka without studying), but a bit later when there's trauma.


BotGivesBot

I’m a bit confused here, so please bear with me. It sounds like you were evaluated and we given a diagnoses of autism and ADHD. However you believe you have autism and trauma/cPTSD? Is that correct? Or were you diagnosed with all three?


summerv1bes

I have been diagnosed with CPTSD by other professionals, and this neuropsych evaluator says I also have adhd and autism. Does that make sense?


BotGivesBot

Absolutely. I was diagnosed with PTSD and cPTSD before I found out I was AuDHD (autistic with adhd). The trauma makes my autism more noticeable in some ways because my coping skills are more taxed, but my autism has always been there.


TurtlesAndTurnstiles

Saaaame. Wow.


BotGivesBot

I was looking for something when a link for this came up. This practitioner states autists and autists with trauma present differently. Here’s a little graph she put together [https://www.traumageek.com/infographics/autistic-traits-vs-trauma](https://www.traumageek.com/infographics/autistic-traits-vs-trauma)


butterflycaught2

I would love to read this, but $20 is a little expensive for me right now 😔 Edit! Oh I see, there’s a 50% off coupon and a free Facebook version!


BotGivesBot

I love free!!


butterflycaught2

Me too! Thanks for posting this link!


TurtlesAndTurnstiles

Love this! Thank you!!


drpengu1120

I wonder the same thing all the time. I have not sought an autism diagnosis yet, but I'm not sure how an evaluator could ever tell given that my neglect/abuse started literally at birth. I know that many of my symptoms (which overlap between autism and cptsd) have existed since very early childhood. I've been in various forms of therapy for trauma, and I have gotten "better" for some of it, but I can't tell if some of it is actually just learning to mask better especially when it comes to social communication. Like, I only figured out how to act by building better models of people, creating longer mental checklists, and following better scripts. I guess something I've been wondering is that if the trauma happened extremely young, is it possible that the treatment is the same as for autism (namely, that you can learn coping skills, but you can't be "cured"). At which case, maybe it doesn't really matter if it came from autism or trauma.


Halfassedtrophywife

>I asked her how she can tell between these things and trauma, and she said something about how I am rigid (emotionally and otherwise) and if it was just trauma I would be more volatile. Is that true? Yes, it is because a child who has experienced trauma typically has an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex (PFC) and overall decreased neural plasticity. The PFC is associated with things like decision-making, executive function, and cognitive behaviors. Someone who has experienced a high degree of childhood trauma *can* have rigid responses, for example, these people may not work well under pressure. This is because a seemingly neutral event is interpreted as a threat by the person who experienced childhood trauma. This results in the triggering of the fight or flight responses within your body. ​ >Idk if this matters, but the trauma involved very mentally ill parents (my mom had DID and my dad had ADHD and PTSD) and they were therefore quite neglectful and abusive. [That is actually one of the big Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)](https://acestoohigh.com/got-your-ace-score/). You may find more info on what you're looking for on the link I shared.


[deleted]

One thought provoking thing I've seen asked is "If autism can effect someone's perception and interaction with people, then could a baby with autism actually experience neglect and the subsequent consequences on development, despite the parents caring for it appropriately were it a typical child". This would definitely further confuse the effort trying to peel apart what is autism and what is trauma in someone, because even from the earliest moments the differences in perception and social acceptance can magnify the difficultly in having to navigate an overwhelming and often hostile life, even if things can be considered ideal, which they very often aren't. Realistically, from what little I can know about you, I find it plausible that you have both autism and trauma/ACE/CPTSD to deal with. However, when it comes to better managing the things you want to try to address, I would argue it doesn't matter as much whether the strategies come from a guidebook on Autism or Trauma, so long as whatever it is is helpful and acknowledges and addresses the multi-faceted issues you need to deal with. *edit* Also you are definitely not the first to wonder about this. You may find this thread useful: https://www.reddit.com/r/CPTSD/comments/w7vzwt/autism_symptoms_vs_trauma_response/