ADHD or C-PTSD?
ADHD or C-PTSD?
“Do I have ADHD or C-PTSD?”
“Is it possible to have both ADHD and C-PTSD or are they totally different things?”
“Do I have to have an ADHD or C-PTSD diagnosis for therapy to work?”
If you have typed any of these things into Google, you are absolutely not alone. It’s a confusing world of acronyms out there and lots of people are understandably overwhelmed looking at the symptoms of ADHD and C-PTSD and wondering how to find a therapist to help them. Here are a few insights to help you on your journey.
Diagnoses are helpful but not essential to therapy - while having a diagnosis can be helpful for getting medication or accommodations, it’s not necessary to have a diagnosis to get all the benefits of therapy. Diagnoses were created as shorthand terms for clusters of symptoms and they change all the time based on new discoveries in psychological research. Most importantly, diagnoses were based on studies that featured primarily white cis men. Our knowledge about ADHD And C-PTSD is rapidly growing as we are researching other populations.
ADHD and C-PTSD DO have overlapping symptoms - there’s a really good reason you are super confused when you are reading through the symptoms for ADHD and C-PTSD as they look almost identical. The differences can be very subtle and often emerge during the course of therapy as you gain self-insight and skills to best manage how either ADHD or C-PTSD shows up for you. Given that a lot of people actually could be diagnosed with both, it may be a “yes and” situation instead of an “either-or.”
The treatment for ADHD and C-PTSD can be very similar - while the origins of ADHD and C-PTSD may be different, they often involve similar kinds of therapeutic interventions. Therapy for ADHD and C-PTSD often focuses on how to help you gain insight and navigate the world in the ways that feel best to you instead of labeling those experiences with one name or another.
The good news is that therapy can help with both ADHD and C-PTSD. Get in touch to schedule a free consultation with one of the wonderful neurodiverse affirming therapists on our team. We are so excited to help you get to know your best self.