PTSD?

[moon]

Hi I'm a newbie on the board.  Does this strike anyone as PTSD?  I was the only one at home when my dad died at nine years old.  I went into some kind of shock at that time.  I never received any treatment (in fact, the whole incident was rarely spoken of generally brushed aside by everyone).  This incident was compounded by the fact that I had lost a sibling when I was two and my parents were really grieving at a very vulnerable time in my life.  After my dad died, my mother became alcoholic and I was the "grown-up" in the household that consisted of me, my mother and my disabled sister (cerebral palsy). 

I've had a lot of trauma and I've suffered from panic attacks on and off my whole life.  I've been dx with ADHD, Dysthymia (many years ago).  Here's what I'm noticing.  I joined a 12-step program - Adult Children of Alcoholics.  I've been going to the group for a long time.  Every time I come close to speaking about anything from my childhood - I go into an extreme panic attack.  I can talk about things that happened in my adulthood but not my childhood.  I also have a driving phobia (hightways, tunnels, bridges) and I think I'm becoming a hypochondriac.  I have a real fear that I have a dread disease and I'm dying.  This fear extends to doctors and medical procedures of any kind. 

I've really been isolating myself and worried that I might be on my way to agoraphobia.

[Anxious Amy]

Definitely could be PTSD especially if you never dealt with it.Have you ever gone to a therapist?? That could help you to begin to deal with it and relieve some of your anxiety.The sooner you get help the better because from my experience the anxiety will just get worse and worse if you dont find a way to deal with it.Good luck be and be strong!!!!!!!!

[Xalatimo]

It could be PTSD but the only way of knowing is based on your symptoms.  Do you have flashbacks of any of the incidents or relive any of the events, making it feel like it just happened yesterday..does anything bring back memories do you have triggers that make you relive the event, do you then avoid these situations because of that?  If not, it's hard to tell if you have it or not but it's probably just regular anxiety.