10ofRods
Verified Anthropologist
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- Jun 27, 2019
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In my case it does overlap with basically everything else I have. I have CPTSD. I have a dissociative disorder. Both diagnosed by the time I was fourteen. I have ADHD and autism, both diagnosed as an adult. Nothing is an island and everything interlocks with everything else and affects everything else.
I will say, my GAD is more manageable now than it has been, ever, in my life until the last few years. Why? I got the energy and the resources up to finally get my ADHD diagnosis and I got medication for it. (I was denied a dual dx by the person who dxed my autism nine years earlier, despite me laying out to her very clearly why I thought I had both.) I'm sure you know, but many here probably don't, that a big way a lot of people with ADHD are able to focus for longer than a few minutes is to unconsciously power their focus with anxiety. That, and caffeine. I didn't know that until relatively recently, and it made a whole lot of things about my brain make sense.
With my ADHD medicated, I still have GAD, but I don't have to run my brain on anxiety any more. Things are still on fire in there, but I'm not unknowingly throwing petrol on it continuously just to get myself to remember to do basic tasks like eating and bathing.
So yeah, I have a very real perspective on two of the mental illnesses/disorders LS is claiming to have, and though I am not bipolar, my partner's father is, and we have done so many revolutions of the carousel with his condition over the last twenty years. He has burned pretty much every bridge in his life he ever had. He got stranded in Europe, twice, with no money. Once was during COVID. (He lives in Australia.) He's gone missing multiple times. His life is very hard because he doesn't want to admit he has an illness or that his behaviour could be a problem. Hence, there are a bunch of his family who have no contact with him right now. But he lives independently, he holds down work, and he is not in any way insane. Difficult, yes. But not insane.
People live with these conditions every day and don't kill their children.
MOO
Oh, I hear you. As I am sure you know, kids with ADD/ADHD are more likely to experience trauma (not all of it abuse, but a lot of it is). So are kids with autism. Add in early childhood anxiety and you have a child who is at high risk for more trauma.
The child may make intense attempts to "behave," but that's a stressor/anxiety-producing scheme as well.
I have C-PTSD due to abuse at the hands of a bipolar person. I too am much better now - but I so relate to what you're saying about using anxiety to "fuel" my attempts to get better, to focus. Anxiety isn't always bad (it can be a synonym for "overly excited" - which is what I now experience). I use caffeine for focus daily. When I"m stressed, I drink even more of it - for focus.
It's so true that people live with these conditions every day and do not kill anyone. They especially do not kill in the manner that Letecia did and then try to cover up in the manner she chose to use. Whatever diagnoses that LS has, they are not responsible for what she did to Gannon, as she was definitely still in touch with reality.
IMO. (You have been amazing with your transcripts here - for me, typing about crime is an anxiety-release, it seems to be the same for you; it helps me focus).