Can a child who was emotionally abused develop PTSD?

For example if someone who Is supposed to be an authority figure, in a Place that is supposed to be safe, emotionally/psychologically abused a child, would it be possible for that child to
Develop PTSD? What it liken the chances if the child had been verbally abused when they were much younger? What are the chances? What if while they were being abused, there friends were going through the same thing, and the parents didn't believe them, therefore the child had no one to talk to about it? At the same time, the child was trying to help friends that were cutting and burning themselves, because of the abuse, and caused added stress? What if the child is already suffering with a known anxiety disorder (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and likely depression?

Would any of this affect the chances of developing PTSD?

I am currently seeing a therapist. I was tested for PTSD because I show some symptoms. (Panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, etc....) I scored 'very likely' on my First screening. I scored very high in all 4 categories required to be diagnosed with PTSD. I am going to see a psychiatrist in 2 weeks. The problem is, is that I didn't really go through anything 'traumatic' just some emotional/ verbal abuse and bullying.

Yes, I do believe so. Strongly. I am dx'd with c-PTSD. Much of my most traumatic flashbacks involve the emotional and mental abuse. The physical flashbacks involve incidences where my life was in jeopardy, so I believe that the emotional and mental is just as bad and think that it is a fallacy that there had to be physical wounds in order for real abuse to have existed and strongly believe that the insidiousness of abuse is in the emotional and mental torture that goes with it.

Hiya..

In short; yes.. trauma is quite a misunderstood topic.. I recall getting my own diagnosis of c-PTSD and thinking ''But, don't you have to have been in a warzone or something to get that?''

Trauma in this context is basically anything that causes significant psychological harm to a person..

Abuse is a really horrible thing for a child to go through and it is highly traumatic.. the abuse that you speak of is definitely bad enough to develop PTSD from..


How are you feeling at the moment..? I'm very pleased to see that you'll be seeing a psychiatrist.. they can be really really useful as a starting point for healing and working through things.

xx

Completely possible. PTSD is from trauma, strong trauma or reoccurrence of the trauma further increase the chances of developing PTSD. Emotional abuse is certainly trauma. And it doesn't even have to be real in a sense that threatening can also do it as well.


Trauma can come from many things and it can be in the form of verbal, physical, sexual, environmental... the list is long. Anything that conveys an extreme of powerful negative emotions including fear of death or well being to a person is trauma. It can become encapsulated in someone are an extremely powerful memory rich in sensory detail not to mention emotions that can resurface repeatedly. At this point such an problem would be classified as PTSD.

Keep in mind, that trauma disorders are very under recognized and not yet fully understood well by everyone.

Yes, yes. God, a thousand times yes. Do not invalidate your experiences.

That's a great reminder, Felinebassline. We do tend to minimize. That's why I have found so much help here so quickly, because having others acknowledge my story has helped me acknowledge the brutality of it as well.

Thank you for that.

My H has anger issues, depression, and anxiety. He has been dx'd with an Axis II PD. his current T thinks he may also be Bi-polar.

However, he strongly believes that he has PTSD. In the past, his T's have never believed him, BUT....H never told them the truth about his childhood. H liked to pretend that his dad was a "great man," but in truth his dad was a self-absorbed jerk who terrorized his sons...yelling, punching holes in walls, swatting them with a meatboard, raging, etc. He was not loving at all. Never hugged his kids. He was not ever fun to be around. It was "his way or the highway."

H finally told his latest T the truth....how he lived in fear of his dad and how no one ever knew what would set his dad off (which is how H can be!), and everyone walked on eggshells (which is what we all do).

I don't know if his new T will now think he has PTSD or not.