PTSD

Hi, speaking as somebody with anxiety and who has been through something that causes/caused me a lot of anxiety but does not have PTSD (I don't think, anyway.) I think that for me personally, my "thing" (which wasn't overly bad, I have only ever heard of it being after something serious, like death or ab*se etc.) caused my anxiety to worsen significantly because there were elements of it that drew on pre-existing anxieties that I'd had for several years beforehand, and then multiply them by a thousand (I'm not exaggerating.) Everybody who experiences anxiety disorders will have events that feed into them, the same way that I can pinpoint things that people have said/done or things that happened that led to my eating disorder. I think the difference between having something that worsened your anxiety and having PTSD is in how you respond to it. Do you find it difficult to talk about, or get anxious when you think about that specific moment, or flashbacks or nightmares? So, I find my "thing" difficult to talk about and very few people know what happened, and it sometimes makes me anxious (so, right now, I'm thinking about it - I feel a little anxious but not panic attack level or anything), but I've never had nightmares or flashbacks relating to it. Although, being in situations similar to it often sends me into a (near or full) panic attack. This is making it sound a lot more like PTSD than it is. I just think of it as a thing that impacted me. Ultimately, only a doctor can diagnose you, but it depends on how debilitating (which it isn't for me) it is as to whether it is a part of your anxiety or a separate diagnosis.

I find my issue difficult to talk about, and I get flashbacks/anxiety daily about it - these constant flashbacks are making me feel like it's PTSD rather than my anxiety, but as people have said on here, diagnosing myself isn't the best idea.