Thanks for this response!

Re: CPTSD vs ADHD vs ASD, I do run into discussion of differences and overlaps on social media; there is also a correlation (ASD and ADHD traits can lead to adverse treatment by parents and peers, resulting in CPTSD).

I have two cousins (siblings); one has ADHD, and by the looks of it, the way she's treated for her symptoms is going to land her with CPTSD if she's not already there.

FWIW, my treatment started with trauma, and then I realized that it's not all there is to it. I don't feel ADHD contributed to it that much, but in any case, I am getting help with both.

>The fun part with CPTSD is it effects your long term memory formation whenever you have a trigger or flashback so that you can have been going off the walls with anxiety for an entire evening and the next day not even remember what caused it, only that you "had a bad night".

Much fun, can relate; keeping a log helps.

> I can roll down the entire list you posted and pick out one thing after another that might be related to CPTSD ... it can get really hard to differentiate, even with experienced professionals diagnosing people.

I wouldn't put that much trust in experienced professionals, who, until not long ago, thought that ADHD magically evaporates when people grow into adulthood :)

Legit, adult ADHD was not believed to exist until the 1970s. And it's pretty common! Last week, a woman who got her diagnosis in her 40s said that it came as a surprise to her husband, who was a psychology professor (the discussion was in one of the ADHD groups on FB). The said psychology professor, educator, was looking ADHD in the eye for decades and didn't see it. The woman tried ADHD medication for the first time, and was flabbergasted by the positive effect it had on her.

While the overlap is sizable, I feel like differentiation is only hard because the professionals are, well, not that professional.

I would be very curious to know which things you don't relate to, just to get one data point on ADHD vs CPTSD differences.

To my knowledge, the following are traits of ADHD, but not CPTSD:

* Hyperfocus/Hyperfixation: being able, under the right circumstances to develop a seemingly sudden and very intense focus/state of flow, during which you go deep into whatever caught your attention (be it a work project, or an all-night Wikipedia binge to find out all there is to know about three-speed planetary gears). This includes picking up hobbies, getting reasonably good at them very fast (and at the expense of everything else), then dropping them to pick up another hobby. Hyperfocus on an activity comes with not having control over where it goes. Need to fill out taxes? Too bad, need to research the harmony of Girl From Ipanema and the history of that jazz standard in as much detail as is humanly possible!

* Time blindness: not being able to estimate the time it takes to do anything (underestimating usually), not perceiving much difference between events that happened a long time ago and last week, non-chronological organization of events in memory

* Taking 11 years to mail a package: people with ADHD have tons of unfinished projects due to running out of hyperfocus and executive dysfunction. However, these projects are never truly abandoned - and sometimes, they are brought to completion, years later. My favorite example is a gift I meant to mail to a friend for 11 years... and actually did it! The trait here is not abandoning incomplete projects way past the point where most people would.

* Paradoxical reaction to stimulants (in particular, amphetamines, anesthesia, caffeine). In practical terms: coffee can make me sleepy if it's very strong, so does Adderall.

* Feeling calm in emergencies: that's the situations where ADHD people thrive in. Particularly, jobs like EMT seem to be a great fit.

* Speaking faster than other people, and preferring to listening to videos at 1.5x - 2x speed, otherwise it feels "too slow"

* Completing other person's sentences

* Empathizing with other people by immediately bringing up a similar/relatable story from your own past to show that you have a basis on which you can relate (also in ASD)

* Auditory Processing Disorder, aka audio buffering: someone tells you something, you don't hear it and ask them to repeat. Then as they start repeating, what they said finally loads in your brain and you answer their question (before they repeated it). (also in ASD)

* Infodumping: someone brought up a special interest or a recent hyperfixation of yours? Well, well, well. If they didn't want to know the history of the golden age of hydrogen-filled rigid airships, they shouldn't have mentioned Zeppelins, and now they better be prepared to listen up for the next 30 minutes or so. (also in ASD)

* Writing overly long messages and comments compared to most of people (high five here :D )

OK, that should be enough to start. Many other ADHD traits (particularly, executive dysfunction, prioritizing, planning, initiating/switching/completing tasks, memory issues, etc etc) are, to my knowledge, exacerbated by trauma, unlike the above.

As in, trauma is not going to make you speak faster, or fall asleep from a double espresso, or give you a sudden ability to laser-focus on things (often the exciting, challenging things - but not necessarily important ones), and so on.

Thanks again for your comment, would be really curious about your take on the above!