Serious Mental Illness: When Undiagnosed PTSD Blocks Real Recovery


If this sounds like you…

  • You live with severe anxiety, severe depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or another serious mental illness (SMI).
  • You’ve survived extreme—or even repeated—trauma.
  • Your doctors focus on meds for mood, psychosis, or anxiety but rarely ask about your trauma

If that’s your reality, this post is for you.


The hidden numbers


A multi-site study of community mental-health clinics discovered a staggering gap:

  • 42% of people receiving care for SMI also met full criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • yet only 2% had PTSD written anywhere in their medical record.¹

When a diagnosis isn’t in the chart, it usually isn’t in the treatment plan. That means the trauma-driven symptoms continue on without intervention. And, yet there are so many effective treatments that can help.


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