What is CPTSD?
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder describes the results of ongoing, inescapable, relational trauma. The “Disorder” part of the name can be misleading, as this type of Traumatic Stress is caused by external events that involve being hurt by another person, or people. The injuries are ongoing, repeated and often involve betrayal and a loss of safety. CPTSD then, can be thought of as an injury as opposed to an illness. People will say, “it is not what is wrong with you, it is what HAPPENED to you”. In contrast, PTSD, as we typically think about it, is usually a one-time experience or single event.
Human children require physical and emotional safety for healthy brain development. Adult survivors of CPTSD have experienced a loss of safety, and no agency over themselves and their environments during critical times in brain development, for extended periods of time. This loss of agency during early years results in stunted growth, depravation of opportunities to create lives that they deserve and has ultimately stripped them of their sense of self-worth and sense of self. Without the ability to understand what has happened to them, young survivors grow up to be adults who live in the same constant state of hypervigilance and suffering, even after escaping physical danger.
Adult survivors of complex trauma often experience:
• Amnesia
• Chronic mistrust
• Chronic physical pain
• Revictimization
• Debilitating flashbacks
• Nightmares
• Body memories
• Anxiety
• Disassociation
• Trouble with regulating volatile emotions
• Severe depression
• Toxic shame
• Auto-immune disease
• Other deeply distressing and potentially life altering symptoms
In addition to the mental and emotional effects of CPTSD, the Adverse Childhood Experiences study shows that individuals who experience higher levels of childhood trauma have increased risk for additional health problems and behaviors including, but not limited to:
• Coronary Heart Disease 13%
• COPD 27%
• Smoking 33%
• Heavy drinking 24%
The severity of these aftereffects can cause adult survivors to isolate as a means of coping. This can lead to despair and suicidality, which increases the possibility of modeling these behaviors and maladaptive coping for their own children, creating intergenerational cycles of trauma.
Healing CPTS is possible! It requires new daily habits that can afford the profoundly empowering opportunity to reclaim their sense of agency and self-worth. Then they can create their new lives and look forward to the future, day by day, ultimately resulting in the prevention of complex relational trauma in order to leave a legacy of healing for future generations.