What is Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD)?

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (complex PTSD), sometimes abbreviated as c-PTSD or CPTSD, is a condition that combines some symptoms of PTSD with additional distressing experiences. Here are the key features of complex PTSD:

1. Symptoms:

   • Difficulty Controlling Emotions: Individuals with complex PTSD struggle to manage their emotions effectively.
   • Feelings of Anger and Distrust: They may harbour intense anger or distrust toward the world.
   • Persistent Emptiness or Hopelessness: A constant sense of emptiness or worthlessness.
   • Perceived Permanent Damage: Feeling as if they are permanently damaged or fundamentally different from others.
   • Challenges in Relationships: Avoiding friendships and relationships or finding them extremely difficult.
   • Dissociative Symptoms: Experiencing depersonalisation (feeling detached from oneself) or derealisation (feeling detached from the world).
   • Physical Symptoms: These can include headaches, dizziness, chest pains and stomach aches.
   • Frequent Suicidal Feelings.

2. Emotional Flashbacks:

   • People with complex PTSD are prone to emotional flashbacks.
   • During these flashbacks, intense feelings (such as fear, shame, sadness or despair) from the original trauma resurface.
   • They may react to present events as if those feelings are currently happening, without realising it’s a flashback.

3. Causes:

   • Complex PTSD can result from prolonged or repeated trauma over months or years.
   • Traumatic events associated with complex PTSD include:
     • Childhood Abuse, Neglect, or Abandonment
     • Ongoing Domestic Violence or Abuse
     • Witnessing Violence or Abuse Repeatedly
     • Forced Prostitution (Trading Sex)
     • Torture, Kidnapping or Slavery
   • Early trauma during childhood increases the risk of developing complex PTSD.

Contact me