Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), though not included in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5, is a more serious form of PTSD. You can recover from it, but first you need to know you have it. 

According to the Hanley Treatment Center, with CPTSD, “you constantly feel on edge; nothing seems to help. The emotional trauma gets physically stuck in your body.” The body (memory) keeps reliving memories that intrude into reality as if they’re happening in the present moment—like a needle stuck on a record (for those who remember records). CPSTD may start in childhood or adulthood and is the result of “a series of traumas over a long time.” The key is that trauma is not one and done, but recurrent so that you never really get to recover from it and it can shape your personality. 

Complex PTSD causes may include:

• Sexual abuse
• Incest
• Ongoing physical abuse
• Chronic neglect or abandonment
• Medical abuse or medical trauma
• Ongoing emotional abuse
• Torture or being held captive
• Enmeshment or engulfment trauma
• Parentification (children taking on adult rules)
• Human trafficking
• Genocide campaigns
• Living in a war zone or area of civil unrest

Criteria may include:

1. Flashbacks
2. Memory lapses
3. Distorted sense of self
4. Inability to control your emotions
5. Hyperarousal
6. Unexplained upset stomach
7. Sleep disturbances
8. Challenged interpersonal relationships
9. Avoidance of certain circumstances/places
10. Substance use
11. Low self-esteem
12. Chronic health conditions
13. Nightmares
14. Depersonalization or derealization
15. Negative self-perception and thoughts of suicide
16. Unexplained headaches
17. Autoimmune conditions

If you think you might have CPSTD, talk to a trauma therapist who can help you with it. 

Best,

Karen