Introduction to cPTSD

cPTSD (also c-PTSD, CPTSD, and C-PTSD) is complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Much like its’ counterpart, PTSD, cPTSD is also a mental health condition that can develop after a traumatic experience, and can be experienced directly within the traumatic event, witness a person experience a trauma, or learning that the traumatic event occurred to a close family member or friend.

cPTSD versus PTSD

cPTSD is caused by repeated or prolonged trauma, such as bullying, abuse, neglect, domestic violence; while PTSD can occur from a single traumatic event, such as a car accident, serious injury, sexual violence.

Symptoms of cPTSD

Both cPTSD and PTSD can include flashbacks, hypervigilance, avoidance of reminders of the traumatic event, changes to behaviors, intrusive memories or nightmares, heightened arousal, and changes to mood and thinking (Mann et al., 2024).

Why is cPTSD so dangerous/debilitating?

With a chronic exposure to repeated or prolonged trauma, your stress response is constantly activated – that means your fight or flight response is always turned on, with no chance of rest. With an overwhelmed nervous system, you can experience intense emotions such as sadness, anger, rage, or fear that feels overwhelming and out of control. You may feel intense shame, constantly be on the edge, and mood swings that will make daily life more challenged. What is worse is that you may have a distorted self-perception due to the repeated trauma, especially if the trauma is from someone you know, such as a family member or partner. You may feel unworthy, powerless, or even blame themselves for the abuse. Rather than blaming the person, you blame yourself that you are constantly remaining in a harmful state, feeling hopeless that anything will ever change.

As a coping mechanism, you may also have trust issues, disconnect from your thoughts, self, memories, or sense of identity (disassociation, de-personalization). Disassociation is a coping mechanism to help deal with overwhelming trauma, but can cause difficulty in concentrating, engaging in relationships, or to be fully present in life.

With the constant state of “being on”, your body’s stress response can lead to physical health problems, such as chronic pain, fatigue, headaches, gastrointenstinal issues, and cardiovascular issues. Many diseases can be the mask for cPTSD, such as thinking you have ADD or ADHD when you struggle to process information or focus on tasks.

Essentially, you feel stuck in the trauma, and often times, you may not even realize you were even traumatized as you had blocked those memories out.

cPTSD emotionally, cognitively, relationally, and physically disrupts a persons life.

References

Mann, S. K., Marwaha, R., & Torrico, T. J. (2024). Posttraumatic stress disorder. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559129/