What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD)?
 

by Shirley Davis | Sep 3, 2019 | CPTSD Research, What is CPTSD | 33 comments
 

Most people have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder that afflicts many men and women returning from a war zone. It is characterized by flashbacks, unstable mood, and survivor’s remorse. However, many have never heard of a condition that often develops in childhood and changes the course of the child’s life forever, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD).

For a good definition of CPTSD, we turned to Beauty After Bruises, an organization that offers outreach focused on adult survivors of childhood trauma who have complex PTSD with or without the presence of a dissociative disorder. Their definition of complex post-traumatic stress disorder as follows:
 

“Complex PTSD comes in response to chronic traumatization over the course of months or, more often, years. This can include emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuses, domestic violence, living in a war zone, being held captive, human trafficking, and other organized rings of abuse, and more. While there are exceptional circumstances where adults develop C-PTSD, it is most often seen in those whose trauma occurred in childhood. For those who are older, being at the complete control of another person (often unable to meet their most basic needs without them), coupled with no foreseeable end in sight, can break down the psyche, the survivor’s sense of self, and affect them on this deeper level. For those who go through this as children, because the brain is still developing and they’re just beginning to learn who they are as an individual, understand the world around them, and build their first relationships – severe trauma interrupts the entire course of their psychologic and neurologic development.”
 

CPTSD forms in response to repeated interpersonal violence that leaves the victim, a child or adult, feeling trapped with no hope of escape or of imminent death.
 

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is a developmental trauma disorder (DTD) which is wildly different than post-traumatic stress disorder that normally, but not always, forms in adulthood.
 

The trauma model states that children who experience chronic sexual, psychological, physical abuse and neglect develop CPTSD. However, it also forms in kids who suffer slavery, human trafficking, working in sweatshops, war or survivors of concentration camp environments and cults. The trauma which causes this disorder may also include having experienced betrayal, defeat, and shame.

The reason children are vulnerable to forming CPTSD is that children do not have the cognitive or emotional skills to understand what is happening to them. Since the abuse and neglect, they are experiencing is normally perpetrated by people they know and trust, to admit to themselves that these same people want to hurt them is akin to emotional suicide so they use other means to manage the trauma.

The psychological implications are enormous leaving the child with a complex mess of their core beliefs about who they are what they are. This tangled mess becomes even more complicated by flashbacks, nightmares and other symptoms that are worse in adulthood.

Often, children experiencing interpersonal traumatic events experience a conundrum in their minds and some choose to dissociate the events away.
 

CPTSD and PTSD in the DSM-5

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), is the bible of the psychiatric world. However, CPTSD is not mentioned because the author’s believed it was sufficient to lump it together with other trauma-related disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder.

The tragedy of complex post-traumatic stress disorder not appearing in the DSM-V is that mental health providers cannot officially give their clients this diagnosis because it is not accepted by the American Psychiatric Association, the publishers of the DSM-5.

However, there is a growing movement among those living with CPTSD and others who are advocating to have this diagnosis receive its own listing in the next edition. The reason this is vital is that the symptoms of CPTSD are different in many important ways than PTSD.

Now you may be wondering, what’s the difference between complex and the other style of stress disorder, (sometimes referred to as “simple” or “classic” PTSD when being compared or contrasted with complex PTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder develops when a person experiences or witnesses something which is frightening, shocking, dangerous, or scary. Most people recover from such experiences, but some people develop short-term or ongoing symptoms including re-experiencing the event(s) through flashbacks or nightmares, avoiding places, events or objects which remind them of what they experienced, or arousal symptoms like being easily startled.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is different in two crucial ways, the trauma is longer-lasting or repeated, and the symptoms are more severe.

CPTSD can form in both children and adults, but in this series of articles, we are going to focus on children and how what they can face will affect them throughout their life span.

In short, any repetitive situation where the child cannot escape or believes themselves trapped with no hope of escape.

The symptoms of CPTSD can be life-altering and cause severe disabilities such as many different forms of mental health disorders, including borderline personality disorder, dissociative disorders, and somatization disorder. The emotional damage that precludes complex post-traumatic stress disorder can lead to prolonged feelings of terror, worthlessness, helplessness, and the warping of the identity and sense of self in children.

When these children become adults, they have wide-reaching symptoms with not having a solidified understanding of self and problems regulating their own emotions. However, while the emotional state of young children facing overwhelming life experiences is terrible enough, repeatedly being in a position of being in danger continually changes their brains as well.

The amygdalae of these highly traumatized youngsters, due to its constant bombardment from the stress hormones which make the body ready for fight or flight cannot form correctly. This part of the human brain responsible for emotional regulation has been found to be smaller than average by as much as 20% or more when they reach adulthood.

Other parts of the body are affected as well as the body’s inflammatory response to the ongoing influx of stress hormones, harming the child’s systems. Illnesses in adulthood are directly attributable to trauma in childhood, such as problems with immune system disorders, diabetes, and heart disease.

The symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress order may include the following:

• Losing memories of trauma or reliving them

• Difficulty regulating emotions that often manifest as rage

• Depression

• Suicidal thoughts or actions

• Sudden mood swings

• Feeling detached from oneself

• Feeling different from others

• Feeling ashamed

• Feeling guilty

• Difficulty maintaining relationships

• Difficulty trusting others

• Seeking our or becoming a rescuer

• Feeling afraid for no obvious reason

• Having a feeling of always on the alert

• Becoming obsessed with revenge on the perpetrator

• Feeling a loss of spiritual attachment and either ignoring or depending upon religion for self-worth

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What Does Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Look Like?

There are several and various psychological aspects to CPTSD and we have tried to list as many as we could below with associated explanations.

Problems with Emotional Regulation. Survivors find they have a very difficult time experiencing, expressing, and controlling emotions. Not only are survivors unable to describe, comprehend and label them correctly, feeling emotions is terrifying and might express in a volatile manner.

Survivors may experience persistent sadness, suicidality, or either explosive anger or be incapable of expressing it. Survivors often feel numb and are incapable of leveling out their moods after they have experienced an extreme emotion such as elation or grief.

One common symptom any survivors encounter is the re-experiencing of their childhood trauma through flashbacks. These flashbacks are intrusive and often the triggers causing them are elusive. This symptom is known as an emotional flashback.

Difficulty with Relationships. One might think that when we talk about having difficulty with relationships, we are only speaking about having trouble forming and holding an intimate relationship but that’s not all there is to it.

Survivors often have feelings of isolation and haven’t the knowledge of HOW to form relationships. The fear involved in trusting another human being will not harm them leaves these survivors in a morass of harboring the intense needs to hide away and refuse to try to trust others with also desperately wanting someone to love them.

However, some survivors swing the opposite direction and trust too much leaving them vulnerable to victimization to people who will repeat the pain and abandonment of the past.

Below are listed and described some of the difficulties people living with the diagnosis of complex post-traumatic stress disorder experience.

Difficulties with Self-Perception. Due to the messages given by their childhood abusers, survivors often have problems with perceiving themselves as worthwhile and worthy of dignity and respect. Unfortunately, due to the signals sent by caregivers, many believe they are fundamentally bad or damaged beyond repair. This leaves survivors feeling powerless, hopeless, and helpless. Many survivors take on the role of rescuer, sacrificing their own health and happiness to care for others; while others feel a sense of entitlement that blocks their healing.

There is also a permeating feeling of not belonging in the world that, somehow, they are a mistake and should never have been born. This brings a deep sense of loneliness that may result in isolating from other people.

 However, these beliefs and feelings are far from the truth as survivors are compassionate, competent, strong, and intelligent human beings.

Attachment to the Perpetrator. Because survivors have such a low esteem of themselves, many find themselves believing that they are making up things about those who harm them, or worse, that they deserve maltreatment.

Many cannot break free from the influence of their abusers, especially if that person is someone they love like a father or mother. Even though they know the behavior they received as children or are receiving in the present, telling the truth about their loved one feels like a betrayal. These feelings can sometimes translate into suicidality as the survivor struggles with the impression left by their abuser that if they talk about what happened, then they are dirty, nasty, or will be disowned.

Some survivors feel guilt and sadness in leaving their abuser even knowing how badly they are treated by them. Perpetrators groom their victims by giving the impression that they love them and make statements relating to their victim that they will never be loved the way the perpetrator loves them.

Other survivors feel inadequate to manage life without their perpetrators in the picture, following up on messages from the abuser that they cannot live without them.

An Interruption of the Survivor’s System of Meanings. A person’s system of meanings involves their assessment of who they are based on the person’s abilities, weaknesses, feelings, and life. Childhood abuse interrupts a survivor’s sense of self which leads to a struggle to maintain faith or belief that justice, ethics, and morality are unreal. This leaves the survivor with an unfairly contorted outlook on the world.

This distorted vision of their environment often leads to doubt that there is any goodness or kindness that isn’t selfish and that they can never find forgiveness, although they did nothing wrong.

While many people exhibit most of the symptomology listed on this page, they may or may not experience all of them. This is important to understand as survivors are individuals first and have different life experiences. It is also vital to note that comparing one person’s experiences with childhood or other trauma with someone else’s is like comparing an apple to an orange. While they are both almost round and contain seeds, that is where the resemblance ends. One person’s trauma is not better or worse than that of someone else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt, 

 

Wonderful to connect with you Sir and I sincerely appreciate the invite to correspond with you. 

 

The Good Vibrations Truth Trust Transparency and LOVE  website was born out of a time pre the final discard and I would care to invite you to keep a truly open mind when digesting what I have to present. 

 

GV3T LOVE

 

JUST LOVE  is ..........just one step along  the "yellow brick road" of remarkable happenings since my enforced "cleansing" and may I say, one can only convey that it is just that ........... a transition into a different paradigm and that being so the website is my holding tank of critical information and PROOF of my journey.......... a journey that I know to be true and herolds the gateway to a new and distinctly improved society.

 

I'm going to draft a detailed presentation of my experience, my vision and how it will impact exponentially upon humanity, for Matt we are the saviours, not the victims and LOVE is the key along with the three T's to our species salvation.

 

Can I be so intrusive as to ask if you've been cleansed yourself and are armed with the superpowers we hold?

 

Basically do you suffer or are you now using them to your strength? 

 

I await your reply and wish you a truly glorious day.

 

It's going to be e great one

 

Best 

 

Damian

 

 

Matt, 

 

I've attached a legal introduction to a UK QC for your eyes only and for you to look at some of the links I've attached and would ask if it is at all possible to bring Athena into the exchanges to gain her perspective. 

 

SuperAwesome, making the Internet safer for kids

 

AwesomeAds’ proprietary contextual targeting technology reaches over 300M+ under-16s every month, while keeping your brand and your youth audience safe.

 

We will both recognise that the narcissist confesses as they go along, so as to inflict the gaslighting further and decimate the internal equilibrium of the perceived "victim" and its my work and countless interactions that have pieced this jigsaw together. For the record, I saw my Dad burn at nine, run over by a bulldozer at 23, 2 successful marriages, and two very costly, but self-worthy divorces, I can go on and on and on, multi-million dollar businesses and a captain of industry and a name that means 

 

Damian Langiano................    "Conquering Visionary"

 

I am trained for the mission ahead and smile at the opportunity to align with the heartbeat of mother earth and the Hawiian soil. 

 

You won't find me on Linkedin, Youtube or Bitchute and I can't go facebook live, but I am on instagram and facebook, where my message is varied, but consistent. 

 

A dopamine addiction, based upon covert manipulation will result in a trauma bond and codependency that enables the narcissist to mirror a single supply across millions by using the frequency of the handset and subliminal gaslighting to maximise the stockholm syndrome. 

 

What we are seeing now with the flooding of narcissists, healers and educators is simply triangulation, between partners and the devices, creating separation and total immersion into the digital relationship........... "we are all just prisoners here of our own device" 

 

Matt, welcome to Hotel California, you can check out any time you like but you can never leave.

 

That might be true if they can keep the landscape of reality in such turmoil that the fight for data and the war being waged upon us, seems safer than the world outside. 

 

But what if CPTSD was our optimum state of being, what if the symptoms are our arsenal for what lays ahead. 

 

I've been super close to Hollywood and I'm direct with some of the largest stars in the world, and I'm closing in on Trump and was in fact one door away last week. 

 

Imagine 500m children under the age of 16 being mentally targeted via the device, imagine the trauma they've witnessed and the embedded messages and game play they've been exposed too, the appreciate that mum and dad have let the age appropriate classifications slip (covertly manipulated to do so) and thus the wars they've been exposed too ...................................................and by now, I assume the penny is dropping and that beat in your chest is now galloping and your mouth may well be falling open...............as I stated it's a digital holocaust and thus a mental armegeddon. 

 

Yes ...... Oh my GOD indeed. 

 

I'm tuning in my skills and ...they are projecting the reasoning for the global disaster back onto the victims for the ultimate discard and exit, whilst offering digital breadcrumbs and a "misplaced sense of security"..........the METAVERSE

 

Hidden amongst the double life of COVID and its restrictions, 

 

Agenda 2030 ......"You'll own nothing and be happy..............which we know to be true as we shed the chains of materialistic constriction as we shift to absolute empathy and compassion.

 

Matt, at this stage some parts still remain a little cloudy until each piece of the jigsaw is presented, but simply having the chance to convey this to you is crystallizing and confirming the perspective. 

 

Let's take a breath dear friend for what comes next is the solution amongst the options to hand. 

 

Always love

 

Damian

 

 

On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 3:12 PM CPTSD Foundation <hello@cptsdfoundation.org> wrote:

Hi Damian, 

Thank you so much for contacting us and sharing some information about your cause, and for sharing some information about your struggles in healing. I will be happy to check out the link you sent and learn more.

 

Feel free to follow up and contact us anytime. 

 

Matt

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Matt, 

 

3 of 3 

 

Building upon the theory that what in fact is a rising superpower and not the collapse of one's internal construct, we only have to look at the state of society to prove this out. 

 

Pick a subject, any topic that you feel we as a species are succeeding in and then tell me exactly how you can stem the tide of Complex PTSD when our children live in a world of trauma. 

 

I'll save you the waste of time, you can't.

 

What you have to do is create a world that we all feel safe in, not one that creates the very cycle in which we can never truly escape from, or we will be the perpetual abusers of our own children. 

 

Our superpowers of infinite energy, ADHD, multi tasking and perception DYSLEXIA, straight line talking and deliverance ASPERGERS etc are now seen as disorders in a world with no order and the reason we have such difficulty in shedding those issues are because it goes against the grain of humanities compassionate reality. 

 

We are born EMPATHS yet trained to be emotionless and selfish by the American "dream" which has sent its own people into a self-destructive tail spin. 

 

If we reverse gear the process we can re-establish humanities true identity, to do that we need a pillar of TRUTH

 

Imagine creating content, a super movie once a month that was pay per view and streamed to a covertly trained global audience with 100% of the revenues going to humanities impact causes.

Blockchain the transaction and enable interaction between the supporter and the supported and we would have that pillar of the TRUTH and a truly inclusive society. 

A society we all search for in a world that struggles to breath amongst the lies and commits our children to a life of confusion and conflict in some form of twisted reality believing that they will feel secure at the fun fair to such a point that animated fantasy with fast food delivered by scooter is the "Great white hope"

 

I know this to be true, in fact my friend I'm in the process of making it happen......

 

Your view will be truly appreciated, but in earnest as someone doubting his own reality I am creating it one digital impression at a time and inviting others to view this perspective of our world and hopefully inspire them to act upon it. 

 

Enjoy your Saturday .........I fully expect to shake your hand one day and I am eternally grateful for affording this space so as to allow me to solidify a new construct of OUR universe's energy 

 

Sincerely

 

Sia - Unstoppable (Lyrics) - YouTube

 

Always love

 

Damian

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Why The C in C-PTSD Will Haunt You

November 30, 2021

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From Gemini Adams:

 

 

 

 

“Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) is the unfortunate cousin of PTSD, referring to an identifiable mental and emotional health condition that arises from traumatic events that consistently happen over a long period of time, are inter-personal, and often occur in childhood.

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Abandonment, neglect, sexual abuse, domestic violence, physical, emotional or psychological abuse — such as spanking, bullying, gaslighting, shaming and name-calling — torture, being enslaved or held captive by a terrorist, kidnapper or within some kind of cult or [authoritarian] dynamic (including religious, political or educational settings), all fit the bill.

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However, unlike PTSD, the symptoms of C-PTSD are often entrenched in an individual’s personality, having taken root during formative years, when attachment styles and brain development are fragile and still maturing.

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This typically leads to severe, yet often-times invisible symptoms, which can inwardly feel like a disability, including: mental health challenges, lack of emotional or self-regulation, intimacy and trust issues, pervasive low self-esteem, guilt and toxic shame, lack of boundaries, prolonged feelings of terror and hyper-vigilance, emotional and somatic flashbacks, conflict-avoidance, chronic self-isolating, struggles with spatial awareness, interoception and cognitive function, mood swings, dissociation or detachment from reality, a tendency to self-medicate with substances, work, sex or sports, suffering from repetition compulsion, exhibiting both counter-dependent and co-dependent behaviours, people-pleasing or dominating, and real struggles in forming and maintaining healthy relationships with self and others.

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Essentially, C-PTSD is complex by definition; both in its symptoms and also in how it is first formed. For example, a child who grows up in the chaos of a dysfunctional home; whereby the parent who suffers from narcissism, a mental health condition, cluster B personality, or an addiction, is ill-equipped to provide that child with the foundational elements that will promote the formation of a healthy, happy adult.

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An absence of boundaries, or violated ones, lack of compassion or empathy, unavailability, cruelty or abuse, ignored needs, love withdrawn or over-exerted at times, provides no model for clear and direct communication, healthy emotional expression or authentic relating. Consequently, the child simply fails to get the right operating system fully installed. They are robbed of the chance to form a strong and solid sense of self, or learn what kind of behaviours within relationships are right or wrong.

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C-PTSD is often described as life-altering, but it really goes much, much deeper than that. The absence of these essential ingredients in one’s early life, in the words of many of my own clients, creates ‘a void.’ Life is certainly altered. But, unlike with those who suffer symptoms of PTSD, whereby there is a noticeable ‘healthy’ before — where the adult was mentally and emotionally well, capable and content in communications and relationships prior to the traumatic event — with C-PTSD there is rarely a ‘healthy’ before. As international activist Jesse Jackson wisely observed: ‘You can‘t teach what you don’t know.’

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The end result of this is that a ‘wounded child’ is left wandering around inside an adult body, doing their best — but lacking the tools or wherewithal — to behave or interact as a ‘healthy adult’ would. This can include the capacity to earn or retain money, to create stability, to hold down a job, to identify one’s own needs, to understand what one even enjoys or is good at, to engage in social activities or even feel that you belong, or are worthy of being part of any group, job, community or even receiving human decency.”

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