Most people will go through some form of hardship at some point in their life. There are a lucky few individuals who get to live their lives without ever having to face any kind of difficulty or hardship, but for most people, struggle is a part of life.

But what’s not normal is if that struggle goes on forever. Hardship is, ideally, temporary. However, in some cases, it stops being an anomaly and becomes normal.

When this happens, people can become traumatized and the trauma can stay with them, even if they find themselves in a healthier situation.

But while the trauma is still there, there are ways that a person can live with it. At Luxe Recovery LA, we treat a variety of conditions, such as substance use disorder, process addictions, and mental health concerns such as trauma.

An Overview of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that develops after someone experiences a traumatic event. This traumatic event can be participating in war, being caught in a natural disaster, being involved in a major accident, being the victim of assault, and sexual violence. This trauma can stay with a person for months or years after the fact.

Childhood trauma can also carry over into adulthood and cause a person to develop Complex PTSD. A person does not have to be a participant to have trauma, and simply witnessing the event can be enough.

The symptoms of PTSD can manifest in a variety of ways. They can include flashbacks that make them relive their traumatic experience, nightmares, intense anxiety, and intrusive thoughts that relate to the event that gave them their trauma in the first place.

People with PTSD can go through behavioral and cognitive changes. They may become more reactive to stimuli and easily startled because they always feel on the edge. They may also become avoidant and withdraw socially so as not to trigger their symptoms.

PTSD may be diagnosed through a thorough evaluation by a mental health professional that takes into account the severity of a person’s symptoms and how long they’ve been affecting them.

PTSD can have a profound impact on a person’s life. It can affect someone’s academic or professional performance, their interpersonal relationships, and their overall wellbeing.

What is Complex PTSD?

Complex PTSD (CPSTD) is a mental health disorder that develops after repeated trauma. Unlike PTSD, which is linked to a singular traumatic event, CPSTD is linked to recurring, chronic trauma, especially in early childhood.

C-PTSD is common among those who have been trafficked, enslaved, grew up in abusive households, or grew up in war zones or incredibly dangerous areas.

What Can Cause CPTSD?

CPTSD is a complex condition and can be caused by chronic, repeated trauma. This trauma can be manifest in a variety of ways. These can include:

Repeated Trauma

Experiencing multiple traumatic events, or being placed in an abusive or dangerous situation, can overwhelm a person’s ability to cope or process.

This can occur when a person grows up in a conflict zone, is a victim of long-term violence, such as being a prisoner of war, or becomes a victim of human trafficking.

Early Trauma

Another factor that can contribute to the development of complex PTSD is early trauma. Being the victim of child abuse or neglect in crucial developmental stages can lay the groundwork for CPTSD later in life.

Lack of Support

Something else that can contribute to long-term trauma is when, after a traumatic event, a person does not have access to resources or support to help them process what happened. This can make it very difficult for a traumatized individual to develop healthy coping mechanisms for what happened to them.

What Are the Symptoms of Complex PTSD?

The symptoms of CPTSD can include:

Emotional Difficulties

For people with CPTSD, their emotions can be intense and fluctuating. They can feel anger, fear, guilt, shame, sadness. There may even be some level of emotional numbness. Many will have difficulty managing their emotions and be prone to mood swings.

This difficulty with self-regulation and managing emotions can also cause people to become more impulsive and engage in reckless behavior, such as substance abuse.

Many individuals who have CPTSD can also feel a level of disassociation from their identities. They may lose sight of their values, goals, and what they believe to be their purpose in life. This existential crisis can cause some people to feel as if their life has no direction.

Distorted Perceptions

Many individuals who have CPTSD often have a distorted perception of their own selves. Many feel ashamed or worthless because of what happened to them or what they did.

Many also struggle with a feeling of being fundamentally damaged or broken. Low self-esteem and being critical of oneself are also common for those living with PTSD or C-PTSD.

This distortion can also extend to the world at large, and many can become hopeless and feel a sense of impending doom.

Interpersonal Difficulties

People with CPTSD often have trouble with forming or maintaining interpersonal relationships. This is often because their traumatic stress has given them trust issues or a fear of intimacy.

Because of this, many avoid social interactions or have trouble asserting themselves or setting boundaries in the relationships that they do have.

Fear of Complex PTSD Triggers

People who have CPTSD often have to contend with triggers that can cause them to relive what happened to them. These can come in the form of flashbacks, nightmares, or other emotional reactions.

Because of this, many who have complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder often become avoidant or hyper-vigilant so they can avoid being triggered.

Physical Symptoms

Many people who have CPTSD also have to struggle with physical symptoms such as chronic pain, gastrointestinal issues, headaches, and other physical ailments with no discernible cause. They may be related to the stress that trauma can have on a person.

What Is the Treatment for Complex PTSD?

While CPTSD can be difficult to live with, there are ways in which it can be managed. Treatment for CPTSD can vary from treating PTSD. For example, while exposure therapy may be used as a treatment for PTSD, using it for CPTSD requires a delicate approach due to the complexity of symptoms.

Trauma-focused treatment options can help many people address and manage complex trauma and live fulfilling lives.

Therapy

Individual therapy can be greatly beneficial for individuals who struggle with PTSD and CPTSD. Modalities that can be particularly helpful include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

CBT can help individuals with complex PTSD by addressing negative thought patterns (cognitive distortions), changing unhealthy behavior patterns, and fostering the development of healthy coping mechanisms when faced with triggers.

With cognitive restructuring, individuals can reframe their past trauma and cultivate healthy behaviors to facilitate long-term healing and improve their overall quality of life.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Originally developed as a treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), DBT, an offshoot of CBT, has since proven to be versatile enough that it can be adapted to address several mental health concerns.

People with complex PTSD may be helped by DBT as it teaches people skills in mindfulness, emotional regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance. As its name would suggest, DBT takes a dialectical approach to treatment.

This approach helps balance the concepts of change and acceptance, which can help with managing intense emotions, breaking unhealthy behavior patterns, and enhancing relationships. These positive changes can treat PTSD and Complex PTSD by giving people a sense of stability.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

One of the main tenets of EMDR is that traumatic memories can get ‘stuck’ in the brain. Through EMDR, a therapist helps get these memories ‘unstuck’ so they can be processed so that the emotional intensity that comes with them can be assuaged.

EMDR accomplishes this through bilateral stimulation, such as gentle taps, alternating sound cues, or having the patient follow the therapist’s finger.

The eye movements, in particular, are believed to replicate the eye movements in REM sleep, which is the phase of sleep in which memories are processed or consolidated.

Medication

Medication is not often the primary treatment option for CPTSD. However, antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication may be prescribed for people with CPTSD, as symptoms may include depression and anxiety.

We Want To Help You With Living With Complex PTSD

For some people, getting a diagnosis of Complex PTSD can be hard. But for others, it can be a relief. Many people who have experienced prolonged or repeated trauma often don’t get the right treatment because they often don’t know what condition they’re struggling with. However, getting a diagnosis means that they can begin seeking treatment.