What is Complex Trauma
General awareness about trauma has risen dramatically in the past couple of decades. However, there’s much more to this complex topic than meets the eye. In fact, the word “complex” is an ideal starting point for such an examination. Almost everyone will experience potentially traumatic events in their lives. Generally speaking, conversations about this reality revolve around a single experience that could result in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
However, far too many people endure ongoing, repetitive scenarios that create a chronic climate of trauma. When this happens, especially during childhood, the impact it has is termed “complex trauma,” and the outcome is often complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). Let’s dig deeper into the causes, symptoms, and treatment.
What Do You Mean By Repetitive Trauma?
If a person is impacted, for example, by a natural disaster, automobile accident, or crime, they may become traumatized by this single event. They might be diagnosed with PTSD and require the help of a trauma-informed therapist. Complex trauma is different, not “worse,” per se, but different.
Complex trauma is caused by sustained suffering and abuse in the realm of:
Chronic abuse, whether it be physical, sexual, or emotional
Living in a war-torn geographical area
Being enslaved, prostituted, kidnapped, or trafficked
Imprisonment
Ongoing neglect and/or abandonment (especially during childhood)
This is not the complete list, but it clarifies some crucial distinctions. Complex trauma is caused by relentless situations, often perpetrated by someone you trust, that occur during childhood, and present the perception that escape is impossible. No one is coming to save you.
Someone with C-PTSD will have symptoms that overlap with those of anyone diagnosed with PTSD, e.g., nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, social withdrawal, and more. Survivors of complex trauma, however, will display other signs and symptoms.
A Couple of Complex Trauma Red Flags
Feeling Misunderstood and Different
Understandably, you doubt whether anyone gets what you’ve been through. How can anyone comprehend the horror that becomes normalized in your daily life? With C-PTSD, it can be challenging to connect with others as friends, family members, co-workers, and, of course, partners.
Detachment
After some time that made you feel hopeless and betrayed, it’s not unusual for a complex trauma survivor to seek dissociation. This can lead to the fragmentation of memories, a loss of self-esteem, and difficulty in maintaining faith and beliefs.
Trauma Bonding and Obsession
This is a tricky category of symptoms to understand. People with C-PTSD, whether or not they are still in contact with their abuser, can become extremely fixated on this pivotal figure in their lives. Sometimes, the survivor will make excuses for the perpetrator. During the ongoing abuse, victims will often cultivate whatever coping mechanism they can to survive. Afterward, this unhealthy approach can linger in the form of idealizing the abuser.
A parallel track can involve the survivor obsessed with the idea of revenge. On one level, it’s not hard to imagine such a mindset. However, unless the person with C-PTSD can process and resolve the trauma, these fixations remain counterproductive.
C-PTSD Treatment Options
For starters, let’s keep two critical factors in mind:
You absolutely did not “ask for” or “deserve” complex trauma or C-PTSD
Complex trauma and C-PTSD are treatable
From this foundation, when you reach out to try trauma-informed therapy, you are positioned to heal and recover. You’ll be responsible for creating a complementary regimen of self-care. However, it will be in your sessions that you and your therapist get busy creating outcomes that, for example:
Empower you to connect with yourself in ways that trauma had short-circuited
Break free of the emotional hold your abusers may still have on you
Reimagine your thought patterns and perceptions into a positive framework
Resist the urge to withdraw from others
Cultivate healthy connections with others
Complex trauma is a daunting prospect, but you can thrive again. Let’s connect and talk about the possibilities.
