What is PTSD and Complex Trauma?
A Bit About Trauma…
Statistics show that 1 in 3 people have experienced trauma of some kind as a child or an adult. Experiences of trauma could include childhood abuse (physical, sexual, emotional) or neglect, natural disasters (floods, bush fire, cyclones), accidents (work-related, car etc.), experiences of war/combat/terrorist acts, bullying, and interpersonal violence (including physical harm, rape, domestic violence, torture).
While our psyche has natural systems in place to protect us from and to process trauma, sometimes the trauma can be so overwhelming to our system that it causes a glitch, and the trauma becomes ‘frozen’ or ‘trapped’ in our system and is unable to process. When this happens, we can experience PTSD or Complex Trauma.
What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often the result of a single incident of trauma. It may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening, and it may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being.
Some symptoms of PTSD can include intrusive thoughts, distressing dreams, flashbacks, avoiding things, people, places and situations that are reminders of the traumatic event, changes in mood and thinking, and memory, distorted beliefs about oneself, fear, guilt, shame, feeling detached from others, unable to experience positive emotions, being irritable, hypervigilant, difficulty concentrating or sleeping.
What is Complex Trauma?
Complex trauma is often the result of multiple or ongoing experiences of trauma. These are often experienced within interpersonal relationships and often violate an established or perceived trust and can include experience such as childhood abuse, domestic violence, repeated torture or sexual assault. Complex trauma can also result from compounded experiences of trauma where different experiences of trauma may be experienced at the same time or build upon each other, e.g. experiencing bully at work while then being impacted by bushfires or having a history of childhood abuse and now experiencing domestic violence in a relationship.
Symptoms of Complex Trauma can be similar to those outlined above for PTSD, but there is often a more profound impact on one’s sense of self, identity and worth, feelings of shame, guilt, inability to trust others, and difficulties in forming and maintaining healthy relationships with others.
Complex trauma can often co-present with other mental health disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), Anxiety Disorders, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Recovery or healing is possible.
While some people feel overwhelmed by the symptoms of PTSD and Complex Trauma, effective treatments are available, and recovery and healing are possible. However, each person’s journey to recovery and healing will be different.
Dr Ann can help you find the path to healing that is right for you.