{"id":18345,"date":"2016-06-05T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=18345"},"modified":"2024-01-12T14:35:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T19:35:28","slug":"complex-ptsd-response-to-prolonged-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/complex-ptsd-response-to-prolonged-trauma-0603137","title":{"rendered":"Complex PTSD: Response to Prolonged Trauma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Posttraumatic stress (PTSD)<\/a> can severely interfere with functioning, resulting in intrusive memories, depression<\/a>, disrupted sleep,\u00a0anxiety<\/a>, and avoidance of situations that bring back memories of the trauma. But the symptoms of some trauma survivors, particularly those who have experienced prolonged abuse or captivity, don’t neatly match traditional symptoms of PTSD. In the 1980s, some therapists and researchers began to advocate for recognition of a new variety of PTSD called complex posttraumatic stress disorder or C-PTSD. Although C-PTSD is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>therapists are increasingly recognizing the issue, which requires different treatment and produces different symptoms.<\/p>\n

What Is Complex PTSD?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

PTSD is a reaction to a threatening event, and the event is usually a single event that occurred for a brief duration. Traumatic events that might cause PTSD include watching a loved one die, witnessing a violent act, rape, assault, and military combat. C-PTSD, by contrast, is more likely to occur when a person experiences multiple or ongoing traumas or when a single trauma lasts for a long time and leads to feelings of captivity. Survivors of concentration camps, people who were regularly abused as children, domestic violence<\/a> survivors, military personnel<\/a> who are exposed to ongoing violence, people who have experienced repeated sexual assaults, and kidnapping victims may experience C-PTSD.<\/p>\n

While PTSD typically causes disturbances\u2014such as flashbacks, avoidance of\u00a0locations or situations that remind a person of the event, or chronic fear<\/a> and depression\u2014to the traumatic event, C-PTSD is more likely to cause identity and personality disturbances in addition to the symptoms of traditional PTSD. This is because people exposed to prolonged trauma may begin to view the trauma as a core part of their identity<\/a> or as something they caused, and sometimes they might question their own memories\u2014believing, for example, that perhaps the trauma didn’t really happen.<\/p>\n

Symptoms of Complex PTSD<\/strong><\/h2>\n

C-PTSD has many of the same symptoms as PTSD, including intrusive memories or flashbacks, depression, anxiety, avoidance, and changes in personality. However, people with C-PTSD also experience symptoms that people with PTSD don’t normally have. These include:

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