Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Simple PTSD) is a trauma-induced anxiety disorder that used to be reserved solely for military veterans who had experienced extraordinary, life-threatening events through combat. Overtime, this disorder came to include victims of natural catastrophes and acts of terrorism. But, in therapy settings, clinicians increasingly saw PTSD symptoms in survivors of childhood sexual abuse, rape and domestic violence victims, children raised in poverty or neglect, or children experiencing prolonged stress as a result of bullying or some other traumatizing situation. It was difficult to place these people into the PTSD category, as it stood, because their trauma could not be ascribed to one event. Hence, it wasn’t uncommon for them to get diagnosed with many acute syndromes and personality disorders, to address the wide-range of symptoms they presented.

Thankfully, the field of mental health started to recognize a type of post-traumatic stress that results more from prolonged stress than it does from one-defining, life-threatening event. It is called Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) and is found among individuals who have been exposed to prolonged, traumatic circumstances, like in sexual abuse, physical or sexual violence, bullying, or devastating living conditions, like chronic neglect, poverty, or living with family members who have a serious mental illness. This is the subject matter of my post today. I want to acknowledge my patients who have struggled with this challenging disorder, and also, to let those of you who may be suffering from this stress syndrome, to be able to identify it in yourself.

Simple and Complex PTSD Symptoms

The hallmark symptoms of simple PTSD, and its complex form, involve the reliving of the trauma (flashbacks), hypersensitivity and vigilance to threat, avoidance and withdrawal, nightmares and sleeping problems, disassociating from the environment, and problems in mood. But, unlike the transitory nature of trauma in PTSD’s simple form, years of inescapable childhood trauma damages the development of brain chemistry and the nervous system, so that the ability to learn, attend, and regulate impulses, emotions, and behavior are wholly impacted. Hence, the symptoms are less related to a specific trauma, as in military combat, than they are to developmental problems of functioning. Thus, a nightmare to the specific traumatizing event, for people who have Simple PTSD, becomes night terrors that entertain a range of vaguely defined fears, for the person who has its complex form.

The Brain Chemistry of Prolonged Stress and Danger

Short-lived, life-threatening danger can traumatize people to the point of weakening what they value, believe, and trust, temporarily. But, in chronic childhood stress, the sense of self  is not fully realized, so that a person’s values, beliefs, and feeling states fluctuate, especially in times of high stress. The ongoing trauma takes up so much of the growing child’s heart, mind and spirit that the brain cannot attend outside of the trauma, to grow and strengthen. This is especially true of the brain’s frontal lobe region that helps us to learn, control impulses, regulate our emotions, reason, attend and concentrate, problem-solve, and use our imagination toward goal-achievement. Thus, people who had prolonged childhood stress usually have a history of learning and thinking problems, attention-deficit disorders, impulse-control problems that show up in eating, alcohol, and drug use disorders, and mood and emotional regulation difficulties that have more to do with the structure of the personality than they do to an outside event.

If you have the complex form of PTSD, you most likely have difficulty taking control of your life. You most likely have already seen a variety of doctors for the problems that I’ve mentioned here. Unfortunately, many of you have been diagnosed with a range of mood, personality, and dissociative and learning disorders that make you feel all that more dysfunctional. You have to remember that,

As you can imagine, getting to the right diagnosis and treatment plan is a complex matter, for you and the treating clinician. I have had many patients who have the complex form of PTSD. One of the most challenging aspects to the therapy is to help them to understand its widespread impact on their learning and emotional and social functioning and the multipart interventions required to treat it. C-PTSD has a devastating impact on people’s lives, as their intelligence, talent, and will are seriously undermined by the disorder. And, believe me, most everyone I’ve encountered who has this disorder is intelligent and talented. But, stress gets the best of them. Imagine how hard this must be. It’s one thing to not have what it takes to fulfill certain dreams. But, it’s a whole different ball game to know that you have what it takes, but that your biology is working against you.

If you have this disorder, you may feel like you have been cursed or have been dealt a bad deck of cards, in life, like you are standing on the outside of life, looking in. To you, it seems like other people are having an easier time of fulfilling their dreams and goals. And, do you know what? For the most part, you are right. Complex PTSD is a high-maintenance disorder. That’s a fact. But, through proper therapy and self-care, you can get closer to the life that you’ve imagined.

You Don’t Have to Stay On The Outside, Forever, Looking In

You must live, what Psychotherapist Sandra Brown calls, a gentler, kinder life.

“A gentle life is a life lived remembering the sensitivities of your PTSD. It isn’t ignored, or wished away—it is considered and compensated for.  Since PTSD affects one physically, emotionally, sexually, and spiritually—all of those elements need to be considered in a gentle life.  Just as if you had diabetes you would consider what to eat or what medication you need to take, so it is with PTSD.” A Gentler, Kinder life Part One; Part Two, Sandra Brown.

I could not agree more, with Sandra. You have been in a chronic state of stress for way too long. If you want to get better, minimizing stress is critical to healing and to getting stronger. If you don’t, stressful conditions will get the better of you, exhausting you completely, and making you avoid life, altogether.

Let’s reduce your stress so that your body has a chance to restore itself and work for you. This requires a holistic therapy that treats your body and mind and the relationships that have been undermined by your illness. Remember, the brain and body are resilient. Over time, with the proper treatment, you can repair and develop new nerve networks, to make yourself stronger. You can live with more stability and vigor. You have to:

• Retrain Your body. Reduce your stress. If you are kinder to your body, it will be resilient enough to help you. You won’t get better, until you bring more calm and relaxation into your life. Begin by retraining your body sense. Treatments that calm and de-stress you also heighten your awareness as to what your body is feeling from one moment to the next, so that you can turn your stress around more quickly. Prescribed medication, deep breathing, muscle relaxation and imagery, mindfulness therapies, nutrition and exercise, massage, and spirituality tone down brain and body arousal and relax you. They heal the body at a deep cellular and nerve level. Now, your frontal lobes have a chance of strengthening, so that you can concentrate, learn, cope, and control your emotions and behavior. But, remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. C-PTSD is a high-maintenance disorder that requires your lifelong dedication to healing it. Only by living more gently will you become stronger and more resilient under stress.
• Retrain Behavior. Psychotherapy for C-PTSD varies with the type of trauma. For example, childhood molestation, rape, or domestic violence victims have specific treatments specially designed for their recovery. It’s very important to find trained trauma specialists who are trained in the best approaches to help you. But, generally, C-PTSD treatments emphasize identification of the trauma, protection from the source of the trauma or abuse, support for the real nature of the trauma, and the decisions that unfolded from it, and the processing of grief over what was lost. Additionally, therapies promote self-discovery, personal skill development, and learning how to integrate trauma into a personal story of healing and recovery.
• Strengthen Relationships. C-PTSD can place an enormous strain on intimate relationships. You need relationship therapy to learn more adaptive responses to social tensions and requirements. A recent study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that conjoint cognitive-behavioral therapy is a successful way to treat people with post traumatic stress disorder and their partners. This particular kind of therapy can reduce symptoms and improve couples’ relationships, as it helps them to solve problems more constructively.

Indeed, your journey in life has been paved with challenges that have made your way harder. But, you can rise to the highest level of your capability through the right self-care and treatments. Many exceptional people in the fields of entertainment, mental health, art and literature, and business have the complex form of PTSD and have thrived, despite it. The following are links to websites that help you to live more gently and to be kinder to yourself.

A Gentler, Kinder life Part One; Part Two, Sandra Brown; Barry Sears, Omega 3 Fatty Acids for Anxiety and PTSD Disorders; Out of the Fog; Integrative Trauma Treatment; Hope’s Tapestry by Catherine Darnell and Louise Gluck, Writing through Complex PTSD.

I hope you learned something new from today’s post that will help you or a loved one to live life better. If you liked my post, please let me know by selecting the Like icon that immediately follows. Also, if you want to let others know about this post, select google’s  icon, to spread the word. Warmly, Deborah.