What is Complex PTSD?
Although PTSD and Complex PTSD (cPTSD) share a common acronym, they can be quite different in their origin. Let’s take a look at the symptoms, which are common to both types. Spoiler alert: PTSD and cPTSD are treatable and responsive to Brainspotting and Jungian Analysis!
“PTSD and cPTSD are treatable and responsive to Brainspotting and Jungian Analysis!”
Symptoms
People suffering PTSD or cPTSD symptoms have unprocessed and unresolved trauma stored in their bodies from overwhelming events. Loud noises, sudden movements from other people, and flashes of light can trigger the stress response in the body. A person suffering from (c)PTSD may dissociate, have trouble breathing, feel their heart racing, feel jumpy or anxious, have nightmares or trouble sleeping, and suffer symptoms indistinguishable from ADHD.
These symptoms may cause the person to live smaller and smaller lives, avoiding crowds, declining social invitations, and suffering relationship problems. Long term effects of untreated (c)PTSD include anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders and addictions, dissociative disorders, and health consequences such as high blood pressure, headaches, and even cancer.
PTSD or cPTSD?
PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, is the stress response we see in individuals whose lives have been endangered, or who have directly witnessed another person’s life-threatening event. Typical victims are first responders, military personnel, or civilians who become victims of war.
Complex PTSD, on the other hand, is more insidious. The victims repeatedly experience negative stress in childhood before their nervous system is developed enough to make sense of it. We have now learned from neuroscience that this absolutely includes infancy and moments when the infant’s cries are not cared for or soothed. You may have thoughts that most, if not all of us, would have had moments when our caregivers were not perfect and could not sooth us immediately, and that is true. Parents are not perfect and fussy infants cry.
The difference in the development of cPTSD is duration over time. In people suffering from cPTSD, collective trauma keeps happening. Through months and years, stress accumulates and is stored in the body while an immature nervous system remains in overwhelm. Of course, any kind of abusive environment intensifies the effects. This includes the toxic emotional abuses from repeated humiliation or shaming as well as the more obvious physical and sexual abuses.
Treatment
The good news is that the medical sciences and Jungian Therapy can offer relief from (c)PTSD. With hard work and dedication, patients can learn to identify their triggers, unearthing their activated complexes. Symptomatically, Brainspotting (BSP), an advanced form of EMDR, clears out trauma stored in the body, while Jungian Analysis offers a deep dive into breaking the old patterns and beliefs that are keeping us hostage to a small existence. Keeping our eye on the goal of reconnecting to Soul can guide us on a journey towards thriving and realizing our highest Self.
