What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and 10 Common Symptoms

I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about C P T S D, so we're gonna start, and this will be a small series. So I will do a follow-up about some tools that can help to assist you in your reprogramming journey. I do recommend if you've been diagnosed with C P T S D or you think that you have CPTs, that you do seek help from a local Professional, somebody you can see face-to-face and have that local ongoing support.

And, and specifically this is not meant to diagnose or anything like that. It's just here to provide some insight and clarity around people who are wondering if this might be a personal thing that they're going through. So what we'll go through in this video specifically is we'll talk a little bit about.

The difference between PTs D and CPTs D some of the root causes, some major symptoms that you might see related to C P Ts D. We'll touch on a little bit about how B P D and C PTs D often get confused and I'll touch at a very high level and some. Core important differences. And then we'll talk a little bit about root causes and something called the ACEs test, which is 10 questions that will help you to sort of make a link and understand the relationship between adverse childhood experiences or trauma and some of the output of that long term.

So let's discuss this topic. I feel like I'm very serious going into this topic, but I think this is a really serious and important topic. So as I said, again, this video can't diagnose anybody, anything like that. Just provide some insight and if you are feeling like, oh my goodness, this is me.

This very much sounds like me. It is definitely important to do the work and, and have somebody there hands on to help you do this work with you. Now can people heal without that? Of course, but it is not recommended. So CPTs d first and foremost stands for Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

And a lot of people are really familiar with. Traditional T S D post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, P T S D is usually the result of a specific larger trauma, a high level trauma, let's say something that's an eight or a nine or a 10 of 10 or a series of larger traumas across a, a relatively short period of time.

 So like a very clear cliche example of this. Though, not cliche of course, for the people who go through this and experience this is you might see somebody who is fighting in a war and they're exposed to seeing people die these severe traumas in a short period of time. And, and the result can be people come back and they actually have post-traumatic stress disorder.

People can have PTSD from , being. Involved or, you know, being a part of a, a traumatic world event, something like nine 11. You know, these different events that are very traumatic but are very specific, right? They're really geared into like one day, one three month period specific to something that you're going through C P T S D.

Is a little bit different. And this is where it's a very interesting and very important topic to understand. So, C p ts D is usually the result of being exposed to many more consistent lower level traumas. Over the course of a longer period of time. And where we will often see this take place is if somebody grows up in a home that is physically or emotionally unsafe.

And we're gonna do a deep dive into all of that. So what happens, and what's really interesting is the, the impact C P T S D has on the subconscious mind is that because a lot of. People with C P T S D, though this is not the case for everybody. A lot of individuals who have C P T S D have a fractured relationship to being able to trust the world around them, their caregivers, and perhaps themselves as well as a result of, of some of the painful events they're exposed to.

And what's important to know is that we have a tendency as human beings to take whatever the relationship is with our caregivers and to really project that out, and that becomes our worldview. So whatever we think our relationship was to our caregivers, that's often the, Paradigm of subconscious associations that we sort of see of everything else.

For example, if mom or dad couldn't be trusted, probably authority figures in general can't be trusted or people can't be trusted if mom or dad lied often. Okay. All people lie often, right? So we have this tendency to project that out and make that our world view because these are our very early attachment relationships and bonds.

And these are the first programmed associations we get about what it means to connect with other human beings. Okay, so, C P T S D is sort of like this ongoing lower level trauma. There can be higher level traumas in there as well. And we do have to remember that trauma sort of exists along a continuum.

But this, these lower level consistent traumas often take place in a way that diminishes a person's ability to feel trusting and safe in their world. So some clear symptoms you might see of people who are struggling with C P T S D number one. And I'm gonna go through why for each of these. Number one, we will see obviously people feeling untrusting towards the world.

And really specifically what I've noticed without oversharing too much, I actually personally think I very much had. Textbook symptoms of C P TS D, not extremely high on the continuum of Cpt s d, which also exists along the continuum. And this was before ccpt s d. This was long enough ago that ccp, T s D wasn't something that was discussed hardly at all.

It was just a topic, very, very beginning to emerge, so it's a relatively new concept or idea. And it's not officially in, in the current d s m. Not that that means that it's not a valid thing. Cause I very, very much believe that it is. Anyways, so, what I notice, and it's interesting, and this is not just from personal experience here, but this is also from a lot of conversations with people about these sorts of things and people who have these symptoms.

 A lot of the untrusting towards the world. Can be as a general rule, feeling very suspicious internally and maybe presenting otherwise, which is common with people with CPTs d. But, but looking out on the world and being very hesitant to really trust, to really make high level commitments to things to want to invest in trusting.

People, relationships, authority, figures workplaces, rules, lots of different dynamics in there that are interesting and, and most specifically, I noticed that a lot of individuals with C P T S D have an over defend response. So they often perceive that they're being attacked when they aren't necessarily, and their response to this attack is to hyper defend.

So you might see like overreactions to things like being caught in traffic, to being cut off to somebody saying something slightly rude and passing. And there can be this need to over defend because your subconscious programmed dissociations around being attacked in any way or being unsafe in any way you might have learned to cope with by having an exaggerated fight response.

Okay, and remember, four major trigger responses or trauma responses are fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. And these all take place in individuals with CPTs D. In most of the individuals I've seen in, in unique and specific ways which we will cover. So untrusting towards the world, we could say under that point, or next to that point, having an a highly defensive response.

Another one that's very important, we'll say this is number two, difficulty emotionally regulated. Now the reason for this is whenever we go through trauma, especially if there's more consistent low level traumas, We basically, you can think of your subconscious mind as being like this giant field.

And the more traumas you go through, the more imprints you have that are traumatic. And when we go through a traumatic event that we can't make sense of, especially if this is in childhood, we naturally give meaning to that event. So we naturally will go. For example let's say you saw mom and dad having a really intense fight.

You go, I am unsafe. Marriage is scary. Commitment is scary or unhealthy, you know, whatever. And, and it Remember, this isn't like what the exact meaning everybody gives. It will be very individual to the meaning you gave to that event. And then in order to protect ourselves from that event, or protect ourselves from future pain, We store that it imprints us deeply and then we repro project that out onto the world so we can be aware of it.

 And this comes from this very like survival oriented space where like hundreds of thousands of years ago, or you know, years and years ago, you wanted to be able to know, like if you encounter a predator, You know by that tree over there, you need to remember what tree that was and where the predator was lurking so that you don't go near that tree and you can survive.

And so we might go, let's say you see mom and dad in this really big fight. You might go, oh, like relationships and intimacy, that's a scary thing that can't happen because it's unsafe. People fight, it's a threat to their life. And so we hold onto that and that imprint and the way that we get imprinted is actually originally there to protect us.

 And while that. Brain strategy might have served in the past. We're often living in a society now where there can often be more harm to those imprints long term than good. And we're gonna get into like how some of these things actually can affect us physically Difficulty emotionally regulating.

 What you can imagine is that you've got more minds in your mind field. If your subconscious mind is this giant field and you have all these little imprints, you can think of them as minds waiting to go off. And so if you, if you have more of them because you were exposed to, to more persistent low level traumas, it's like all these little minds are everywhere.

And so that difficulty emotionally regulating is not some random byproduct that just happens because you went through stuff. It's actually happening with like specific mechanics. We have these stored experiences that we're repro projecting where fearing could happen again. And when somebody touches them or gets close to 'em, they blow up because they're designed to blow up.

 So we can recognize and we can protect ourselves. So let's say you have all these low level traumas and you're going, I am unsafe. I'm trapped, I'm powerless. Because maybe you have experiences of feeling like this vulnerability is unsafe. You know, I'm unloved, I'm unworthy because maybe there's some inherent neglect. 

That comes with being exposed to a lot of trauma. Maybe nobody's asking you how you're feeling, how you're doing, whatever it might be in whatever form it takes. Cuz again, there are a lot of unique individual experiences that can cause this for people. But, but we give meaning to these painful events and then there are these little minds waiting to go off.

 And when somebody steps near them, that's what's happening. So that's where a lot of that difficulty emotionally regulating comes from. And again, when we have this awareness, and you'll see in the second part of this, Series here, you can reprogram this stuff. Like once we can really isolate these things, we can take the steps necessary to do the reprogramming work at a subconscious level so that we can relieve ourselves of these things.

Okay, so next one. Low self-worth feelings or beliefs in your unworthiness beliefs about your unworthiness, essentially. And from an external perspective, this can be presented as a few in a few different ways. I've seen this presented as people extremely overcompensating for their diminished self-worth.

I've seen versions of this where I can think of a person off the top of my head that I know and you know, he. Definitely was struggling with this and always lying about things, always saying, I have this award, I have this experience. I just did this, I did that. And always, and, and you would know like some of these things aren't real.

 Like, and, and you would think like, Doesn't that person know that it's obvious that they're lying about stuff? Like, doesn't the person, and, and what's happening is even if the person knows to a certain degree at some subconscious level, that the things they're dishing out aren't necessarily being bought into their subconscious mind is very much prioritized with trying to overcompensate to feel worthy, to feel some kind of connection, to stay safe.

And so these very strong coping mechanisms can be a byproduct of that. So that's one thing. Another thing, That you can see as somebody actually just overtly struggling with worthiness and self and low self-esteem. Or, and this can also be partially a trauma response, extreme people pleasing due to self-worth feeling like I have to earn my worth everywhere in the world.

I have to show up a certain way. I have to be perfect to a certain degree. And really trying to either overcompensate in that form or Hold oneself to a standard that is not healthy and not necessarily functional or realistic. And again, it's not because somebody's like, oh, I just wanna be perfect to get approval.

It's because I have to be perfect to stay safe. And this does, I know some of you are like, this is familiar. This sounds like fa yes, there is some overlap here, but not everybody who's FA has C P T S D. Just to be very, very clear though, some individuals can struggle with that and some.

Characteristics you might see from C P T S D might also have a bit of a shared overlap in different types of qualities of an fa and other attachment style can also have C P Ts D for the record. So these are some really important things. Feeling damaged or different, like nobody can understand what I'm going through.

 Feeling alone in your pain or suffering. Finding relationships very difficult. Feeling like relationships are so hard. Why? Because relationships are people coming into your, your land, your subconscious land, and waiting for all these minds to go off, okay. Relationships and our inherent programmed associations with relationships, especially if C PTs, d for you is, is related to experiences that happen in your home and that can be in your home as a child.

I also have seen people be. Not have any problems with CP Ts D, but then have a 20 year very painful relationship with somebody who's a very unhealthy figure and come out of that with CPTs D and in the home there that happens. And, and so you have to imagine when we have these programmed associations, whether it's through a long period of time in our adult lives or childhood and.

These associations are here. Like, this is what love is. It's painful, it's unsafe, it's, I can't trust, it's you know, I'm helpless and powerless. I'm all these things that I believe because of those associations being imprinted. Then when you go into a relationship, All those things are being triggered and brought in there, and that's why relationships will feel so hard for people with C P T S D feelings of emptiness.

 How does this manifest? Well, you can see that somebody just actually feels chronically empty, but what you're much more likely to see is that somebody's busy behaviorally trying to cope with those subconscious feelings of emptiness by filling that void. This often, often manifests as an eating disorder.

 More specifically bulimia through what I've seen stuffing feelings, trying to fill that void or fill that emptiness up. Addiction to drugs or alcohol numbing that emptiness, trying to release or relieve oneself of that emptiness. And then we have some other really, Important to note symptoms.

That can be things like recklessness or rebellious behaviors. Feeling as though you can't trust one or both caregivers. But we kind of touched on that in the earlier point about not being able to trust the world and then often feelings stuck to a certain degree. This is very common with C P T S D, but again, these are, these are patterns.

 These ones, I'm just saying they're not necessarily exactly what you will see. Okay. These are patterns I'm, I'm noticing Often stuck in a, a fa response. So, so often people pleasing, followed by like volatility to a certain degree. And this is where some individuals will, will. Often people with C P T D are misdiagnosis, B P, D but there are some really important differences that we'll note in just a moment between the two.

And then obviously in more extreme cases of C PTs, D. So these are the more like general Cases. But then as you see more extreme cases, you'll see things like dissociative symptoms, thinking about suicide, not necessarily like ideation in the way of, of, again, that's on a continuum that can be like, You have suicidal thoughts in passing, you think it would be easier to not be here or there can actually be thinking about committing suicide, these sorts of things.

So I probably should have said a little trigger warning around that. But again, please know that if this is you and your hearing this and if some of these things are resonating, it is very, very important to seek out somebody local that can help you, serve you, work with you all those sorts of things.

Cuz that one-on-one help is very useful in dynamics like this. Now I want you to notice the difference between regular P T S D and C P T S D being that accumulated residual trauma, more minds in the minefield.

 So, in one sense, It can be more difficult to reprogram some of these pieces . But. On the other hand, the reprogramming can take place a little bit faster because it's more low level. And a large part of how the subconscious is reprogrammed is, basically imprinting it with counteracting emotion.

So if we believe we are unsafe and then we feel really safe in the world and we see our safety and we do things behaviorally to increase our safety and make ourselves. Feel safe and we have safe people around in a safe environment. Over time, those emotional imprints of feeling safe will start to overpower and equilibrate those original emotional feelings of not being safe.

And we can do things that can actually make us feel that way and we can consciously create some of that and, and rinse and repeat so that that starts to really imprint us more of our time. And obviously that's easier to do when we have. Low level traumas that are 3, 4, 5 out of 10 consistently versus a 10 out of 10, right?

 Because you need a lot of emotion to reprogram those really intense traumas more likely to be associated with P T S D. And so what's interesting though is the sticky part is to find all the different minds in your minefield. C P Ts D usually has more. Specific sorry. More different individual types of traumas.

More, more different minds in your minefield. So the, I am helpless. The, I am powerless. The, I am trapped, the, I am unsafe. The I will be betrayed or I can't trust the, I am not good enough. Like all of those things have individual different imprints that we have to equilibrate through. Okay. So that's what we have so far.

 Now, why does cPTs D and BP often get confused because a lot of the behavioral manifestations can sometimes be alike. But the major differences that are important to note and there are, there are actually quite a few, but I'll just give you the big major ones 

often individuals with c PTs d do not have the same fear of abandonment that B p D individuals very, very much have. And they often have a much stronger sense of self. So even though they're wounded, and even though they can be people pleasing, there's usually a greater sense of self identity. Like who I am, who I want to be in the world what I wanna create, or having some kind of dream or goal or at least sense of, of self instead of feeling like, I have no idea who I am, and there's just this chronic, massive emptiness.

 Not like a hollows, you know, more low level emptiness, but like a chronic confusion about sense of self, sense of identity, fear of abandonment, defining yourself and, and figuring out who you are through others, which is more B p D associated. Often you will also see C P T S D individuals if it's more low level.

They won't have like, direct self-harming behaviors, whereas b p D individuals often do or it's at least one of nine major symptoms and, and not necessarily all nine need to be in there to be diagnosed with B P D. But what you will see a lot of the time is individuals with c PTs D have more indirect self-harming behaviors, not because they're trying to harm themselves, but because it's actually a subconscious strategy.

To try to numb out their pain. So again, like eating disorders, alcoholism, drug addiction, these sorts of things. Okay, so this is the next really important part. I've actually just decided in this very moment that I'm going to make this into a second video where we are going to talk about the causes, some really important causes you might see, and we're gonna talk about a really important idea or, a test, an an assessment called the ACEs test or it's actually technically a survey, but I will tell you about that.

And then we're gonna talk about the relationship between c, pt, s, D, and how it can actually impact our physical health and what we can do about it. And then in the later part of the series, we will talk about reprogramming. I hope this gave you a bit of a thorough idea about CPTs d and I will see you in the next video.