Understanding C-PTSD: Beyond Traditional Trauma
Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) is more than just a variation of traditional PTSD—it's a profound psychological response to prolonged, repeated trauma, often occurring during vulnerable developmental stages.
Key Differences Between PTSD and C-PTSD
While standard PTSD typically results from a single traumatic event or a series of events within a shorter time period, C-PTSD emerges from sustained, repeated trauma, often experienced during childhood or in situations of prolonged captivity, abuse, or extreme control. For some, this is growing up with a narcissistic mother, or excessively critical coach, or neglectful caregivers. The critical distinctions include:
PTSD primarily involves re-experiencing a specific traumatic event through flashbacks and nightmares. Typically, there is an obvious difference in one’s well-being before and after the traumatic event.
C-PTSD involves deeper, more pervasive changes to one's sense of self and fundamental relationship with the world. C-PTSD can be more challenging to identify given the gradual build of symptoms that typically begin during development. Many C-PTSD survivors are initially mistreated for ADHD, anxiety, or depression.
Symptoms of Complex PTSD
Beyond traditional PTSD symptoms, you may experience additional reactions attributed to C-PTSD, such as:
Emotional Dysregulation: Intense, often unpredictable emotional responses
Negative Self-Perception: Deep-seated feelings of shame, guilt, and worthlessness
Interpersonal Difficulties: Challenges forming and maintaining healthy relationships due to fawning or passive-aggressive behaviors
Altered Consciousness: Dissociation, memory gaps, and disconnection from self
Distorted Perception of Perpetrator: Complicated feelings toward abusers, including potential attachment, idealization, or minimization of the harm caused
Loss of Meaning: Difficulty maintaining hope, trust, and fundamental beliefs about safety and goodness
Healing Through Internal Family Systems (IFS)
IFS offers a compassionate path to healing C-PTSD. By recognizing that symptoms are actually just protective mechanisms that formed to keep you alive in an unhealthy environment, IFS creates a gentle, non-pathologizing approach to deep healing. It allows you to:
Understand and validate each traumatized part
Release the burden of past experiences and heal your inner child
Rebuild a sense of safety in your body and self-worth in your psyche
Develop healthy internal and external communication
Restore a sense of wholeness and self-compassion
Healing from C-PTSD is possible. With patience and compassionate body-based therapeutic approaches like IFS, you can reclaim your sense of self and create a life full of meaning and connection.
Written by Dr Megan Mansfield (PSY31497), a Clinical Psychologist, IFS-Certified Therapist, and CPTSD Specialist. If you’re ready to begin your journey or have some questions about the process, schedule a time to talk with Dr Megan here.