What is complex trauma?

[rainy_daze]

@imok you will find lots of useful advice here. Welcome to MyPTSD :tup:.

for years before they may escape

I wonder if this will be the crux of a cPTSD diagnosis then. If it is to do with length of time and being physically trapped.

I mean, being kidnapped and unable to get away, would that fall into the criteria, regardless of age?

I also wonder if therapists will disagree with new criteria, if they are used to using the phrase "complex trauma" when treating child abuse survivors who have survived other types of trauma after childhood, but the criteria changes the diagnosis.

It's all very interesting. My T seems to use complex trauma when referring to someone who has been through multiple traumas, with an emphasis on them [the traumatic/prolonged events] beginning during the developmental years. I trust that she keeps up with the research in order to practise better with clients on a one-to-one basis and the group therapies she runs.

 

[RussH]

@rainy_daze The actual question has to do with complex trauma and not cPTSD. Complex trauma is generally trauma that happens on multiple occasions, although I would suspect extended captivity; especially if physical abuse is part of the captivity would classify as complex trauma.

 

[Deleted member 29899]

@rainy_daze The actual question has to do with complex trauma and not cPTSD. Complex trauma is generally trauma that happens on multiple occasions, although I would suspect extended captivity; especially if physical abuse is part of the captivity would classify as complex trauma.

Do you think there's a difference between complex trauma and C-PTSD? It's the same thing isn't it?
Some seem to think complex trauma is only the example of something like Elizabeth Smarts situation. Not so. A person can have various different traumas throughout their life and this is indeed complex trauma. For example - a rough childhood then a rape then losing both parents in a car crash then witnessing a stabbing then being religiously terrorized then getting their home broken into.... This is to my knowledge, more common of a scenario.

 

[rainy_daze]

I think once a cPTSD diagnosis and subsequent data continues to form, as you will see a lot of adults who endure combat, those taken hostage for prolonged periods as an adult, those who get snatched up at 17 or so and sent into the sex trade industry for years before they may escape, and so forth, all fall into cPTSD.

@RussH I was responding to this ^. I was also just saying some things that were in my head with regards to how my therapist discusses/uses the term complex trauma [note: not cPTSD]

I've contributed quite a bit on this thread with regards to the original question of "What is complex trauma?".

 

[rainy_daze]

@imok I only know what my understanding of complex trauma is, from what I've read on here and how my T has tried to explain it to me. It took me a while to realise why she was using the term to help me think about the things I had gone through for the first 20 years of my life.

I have read a little about the cPTSD proposed symptom list [I think there is an article about it on this website].

I guess for me the difference is one is a term used by psychologists/psychiatrists/researchers (from my experience), and that is complex trauma, and the other might one day be a diagnostic label used by psychiatrists/clinical psychologists/people who are qualified to diagnose. So there is a difference between the two. One describes the "type" of traumas, the other describes the symptomatology arising from ["qualifying criteria"] trauma(s). Whatever they might be, in the end, if it gets added into the DSM or whatever.

I have no idea if I'm making sense, but there's my two pence of opinion there for now :laugh:.

I'm also unsure as to who Elizabeth Smart is :meh: her name isn't ringing a bell with me at the moment. [Did she come up with the term complex trauma?]

This thread seems interesting too, in defining the difference between developmental/childhood trauma and complex trauma.

 

[RussH]

Complex traumas is the traumas a person suffers, and cPTSD in the condition or the disorder that may result because of the traumas.

 

[rainy_daze]

@RussH thank you :) I can't manage succinct responses a lot of the time. ^ That is what I would have liked to say :D.

 

[Deleted member 29899]

So is there a term one can use other than C-PTSD to express that you've been through many traumas and each trauma is of a different nature? Not really, I'm guessing.
For example if Im briefly talking to someone and I know the nature of someone's trauma is a horrific car accident, but mine is of that as well as many other different horrific things (like fire and deaths and being held hostage, etc.) I wish I could use a brief phrase to express this to them without going into detail.
?
The brief phrase I use is C-PTSD, in which everyone replies, what is that? I suppose some of this terminology is very new. Even treatment of PTSD is a new(er) frontier.

 

[RussH]

how about multiple traumas?

 

[rainy_daze]

Brief phrase: "I've suffered multiple traumas". You wrote that when I was typing RussH.

If someone has been through a trauma, then they probably won't need to ask what is that in response to the brief version.

 

[anthony]

So is there a term one can use other than C-PTSD to express that you've been through many traumas and each trauma is of a different nature?

That is one of the very issues I think @imok, in that people are looking for a term to define their experience easily, when really, trauma is anything but easy to define. Enduring multiple trauma doesn't automatically make your trauma history complex. People are using the term complex to define just this, multiple trauma, when in fact cPTSD is defining a specific outcome to a deep personality change, not how many traumas you've endured.

One could say... childhood trauma is one trauma, in that the events will be the same, repetitive events, typically, encompassed within the childhood ages. Three kids can endure it, one has no affected outcome, one has PTSD, one has cPTSD. All endured the same childhood trauma. This is why cPTSD is problematic IMO, because people are using it to define past events, not define what is actually wrong with them.

People told they have combat PTSD say cPTSD. People told they have chronic PTSD say cPTSD. Its all very wrong IMHO at this stage.

This is a reason why I believe they should shift away from PTSD in regard to complex trauma, instead opting for a more descriptive term, such as Complex Traumatic Stress Disorder (CTSD), as people are confusing it too much in relation to PTSD and also trauma quantity.

 

[Deleted member 29899]

I've been diagnosed with C-PTSD so I'm sticking with that. Hopefully they knew what they know trauma enough to diagnose with the right terminology for people.
It's hard when even the sufferer doesn't quite know the difference, then of course you've got people diagnosing themselves with anything and everything from reading the Internet.
(People even presenting themselves with personality disorders but have not been formally diagnosed by a Dr. (Then a week later you'll see that the same person has diagnosed themselves with a different disorder! This is a little annoying but I know people are desperately trying to help themselves, looking for answers. Self diagnosis is not a good thing though.)