- if someone had childhood abuse, now deals Bipolar disorder, can be complex trauma?
Having childhood trauma does not equate to complex trauma.
-or if someone has childhood trauma, combat trauma, plus seeing 4 comrades killed, that can be complex trauma?
Yes and no, that is childhood, combat, death trauma subjects, OR, aside from the trauma subject specific topics, you can have underlying core root complex issues in differentiating how you feel now in relation to making sense of your past. Enduring lots of trauma does not equate to complex trauma, however; it does for some. Those who get told they have the diagnosis that does not exist, CPTSD, are being told they have complex trauma. Their trauma is so engrained as part of them, it has affected them obtaining specific character traits through childhood, so forth... which has made their symptoms, trauma differentiation and being complex in nature. To exist is complicated for them, and even traumatic, is a very simple way to put it.
-so the childhood trauma discussions are to be in 'childhood trauma' and discussions about war, grief, bipolar are to be in complex trauma?
No. If you're discussing the trauma itself, regardless the type, it goes into the relevant trauma subject category, or miscellaneous if one does not currently exist, for creation as per:
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Bipolar goes into symptoms and other disorders. Grief is just a discussion topic, or a symptom... either or is not incorrect.
Complex trauma is not as simple as many people think it is. The name gets tossed around so often that people don't even know what it means. This is why there is so much confusion and separation in relation to having a Complex PTSD diagnosis... because people don't even understand what the complex is describing.
Complex trauma, whilst having some different symptoms, is about the effects that certain trauma has upon your core personality, your core being. Childhood is the most often used, because we have little in the way of POW's nowadays or where people are tortured daily for years, and actually live through the experience. Most die... childhood, not so much.
You can have two children abused physically, emotionally, sexually, for the same three years of their life. One may have PTSD, or may not have any disorder, the other may have PTSD from complex trauma. Their trauma became complicated because who they are as a person changed due to the abuse. They didn't form core traits they were meant to get from those years, but the other child did, even with the abuse. Those missing facets, those complicated aspects of not knowing right from wrong, following other people and basically playing along, because the person doesn't really understand self-skills in communicating with others, and such aspects... these are complicated trauma aspects.
I honestly couldn't come up with all the aspects that make some trauma complex, because there are too many. If you're referencing your core being though, as though there is an inherit flaw because of the longevity and type of trauma you endured, then chances are the subject is complex.[DOUBLEPOST=1401232909,1401232722][/DOUBLEPOST]You also have to remember... there is a reason why I've never done this here before, because... well... the above kind of outlines how confusing it can get. But the reality is that complex trauma is real, the DSM has isolated diagnoses by trauma and stressor now, no longer anxiety, and thus complex trauma will be the next to get a specific diagnosis, whether PTSD related or not, it will happen. It's just how it will be recognised and when.
