NovemberStar
Platinum Member
Welcome @RedRose!
As you can see, from the many threads, the CPTSD can be a bit of a contentious issue, not only in the wider community but on here as well. I think sometimes on these forums it is an issue of invalidation. For some, having had many, multiple trauma's over a prolonged period of time (usually childhood abuse over many years), the diagnosis of 'PTSD' leaves them feeling the complex nature of their multiple trauma's is unrecognized. For others, they feel their experience is at risk of being invalidated, if someone else's trauma has been deemed 'complex' while theirs is not. (That of course, is not true for everyone, it's just one of my observations and opinions as to why this topic often gets so heated up and people on 'both sides' feeling invalidated).
I think where a LOT of confusion lies with discussing 'CPTSD' is that because there is no 'official' diagnosis of CPTSD, the term is used to mean very different things. In the link above, which shows the pamphlet given by the NHS as 'listing complex PTSD', it is used to describe someone who has had multiple trauma's over a long period of time. BUT other uses of the term 'CPTSD' are referring to a much more complex (no pun intended) definition of what 'CPTSD' is (google Judith Herman and you will come up with a very long list of possible diagnostic criteria for what she means the term to mean). In essence, some use CPTSD to mean 'multiple, varied, trauma's over a prolonged period of time'; others use it to refer to a differential diagnosis (that has not yet been included in some official publications) encompassing a disorder that straddles PTSD with aspects of a BPD diagnosis.
For me, I initially latched onto CPTSD as an explanation for my experience. I too was misdiagnosed as having BPD as a teenager - and it did a lot of harm to me as a result - namely because the 'treatment' was to essentially ignore my distress (because it was attention seeking behavior). Can you imagine someone with PTSD being told and responded to as if their distress was merely manipulation attempts to get attention / sympathy? The damage that does, is huge (spoken from experience :().
I liked the CPTSD term, because it seemed to validate my childhood experience greatly affected me - it helped me recognize and feel validated that my entire childhood was one long trauma, with no escape or hope for freedom. Like being in a hostage situation, but with no capacity to understand that 'one day I might be able to break free from this'. As a child, there was no escape, it seemed to be forever (I tried to kill myself by wishing myself dead, and by putting my head under the water in the bath, with the intention of never coming back up - I was too young to know it would not be successful but I was despite to escape). Initially, I used the term as it applies to the work done by Judith Herman - and I probably latched onto her work BECAUSE of her move away form BPD as a diagnosis. As she writes, 70% of those diagnosed with BPD fit the criteria for CPTSD (as a straddle between PTSD and BPD, but not in the context of those with it as having BPD, if that makes sense!). At the time, it helped explain to me WHY the mental health professionals might have misdiagnosed me as having BPD - because there is quite a bit or overlap (but significant differences) between her theory of CPTSD, and BPD. In short, it gave me an explanation I was desperate for.
Nowdays, I sometimes think of my trauma as 'complex' in a different context - that it is complex due to it being so multi-layered, multiple, and over a prolonged period of time. It was not a one off trauma that has left me with PTSD; but many incidents, of all different kinds (sexual, physical, emotional abuse; witnessing the death of my mother as a child; and later, the series of devastating earthquakes in my city). My use of the term is not intended to 'take away' from anyone else's experience - I am not saying my trauma is 'worse' or that I 'suffer more' because my trauma's were multiple. Trauma is trauma, and it while the causes can be very different, there is a great deal of overlap as to how it affects us. But, at the same time, multiple trauma's will likely take more time for me to work through and resolve, that they would if I had had the one trauma to work through.
But personally, because it can cause angst, I generally do not refer to my PTSD on these forums as anything other than 'PTSD' (come to think of it, I don't in 'real time' either now because it's less important to me in that way). Those that can relate to having experienced many trauma's over a prolonged period of time still relate to my stories whether or not I add the 'c' word into the discussion - as do those who have had one trauma or not experienced prolonged abuse as a child :).
As you can see, from the many threads, the CPTSD can be a bit of a contentious issue, not only in the wider community but on here as well. I think sometimes on these forums it is an issue of invalidation. For some, having had many, multiple trauma's over a prolonged period of time (usually childhood abuse over many years), the diagnosis of 'PTSD' leaves them feeling the complex nature of their multiple trauma's is unrecognized. For others, they feel their experience is at risk of being invalidated, if someone else's trauma has been deemed 'complex' while theirs is not. (That of course, is not true for everyone, it's just one of my observations and opinions as to why this topic often gets so heated up and people on 'both sides' feeling invalidated).
I think where a LOT of confusion lies with discussing 'CPTSD' is that because there is no 'official' diagnosis of CPTSD, the term is used to mean very different things. In the link above, which shows the pamphlet given by the NHS as 'listing complex PTSD', it is used to describe someone who has had multiple trauma's over a long period of time. BUT other uses of the term 'CPTSD' are referring to a much more complex (no pun intended) definition of what 'CPTSD' is (google Judith Herman and you will come up with a very long list of possible diagnostic criteria for what she means the term to mean). In essence, some use CPTSD to mean 'multiple, varied, trauma's over a prolonged period of time'; others use it to refer to a differential diagnosis (that has not yet been included in some official publications) encompassing a disorder that straddles PTSD with aspects of a BPD diagnosis.
For me, I initially latched onto CPTSD as an explanation for my experience. I too was misdiagnosed as having BPD as a teenager - and it did a lot of harm to me as a result - namely because the 'treatment' was to essentially ignore my distress (because it was attention seeking behavior). Can you imagine someone with PTSD being told and responded to as if their distress was merely manipulation attempts to get attention / sympathy? The damage that does, is huge (spoken from experience :().
I liked the CPTSD term, because it seemed to validate my childhood experience greatly affected me - it helped me recognize and feel validated that my entire childhood was one long trauma, with no escape or hope for freedom. Like being in a hostage situation, but with no capacity to understand that 'one day I might be able to break free from this'. As a child, there was no escape, it seemed to be forever (I tried to kill myself by wishing myself dead, and by putting my head under the water in the bath, with the intention of never coming back up - I was too young to know it would not be successful but I was despite to escape). Initially, I used the term as it applies to the work done by Judith Herman - and I probably latched onto her work BECAUSE of her move away form BPD as a diagnosis. As she writes, 70% of those diagnosed with BPD fit the criteria for CPTSD (as a straddle between PTSD and BPD, but not in the context of those with it as having BPD, if that makes sense!). At the time, it helped explain to me WHY the mental health professionals might have misdiagnosed me as having BPD - because there is quite a bit or overlap (but significant differences) between her theory of CPTSD, and BPD. In short, it gave me an explanation I was desperate for.
Nowdays, I sometimes think of my trauma as 'complex' in a different context - that it is complex due to it being so multi-layered, multiple, and over a prolonged period of time. It was not a one off trauma that has left me with PTSD; but many incidents, of all different kinds (sexual, physical, emotional abuse; witnessing the death of my mother as a child; and later, the series of devastating earthquakes in my city). My use of the term is not intended to 'take away' from anyone else's experience - I am not saying my trauma is 'worse' or that I 'suffer more' because my trauma's were multiple. Trauma is trauma, and it while the causes can be very different, there is a great deal of overlap as to how it affects us. But, at the same time, multiple trauma's will likely take more time for me to work through and resolve, that they would if I had had the one trauma to work through.
But personally, because it can cause angst, I generally do not refer to my PTSD on these forums as anything other than 'PTSD' (come to think of it, I don't in 'real time' either now because it's less important to me in that way). Those that can relate to having experienced many trauma's over a prolonged period of time still relate to my stories whether or not I add the 'c' word into the discussion - as do those who have had one trauma or not experienced prolonged abuse as a child :).
