The distinction between what constitutes Complex PTSD and PTSD with Complex Trauma Issue's will be a talking point between diagnosing professional's and ourselves here as sufferers for years to come. At the end of the day I survived numerous trauma's of nearly all possible factor's:-
1) Child Abuse, neglect, beating's and sexual assaults over a 15 year period.
2) Near Death survival, 4 unsuccessful Suicide attempts (aged 18 - 22 - 32 - 42) Involved in a head on car crash 2001 (January)
3) Military Trauma (between late 1989 and 1990) I have totally blocked this one out and remember nearly nothing.
At the end of the day PTSD is simply put, just that PTSD. It really does not matter whether a sufferer has had one single trauma on a single occasion or numerous prolonged trauma's over a long period of time. If we both broke our leg's in the same accident, differing physical factors would impact on our level of injury and length of recovery.
We, IMHO really do need to see the fact that the same injury physically take different courses to recover from. The same as differing levels of psychological injury will impact on, level of psychological injury and differing time for recovery.
We all react differently to trauma the same as our bodies react differently to physical injury.
Laurie.
i totally disagree Laurie there are distinct differences , complex is usually caused by prolonged forms of abuse or neglect in childhood , whereas ptsd is caused by a traumatic event. or even a series of.
An adult has had the chance to grow and learn and with a average family has learnt the skills to love, adapt, and live - in most cases they have learnt how to reason, adapt , communicate , set boundaries etc
A child that has been severely traumatized not only has not had the chance to grow and learn , but due to the truama /neglect/abuse has not learnt the necessary and healthy skills to live and adapt to lifes challenges - add to this the fact that the very people teaching you or you told to look up to are abusing you etc - so now you have mistrust of adults and authority etc
Breaking legs for some is not considered traumatic and if it was it would be labelled ptsd , but to draw such a broad conclusion based on your view of trauma is ill informed and somewhat ignorant - yes there are opinions and disagreements but one thing is clear - the difference between them is vast and so are the suggested /reccomended treatment modalities and in some cases even the medications. They are not one and the same and cannot be treated as such , many people with complex have also been misdiagnosed as bipolar , schizophrenic etc , it is only recently that ptsd has recieved its due attention and due to this many things have come to light , however the treatment of abused and traumatized children has been going on for years and researched extensively (go to a physc ward with abused kids)- there is a clear and distinct difference , where the confusion comes in , is many adults have complex ptsd which they have carried most of their lives and many adults also have ptsd from a traumatic or series of traumatic events, as the spotlight has only recently shone on this area in any meaningful way, it naturally opens the area up to discussion.
There has even been talk of screening for ptsd as a simple test when you go to ER as they estimate the rates of ptsd throughout neighborhoods to be very high, many people in prison are there because of ptsd - and their path started in childhood because of neglect , abuse , etc etc and they did not develop the necessary skills to help them survive and thrive and that is where the distinct difference is ...we are here because at some level we managed to gain the necessary skills to at the least to express ourselves , and get help, to at least understand our behaviour etc is not right
a severely truamatized child does not have the skills and ability to develop healthy behaviours and usually goes from one disaster to the next
There are also distinct behavioural reactions in some traumas which are not found in all traumas , and to think trauma is just trauma is in itself simplistic , a raped woman cannot compare to a broken bone or severe car accident - a hostage is faced with entirely different things and in some cases over days - a soldier who kills can suffer a moral injury - trauma may be a word ,but the type of truama cannot be defined as one and so simplistic
