Thank you, everyone who has kindly assured me I am still welcome despite the C-PTSD diagnosis. I have read the diagnostic criteria in the above thread--sorry I can't post the thread's url, I'm too new--and like one poster in the thread, I am puzzled by the very first part, which specifies:
A. Exposure to actual or threatened a) death, b) serious injury, or c) sexual violation, in one or more of the following ways: (and then the specifics).
I *was* being talked down to by the psychiatrist explaining it to me, which doubtless affected her translation of the technicalities; I've had to look online for an explanation of the "complex" part of the label. The way she made it sound, it was something like this.
From the "Out of the FOG" website: The "Complex" in Complex Post Traumatic Disorder describes how one layer after another of trauma can interact with one another.
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) is a condition that results from chronic or long-term exposure to emotional trauma over which a victim has little or no control and from which there is little or no hope of escape, such as in cases of:
- domestic emotional, physical or sexual abuse
- childhood emotional, physical or sexual abuse
- entrapment or kidnapping.
- slavery or enforced labor.
- long term imprisonment and torture
- repeated violations of personal boundaries.
- long-term objectification
- exposure to gaslighting & false accusations
- long-term exposure to inconsistent, push-pull, or alternating raging & hoovering behaviors.
- long-term taking care of mentally ill or chronically sick family members.
- long term exposure to crisis conditions
It seems to refer to a long-term and self-reinforcing pattern of trauma as opposed to a single event, and does not seem to require that the trauma be physical threat or physical abuse.
In my case, there was physical abuse, early on in my childhood, but as I was growing up--as the other puzzled poster mentioned--the ongoing mental and emotional terrorization and cruelty is what shaped me into the physical and mental wreck of a human that I am now. It is situations like these--which cause the same symptoms listed beneath the "physical threat-physical assault" criteria--that I have been told warrent the use of the "complex" label.
I begin to realize that my exposure to the reasons for the various diagnoses and their use has been a creation of various professionals telling me whatever their personal understanding of the diagnoses and their criteria happens to be. Can anyone speak to the understanding of the "complex" label that I specify above?
Thank you very much for taking time to help me with this.
Wintersmoke
