Hi FMX, nice name by the way, huge fan off FMX myself. People think there is a difference between labels, when in fact its not so much a difference diagnostically speaking, its the label that signifies a difference in what "caused" your PTSD and/or the "severity" of one's PTSD.
People think that one is lesser than the other, etc etc... and this is proven from bullyonline, where they try and make people believe that they all have complex PTSD from being bullied, where infact that is quite wrong. To have PTSD end of story, you must have met all the diagnostic criteria, which includes both mental and physical attributes that a shrink measures. Once you meet all the mental, physical and lifestyle attributes, they then diagnose you based on certain factors, such as amount of trauma, little or lots. One or several usually gets acute, chronic or severe. Those who have PTSD from abuse over a duration, ie. child abuse, abusive relationships, etc; end up with complex PTSD, meaning they have PTSD caused from traumatic events constantly within their lives, they lived in fear for a long duration, or were constantly being re-exposed to trauma daily/weekly. That is what complex PTSD is... an identification label stating to any physician that you have suffered prolonged traumatic events, which typically means you will be harder to deal with than someone who has only suffered one or two events relating to therapy itself.
PTSD is PTSD, have no doubt about that, it is merely the labelling that goes alone with it that gives a "designator" as such to physicians for easy outlining of traumatic history. If I walked in to any shrink and said I had combat PTSD, they would immediately know I was a veteran and suffered PTSD from exposure to war zones. Combat PTSD doesn't exist yet, though is scheduled to be included along with others in the DSM V in the next couple of years. I was diagnosed with severe PTSD, which means I have extreme anger and rage associated to my trauma, and I display the same as part of that when upset.
Just a label mate, nothing to panic about. You have PTSD, that is the end of the story, because it is PTSD that means your left and right brain hemispheres have already imbalanced, and you are no longer curable. Yes, PTSD is not curable. It is a lifetime mental illness to date, no cure exists, though you can learn how to control it and live life within reasonable limits.
