The Difference Between Complex Trauma And Developmental Trauma

[Chava]

I am reading along and trying to understand.

Me too. I don't think we've solved it yet! :whistling:

I'm really good at writing 100-page papers that wander away from the thesis and sort of say nothing.

I do think it's fair to say that "developmental trauma" is early childhood. It relates more to a nervous system never even forming well to begin with, but being formed in a deregulated way. Complex trauma relates to any age, but continuous or multiple traumas. Loads of overlap since nervous system dysregulation is involved in all PTSD or traumatic stress disorders. It would be easy to get hung up on differences based on symptoms. I do think developmental trauma leads to poorer social function and development in all areas of life simply because of the developmental factor...all the stuff is being set.

 

[Tinyflame]

I know nothing of what they mean by 'nervous system dysregulation', & yet oddly I feel like I relate totally to the description!

 

[Mr Man]

Does anyone have a link to a Therpapist the specialises in Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) ?

 

[lostforgottensoul]

@FridayJones and @joeylittle

Im confused at:

the trauma events creating the 'complex' feature would need to have occurred in adulthood (post-16 or 18)

I always thought, after reading the CPTSD thread, what is CPTSD, and posting my own thread asking if i would have that, basically I was told it was a continous trauma or mutiple throughout many yrs.

Now it did go to 18 so past 16 and somewhat into 19 though not really that much as i left at 18.

So i guess now im confused again on the CPTSD stand point.

Also is that now in the DSM 5? I was reading all of this work between calls, being dyslexic read it all a few times and it all still confuses me.

I do like the break down in JL's post, makes more sense and i elect JL to write the DSM 5-R lol

Edited to add: I dont remember if i asked my therapist about CPTSD or not.

 

[Sideways]

@Chava - like where you're going, but it doesn't even need to be that complex.
Complex trauma in childhood is different because the brain is still growing. Chronic trauma up till about age 8(ish), the child's amygdala and hippocampus will grow malformed. We know that - easy brain scans show it all the time.

That malformation in the brain is a big deal in a lot of ways. Chronic trauma experienced after that, but before adulthood (ie adolescence) also affects brain growth & development, but not as markedly.

By adulthood, chronic trauma alters an already fully-developed brain.

In my head, that's 3 fairly distinct medical conditions, although there is obviously periods of overlap between each. 1 "complex" hat fits all? Not likely.

 

[joeylittle]

@lostforgottensoul - this next part of what I wrote helps clarify things:

An adult person who experienced Developmental Trauma and went on to be diagnosed with PTSD (resulting from those developmental years) would be diagnosed with PTSD, Developmental origin.

I'm essentially looking at the whole thing from when the individual develops PTSD symptoms - and how to relate that to a concept of developmental trauma.

So you would be a person who experienced developmental trauma, clearly; under my little structure, you'd be PTSD, developmental origin.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

@joeylittle sorry for posting it in the other one, guess i did that cuz FJ posted the other one.

So developmental trauma is the same as complex? Now im super confused. Im sorry im being a dummy about it all.

Edited to add: Or is the developmental seperate from the CPTSD?

 

[joeylittle]

First of all, remember that this is a thought-exercise; it's not currently the way things are written in the DSM.

I'm arguing this point:

It strikes me that a diagnosis of Developmental Trauma would be useful for individuals who experienced traumatic events in their developmental years and did not develop PTSD - the diagnosis would specifically exclude PTSD features.

(bolding for emphasis)

Many people go through hellish trauma in their developmental years and do not actually develop PTSD as it is currently described, or do not fit PTSD criteria clearly enough. Bullying is probably classifiable as developmental trauma. People really do end up with the effects of it lingering far into adulthood. But it's not PTSD.

Honestly, part of what I think matters about these things is that they nest together, as concepts, without extraneous overlap. One needs to end at a certain point, and another pick up.

All we have right now is a notion of complex trauma, whioch kind of means many traumas, but actually applies to repeated trauma in adulthood or childhood.

Complex trauma is too catch-all, which makes CPTSD just a big, big dumping ground for anything. PTSD is more narrow, which is good. Developmental trauma can correlate directly to actual neurological development - kids brains get f*cked up differently. Complex trauma can apply, say, to a vet who makes it through multiple tours, possibly a POW situation, and has lingering physical issues.

At the end of the day, this kind of thought exercise is about wondering how specific things need to be in order for there to be treatment structures that are useful.

DTD
DTD, adult
DTD, child

PTSD
PTSD, child (which is when the child 'advances', symptomatically, from DTD to PTSD - or skips DTD altogether)
PTSD, adult (just straight up - a single identifiable trauma event that creates the PTSD. Doesn't mean they haven't had more trauma, just means that there is only one trauma event that turned into PTSD.)

PTSD SUB-TYPES
PTSD, adult, developmental origin (a person who advanced past DTD into PTSD)
PTSD, adult, complex origin (multiple traumas occurring post-16)
PTSD, adult, developmental origin with complex features (someone who primarily demonstrated the criteria for developmental being their 'main' trauma, but also with the symptomology of complex trauma)
PTSD, adult, complex origin with developmental features (reverse of above).

 

[lostforgottensoul]

@joeylittle i see, thanks

 

[Big Ben]

@FridayJones and @joeylittle

Im confused...

I don’t think anyone has raise the point that Development PTSD was introduced, as far as I’m aware, as a large number of children with parents who have a Personality Disorder (PD) were found to suffer from Complete PTSD, but their PTSD was rooted in their developmental years. And hence the term was encouraged as this type of PTSD is very different to the sudden shock variety, for want of a better name. It also has the added benefit that people with PD tend to use similar manipulative/abusive behavior and hence this helps when treating this condition.

It may also intrest you that around 48% of dyslexics reported physical abuse in their developmental years, as opposed to 7% norm. Hope this helps.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Hope this helps.

It does, thank you!

I had no clue that a dyslexic (me) would have a higher chance of trauma!