When listening to your body fails. Navigating Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder CPTSD+PTSD
Living with CPTSD/PTSD
You may have heard of the classic post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Classified by a single event that causes residual tension in the individuals nervous system, body, and perception of reality.
The difference between post traumatic stress disorder, and complex post traumatic stress disorder is complex PTSD occurs from multiple events that have happened over years of time, particularly in childhood, however, it can occur in early adulthood.
It’s important to know I am not a clinical psychologist. This information is simply from my own studies. And I am not authorized to diagnose or treat any such symptoms. This is simply a discussion based on my lived experience in observation of these symptoms within my clients.
Classic symptoms of both overlay, including:
Increased startle response
Avoidance of particular areas where the traumatic event occurred or avoiding particular people that remind you of the event
Memory lapse, unable to access certain parts of your lifetime
Intrusive thoughts or memory of the event as if it was happening now
Nightmares and sleep disturbances
Emotional dysregulation, angry or sudden breakdowns. Just to name a few.
Emotional flashbacks
Complex PTSD often comes with physical symptoms as well, lower immunity, digestive issues, numb extremities, migraines, or jaw, grinding at night, hormonal imbalances, chronic pain, and fatigue.
One of the most important overlays of symptoms is what is called “emotional flashbacks” where a sudden flood of emotions of an old event occurs, seemingly out of the blue, triggered by something in the environment. This can be either literally threatening or non-threatening such as a smell, tone of voice, sound, or visual site that reminds our body of the traumatic event or many of them. Emotional flashbacks do not include the visual representation of what happened. They are simply a somatic experience inside the body.
When experiencing these flashback “listen to your body” is not exactly intuitive, nor helpful. Because a lot of of the time with complex trauma, we can’t tell what is inside our head and what is actually a real threat.
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