What is complex ptsd

Most people know about PTSD.

You’ve seen movies with Veterans or First Responders who wake up from nightmares and freeze when a police siren goes off.

But it’s so much more than that.

Anyone can get PTSD. Us regular folks often get it from car accidents, shootings, or witnessing someone get sick or hurt. Anything that scares you or makes you feel big emotions can trigger PTSD.

Typically, PTSD is focused around one event or multiple events over a short period of time. (House fires, Deployments, the Death of a loved one) Your body is trying to come to terms with the big scary thing you went though and is now stuck on a loop of replaying it until you can work through your feelings about it…because at the time, you were just trying to survive instead of feeling all the feels.

Complex PTSD is what happens when someone experiences multiple emotionally charged events over a long period of time. They may not be as big as getting shot at in a war zone but the way the body adapts to stress over time builds into a fun nervous system that resembles the box of Christmas lights you didn’t want to wrap when you put them away last year.

People who have Complex PTSD are often children who grew up in dysregulated homes, people in long term abusive relationships, and Caregivers.

I plan on writing much more about Complex Trauma and how it informs my creativity.