Complex PTSD comes in response to chronic traumatization over the course of months or, more often, years. This can include emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuses, domestic violence, living in a war zone, being held captive, human trafficking and other organized rings of abuse, and more.
Emotional abuse can lead to C-PTSD, a type of PTSD that involves ongoing trauma. C-PTSD shows many of the same symptoms as PTSD, although its symptoms and causes can differ. Treatment should be tailored to the situation to address the ongoing trauma the person experienced from emotional abuse.
Causes of complex PTSD
Complex PTSD may be caused by experiencing recurring or long-term traumatic events, for example: childhood abuse or neglect. domestic violence. sexual abuse.
Complex PTSD (CPTSD) is one of the effects of prolonged emotional abuse. Complex PTSD is PTSD that is the result of long-term or ongoing trauma, such as emotional abuse in childhood or in a romantic relationship. PTSD typically occurs after a single instance, such as a car accident or being involved in war.
Common Signs of PTSD from Emotional Abuse
Developing an eating disorder (ED) Impulsive behavior. Reliving past traumas. Having nightmares or flashbacks.
Long-term emotional abuse can also result in several health problems, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, chronic pain, and more.
Recovery after a breakup with a toxic narcissist can be hard to do. Psychological trauma from their abuse will not just go away. In fact, this type of abuse can cause long lasting post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Symptoms of complex PTSD
avoiding situations that remind a person of the trauma. dizziness or nausea when remembering the trauma. hyperarousal, which means being in a continual state of high alert. the belief that the world is a dangerous place.
Without treatment, the psychological symptoms of PTSD are likely to worsen over time. Along with severe depression and anxiety, other serious outcomes may include: Increased suicidal ideation. Problems managing anger and aggression.
Emotional abuse is linked to thinning of certain areas of the brain that help you manage emotions and be self-aware — especially the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobe. Epigenetic changes and depression. Research from 2018 has connected childhood abuse to epigenetic brain changes that may cause depression.
Living with Complex PTSD can create intense emotional flashbacks that provide challenges in controlling emotions that may provoke severe depression, suicidal thoughts, or difficulty in managing anger. C-PTSD can also create dissociations, which can be a way the mind copes with intense trauma.
CPTSD is a serious mental health condition that can take some time to treat, and for many people, it's a lifelong condition. However, a combination of therapy and medication can help you manage your symptoms and significantly improve your quality of life.
A Harvard researcher coined the term "complex PTSD" in 1988. Mental health professionals today may use other terms. Enduring Personality Changes After Catastrophic Events (EPCACE). To have a diagnosis of EPCACE, the person needs to have a personality change that lasts for 2 years after trauma.
Survivors of abusive relationships can still experience PTSD or complex PTSD (CPTSD). The symptoms involved will just be slightly different. If you attempt to avoid or block out memories of the abusive relationship, struggle to remember details, or feel detached, you could have PTSD.
In fact, according to one study, severe emotional abuse can be as damaging as physical abuse and contribute to depression and low self-esteem. The study also suggested that emotional abuse may contribute to the development of chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Researchers from Uppsala University and the medical university Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, found that people with posttraumatic stress disorder have an imbalance between two neurochemical systems in the brain, serotonin, and substance P.
PTSD can be divided into four phases: the impact phase, the rescue phase, the intermediate recovery phase, and the long-term reconstruction phase. The impact phase encompasses initial reactions such as shock, fear, and guilt.
According to recent studies, Emotional Trauma and PTSD do cause both brain and physical damage. Neuropathologists have seen overlapping effects of physical and emotional trauma upon the brain.
Because there's no test for determining if someone has C-PTSD, it might be a little more difficult to pin down, especially since it's newer to the mental-health world. However, your doctor can help you determine if there's a diagnosis. They may ask you to keep track of your symptoms and the severity of them.
Typically, they manifest as intense and confusing episodes of fear, toxic shame, and/or despair, which often beget angry reactions against the self or others. When fear is the dominant emotion in an emotional flashback, the individual feels overwhelmed, panicky or even suicidal.
Essentially, complex PTSD dissociation is a stress response that causes a broken mental and emotional link between things or experiences you would normally associate with one another. You process life very differently to accommodate the upsetting way you learned to see the world.
As a narcissistic abuse survivor, you will likely have symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Your brain will be on high alert, looking out for danger. This is because the traumatic events triggered a fight or flight response within you. As a result, anything associated with those memories can trigger an anxiety attack.
Complex trauma survivors can become socially withdrawn and self-isolate due to the abuse. Since they never develop a sense of safety, they distrust others while simultaneously searching for a “rescuer” who can finally give them the unconditional positive regard they were robbed of in childhood.
Narcissistic victim syndrome is a term that collectively describes the specific and often severe effects of narcissistic manipulation. While this isn't a recognized mental health condition, many experts acknowledge narcissistic abuse can have a serious, long lasting impact on mental health.