Many people are familiar with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but not many know about Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD).
PTSD is when someone experiences an event or events that are physically or emotionally damaging or life-threatening. A person could be diagnosed with PTSD when symptoms develop 3-6 months after the event and last more than a month.
C-PTSD, while similar to its counterpart, is a condition where a person is subjected to long-term chronic levels of high-stress or trauma. Specifically, C-PTSD develops over repeated or multiple forms of traumatic events.
Traumatic events which cause these conditions may include: childhood neglect or abuse, domestic violence, war or combat experience, death of a loved one or getting diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, amongst other things.
C-PTSD can happen to anyone who has been exposed to long-term trauma, but it is more often seen in people who experienced trauma during an earlier stage of development, or were abused by a caregiver.
Some symptoms include: flashbacks, nightmares, avoiding anything that reminds the person of the trauma, changes in your mood and thinking including feeling distant from other people and having overwhelming negative emotions, feeling on edge and becoming irritable, easily frightened, or having difficulty concentrating or sleeping.
These symptoms paired with the stresses of everyday life cause many problems.
It makes it difficult to control emotions. It’s common for someone with C-PTSD to lose control over their emotions, which can be seen as anger, depression, and harmful thoughts and actions.
It can cause a person to view themselves in a negative light. They may feel helpless, guilty or ashamed. They often have a sense of being completely different from other people. They may believe bad things happen because of something in them.
Relationships may suffer due to difficulties trusting others and a negative self-view.They may avoid relationships or develop unhealthy relationships because it’s familiar to them.
A person may disconnect from themselves (depersonalisation) and the world around them (derealisation). Some people might even forget their trauma.
On the other hand, they may have a loss of a system of meanings. Like losing their core beliefs, values, religious faith or hope in the world and other people.
All of these problems pose additional challenges for adolescents with PTSD or CPTSD.
One study found in the National Library of Medicine, 19.3% of students in a targeted area had symptoms of PTSD and C-PTSD while 80.7% did not. Those conditions were more commonly found in girls than boys.
Adolescents are at higher risk of developing a mental health disorder like anxiety and depression following a traumatic experience. These disorders are known to follow decreased productivity and motivation.
In that same study found in the National Library of Medicine, it was found that among adolescents with PTSD 17.4% had difficulty remembering things learned at school or home. In addition, 73% saw declining grades, 34.5% showed difficulty concentrating and 5.8% of the adolescents felt strongly towards suicide.
Whether an adult or adolescent, symptoms of PTSD and C-PTSD such as difficulties concentrating, memory loss, behavioral problems, disturbed sleep and irritability cause many problems in day-to-day life.
With a healthy social support system and trauma-focused therapies, those who suffer with trauma disorders are able to decrease the symptoms and affects.
PTSD and C-PTSD are very serious conditions. While only about 5-10% of adolescents around the world struggle with this, it’s still important to understand their daily struggles in hope to raise awareness.