(no subject)

[afromp]

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) is a psychological injury that results from protracted exposure to prolonged social and/or interpersonal trauma with lack or loss of control, disempowerment, and in the context of either captivity or entrapment, i.e. the lack of a viable escape route for the victim.

These elements include captivity, psychological fragmentation, the loss of a sense of safety, trust, and self-worth, as well as the tendency to be revictimized, and, most importantly, the loss of a coherent sense of self. It is this loss of a coherent sense of self, and the ensuing symptom profile, that most pointedly differentiates C-PTSD from PTSD.

C-PTSD is characterized by pervasive insecure attachment.

• Difficulties regulating emotions, including symptoms such as persistent sadness, suicidal thoughts, explosive anger, or covert anger.
• Variations in consciousness, such as forgetting traumatic events, reliving traumatic events, or having episodes of dissociation.
• Changes in self-perception, such as a sense of helplessness, shame, guilt, stigma, and a sense of being completely different from other human beings.
• Varied changes in the perception of the perpetrator, such as attributing total power to the perpetrator or becoming preoccupied with the relationship to the perpetrator, including a preoccupation with revenge.
• Alterations in relations with others, including isolation, distrust, or a repeated search for a rescuer.
• Loss of, or changes in, one's system of meanings, which may include a loss of sustaining faith or a sense of hopelessness and despair.

Multiple treatments have been suggested for C-PTSD. Among these treatments are experiential and emotionally focused therapy, internal family system therapy, sensorimotor psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitizations and reprocessing, family systems therapy and group therapy.