The Difference Between PTSD and Complex PTSD

The world of psychology has been wrestling with a differentiation between Complex PTSD (CPTSD) and "regular" PTSD since such a distinction was initially publicized in 1992 by Judith Herman in her book Trauma and Recovery.  So it stands to reason that for many of you this is the first time you’ve ever heard of CPTSD.  

You’ve heard plenty about PTSD in reference to soldiers, rape victims, and others who have experienced a traumatic episode.  The “Complex” version of PTSD, a new addition to the DSM-5, speaks to the disorder sometimes suffered by victims of repeated and prolonged traumatic episodes: child abuse survivors, prisoners of war, those coming from concentration camps, etc. 

Most reading this will fall into the category of prolonged/repeated traumas as opposed to a singular incident, but if I can help anyone challenged by the commonly-known type, then wonderful!  I'm writing this blog in general to raise awareness of the difference between the two and help those like me who have CPTSD.

Coming across CPTSD earlier this year was a monumental turning point for me because I had never felt that my official clinical diagnoses of PTSD; Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia; Generalized Anxiety Disorder; and ADHD were truly appropriate for describing my particular set of symptoms. 

This is not a shot at my clinicians, both of whom are incredible.  Clinically speaking, the diagnoses were made correctly, but they just never sat well in my mind.  My now ex-wife, who’s a juvenile psycho-therapist, opined that I was also Bi-Polar, but a psychiatrist dismissed that quickly.  

(I mention this situation with my ex-wife as a warning to you that you need professionals who aren’t related to you in order to get the most appropriate care.  You obviously can’t be your own therapist, but your mother the doctor, your uncle the psychiatrist, or your best friend the barista are simply too close to you to make clear-minded diagnoses or treatment plans.  It’s wonderful to use them as a resource and emotional support, of course, but only for those purposes.) 

Anyway, it was so difficult to wrap my head around how to approach, design, and execute my recovery plan with this array of diagnoses.   

(Here's another tip I want to interject here: You should have an integral role in setting up your treatment plan, or you will run the risk of not owning the plan and therefore not following it.  If your therapist pushes back on this, then go find another one because this is a relationship unto itself and needs to be functional for you to recover effectively.)

Then I came across CPTSD and could safely relegate the PD/A and GAD to being offshoots of CPTSD instead of having 3 different disorders simultaneously.  I consider ADHD as my secondary diagnosis but it has very little, if anything, to do with the abuse I experienced as a child so I won't talk about it much on this blog. 

Therefore, I went from juggling four or five discrete and sometimes conflicting diagnoses to one primary and one secondary.  Remember I'm not a clinician, this is simply how my experience turned out, what works for me, and why I've made CPTSD the fulcrum of this blog upon which each post pivots.  

My diagnostic re-focus allowed me more progress in a couple of months than I had in years (though my therapist would point out that it took those years of work for me to be position to make such good use of those months… and he would be right!) 

Anyway, since I'm not a trained clinician, here are 2 amazing links from someone who is and which further explain CPTSD:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hijacked-your-brain/201306/ptsd-becomes-more-complex-in-the-dsm-5-part-1

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hijacked-your-brain/201306/ptsd-becomes-more-complex-in-the-dsm-5-part-ii