hey everybody today I am putting out a
video of something you have asked me a
lot about complex PTSD what is it
does it exist and what do we do if we
have it how is it different from PTSD
there are so many questions I'm gonna
answer for you right now
so like I said today I'm going to talk
with you about complex PTSD and I didn't
know anything about this many of you
have asked me about it Kati I had a
friend who had this or my doctor talked
about this what is this I haven't heard
of it does it exist and I didn't know
and that's what I love about our
community you all tell me things that
are happening things you're hearing
about and then I'm forced to research it
to figure it out so I have all my notes
have my DSM we're going to talk about
this we're going to learn together
because I didn't know that complex PTSD
was something that exists and for the
true fact of diagnostic purposes now the
company I should even say company but
that's what it is it's the American
Psychiatric Association or the APA those
are the people who put out the DSM they
create it they decide what goes in and
what doesn't in complex PTSD was
something that was proposed they tried
to get in to the DSM and APA was like no
PTSD is enough we have it we have severe
mild moderate we feel that covers it and
I understand I mean they have to make
choices they you know only add things so
often I mean if you saw the first DSM it
was like 10 pages long and now we have
this like ginormous book of different
diagnoses and different diagnostic
criteria so I hear them however after
reading about complex PTSD I have to
politely disagree with them I think the
APA may be acted too quickly
didn't really think about it because the
most common situation that leads to
conflicts PTSD is coming back from war
and if we as clinicians aren't ready and
able and educated enough to help them
manage their complex PTSD then we're
doing them a huge disservice and they
just put their lives at risk for us
and that just really gets me so what is
complex PTSD now I got a lot of my
information because like I said it's not
some things in the DSM I can't pull up
things within the DSM about how it
happens and when it occurs and what
causes it and what's you know how does
it run its course I can't find that in
here I can only find information about
PTSD itself post-traumatic stress
disorder so I got information from the
VA and the National Center for PTSD and
those are the people who lobbied to the
APA to get it into this new DSM so it's
a proposed disorder because many people
feel that PTSD itself does not fully
capture the severe psychological harm
that occurs with prolonged and repeated
trauma I want to highlight that
prolonged and repeated trauma now people
that get PTSD could have just had and I
don't mean just had could have had one
traumatic event that really was terrible
it was scary they felt helpless they
worried that their life was in danger
and instead of that kind of anxiety
feeling that feeling of worry and stress
that comes after a scary situation
instead of it getting better slowly like
we start coming back to our regular self
and we don't have flashbacks as often
with PTSD it just gets worse but the
people who have complex peace complex
PTSD Wow say that ten times fast have
had repeated traumas also it's believed
that cases that involve repeated trauma
needed special treatment considerations
that's what they lobby to the APA for
because they feel it needs to be treated
differently now the biggest concern our
vets like I said because of the
traumatic nature of their service the
fact that they feel scared and
potentially helpless almost every day
they don't know they could get bombed
and while they're sleeping at night they
every time they go out and leave their
camp they're in another risky situation
where they could lose their lives and a
lot of that can feel really hopeless
they watch people around them die this
happens over and over and over it's
repeated trauma you with me so other
examples other than vets because this
can happen
to a lot of people concentration camps
prostitution brothels long-term domestic
violence victims or child or physical
child physical or sexual abuse that's
repeated I know many of you reached out
to me and said you know I was sexually
abused or physically abused by a family
friend or parent from the ages of six to
twelve or some huge chunk of time that's
repeated trauma and the VA and the
National Center for PTSD think that that
should be called complex PTSD so I have
a video about PTSD if you want you can
check that out too I encourage all of
you to check that out so that you
understand PTSD as a whole since this
video is kind of building on that how is
it different from PTSD now this was
really interesting to me because if
we're in repeated trauma versus maybe
one situation how does our mind process
it differently why is it different why
do we need a new diagnosis I'm not one
for a lot of diagnoses but I have to say
that VA really they they changed my
thoughts about it now the first is
emotion regulation and you many of you
have heard me talk about this in my DBT
videos when I talk about better managing
maybe our borderline tendencies where we
feel like our emotions just overwhelm us
so people with complex PTSD may feel
extremely overwhelmed with emotions all
of a sudden really quickly like boom all
of a sudden they're very angry and
aggressive I know a lot of the people
and the VA website had talked about it
and said like yeah my husband used to go
like off the handle and be crying and
then be screaming like he couldn't
regulate his emotion the second is
consciousness they completely black out
or forget the traumatic events and then
many times it'll switch over and then
they'll be reliving them as if they're
right back there a lot of people
dissociate which is also a component of
regular PTSD but the complete blackouts
of the forgetting isn't as common
another is self perception they'll feel
helpless they're embarrassed they have
so much shame about the fact that that
there
struggling that they feel like they
can't incorporate back into life they
don't know how to have relationships or
communicate with people connect with
people and that to me is so hard because
that they talk about the stigma and
feeling different from everyone else and
when we talk about people who've had
repeated trauma like my heart goes out
to those people I just like I feel for
them it's terrible and then the feeling
that even after it's stopped
so the trauma stopped then they still
feel like they can't connect they're not
part of this they're not the same as
other people they're embarrassed or
shamed filled because of what happened
to them which is something they had no
control over something they were
completely helpless to now the fourth
and there's just a couple more is only
six is distorted perceptions of the
perpetrator or preoccupation with
revenge a lot of people will either and
they talked about two different
instances where someone can either be
like but it wasn't their fault they
didn't mean it like people who had been
repeatedly physically or sexually abused
or like you know of it but but they they
were confused or you know if it was
let's say a cousin or a family friend or
they're like you know but they're family
and I know they didn't mean to or they
tried to cover it up or pretend that it
wasn't a big deal or that they didn't
know any better there's a reverse where
people are preoccupied with the revenge
like that [ __ ] gonna get it and
they get really focused on that and
their whole life revolves around revenge
and that can be really hard for the
other people and like in relationships
with them to deal with the other the
fifth is like I was just talking about
relations with others they isolate they
don't trust people very easily and so
you can see how that makes maybe
marriage is really difficult if someone
comes back for more and they're like
distrustful of you and and they isolate
they don't want to see family or friends
they don't want to go out they want to
stay at home they want to just do their
thing leave me alone it can be really
hard and the last is one's system of
meanings they have a loss of sustaining
faith or a sense of hopelessness and
despair so this was the hardest for me
to read about because it's almost like
the core of who they are what the
meaning in life is what the meaning of
themselves is was lost and that is just
so hard to hear that people are feeling
that way that people are going through
that and we're not even recognizing
this is a diagnosis well makes me feel
sick so why does this happen what is
this what do we do what's the treatment
like it's pretty much the same as PTSD
where we do a lot of reintegration into
situations that may be triggering that
may trigger any kind of flashback or
dissociation we ground ourselves it's a
progressive treatment we do it little by
little we don't just throw you in the
deep end and be like fix this figure it
out
I don't care if you're having a panic
attack you're freaking out we're it's
going to try to do this it's a slow
progressive therapy but the difference
with complex is that they work a lot on
interpersonal difficulties so all of
those things that distrust the that
focus potentially on revenge or the you
know not pretending that the person the
perpetrator didn't really mean to or
their struggle with emotion regulation
and lashing out and being really scary
potentially to the people in their life
we work a lot on that and that's what
the treatment how the treatment differs
there's a lot of relational work there's
a lot of couples or family work that's
integrated into this because when
someone has repeated trauma it can be
really hard for them to move past it
really hard to communicate and to
completely trust and love and get back
into the relationships they had before
the trauma started happening and so I
want you all to consider those around
you who may have had repeated trauma
maybe you could share this video with
them maybe you could work and seek to
understand refer them to the VA or other
facilities that can offer help refer
them to therapists in the area be there
to listen and seek to understand because
a lot of it sounds like they just feel
shame filled they don't know what to do
they're embarrassed of their situation
they don't know how to reintegrate back
into life after these terrible things
have happened to them so we as a
community can help better support these
people we can share this video we can
like this video we can talk about
complex PTSD and how different it
is from regular PTSD because it's
important for people to feel understood
that's the whole reason I love our
communities because we're all in this
together right we're working together
everyone's situation is a little
different but we're all working to share
and shed light on the information that's
important about mental health to break
through the stigma so people don't feel
so shame filled and hide in the shadows
and isolating they know they can speak
up they can talk about it and we're here
to listen and we're here to better
understand their situation so please
share please comment please give it a
thumbs up let people know that this
stuff is important we need to talk about
it because people are struggling and we
know that the more support and
information we can put out there the
better