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MixedBag0fMess

Updated 10mo ago

What is C-PTSD? Should I be concerned?

What is C-PTSD? I have some ✨trauma✨ from my military training and the gaslighting involved in causing my current injuries, and im wondering if I should maybe look into it? I don’t think I have it, but I’m not sure if maybe I’m gaslighting myself or suppressing since I’ve noticed myself doing both of those things. I don’t have any dreams or flashbacks, at least nothing visual. There are a few things that “trigger” me, certain words and logos and patterns make me instantly anxious, I’m trying to go to do self therapy because I can’t afford normal therapy rn, and I don’t know if my reactions to certain memories and things are normal. I know I have some childhood trauma that’s kinda effecting it all, but I’m again not sure if I’m just having a normal reaction to trauma or if I need to try something different

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Jeremywh

1y

What kind of military training
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MixedBag0fMess

1y

basic training, of course, but then 6 months of job training. The actual job training part was fine, the going back to base part was awful, i considered going to every religious service that was offered just so that I wouldn’t have to go back 😅
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YoursTrulyNavy

1y

I’m not a medical professional, but I do have C-PTSD and what I can tell you is that the main difference between it and regular PTSD is that PTSD is caused by a singular or individual traumatic events that generally causes flashbacks to that event through specific triggers, while C-PTSD is caused by being constantly traumatized for an extended period of time and generally causes more varied and intense symptoms, including other mental disorders.
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MixedBag0fMess

1y

what can it cause in your experience? if thats not to personal
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WitchyWoman89

1y

The C stands for complex. C-PTSD comes from multiple traumatic experiences over a longer period of time, whereas PTSD comes from generally one traumatic experience or a few over a short period of time. From what I've learned (I have a bachelor's in psychology and have studied PTSD because I have it) usually military related trauma results in PTSD. What causes C-PTSD is normally things like an abusive childhood, long term or multiple abusive relationships, or sometimes just several unrelated experiences spanning over many years. I personally have C-PTSD, stemming from multiple abusive relationships, a couple bad car accidents, SA, and other random experiences.
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MixedBag0fMess

1y

C-PTSD is looking more and more likely, the traumatic part was 8 months of gaslighting and verbal abuse surrounding my injuries, fortunately not some sort of gory accident or anything of the sort.
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MixedBag0fMess

1y

what are the possible symptoms in this situation, do you think? I don’t really want to bring it up to my doctor right now since I have so much else going on medically
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MSede

1y

If you can't do therapy you can get an app for cbt. It makes do in financally tough times.
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sillyashell

1y

From what I understand, PTSD being related to one event causes symptoms that are related to the avoidance of that event, and may lead to flashbacks and having specific triggers. Maybe describing it like PTSD breaks down a part of the self would work. CPTSD involves the whole self being in breakdown, and symptoms involve to include negative self image, trouble in relationships, feeling on edge, large dissociative gaps in memory. Recent discourse in the medical community have started to link CPTSD with personality disorders and dissociative disorders due to the overlaps as well as the long-term types of abuse that results in those disorders. I think your case is definitely plausible. Try to analyze whether the training impacted your relationships and your view of self. Do you have trouble regulating your emotions after this? Do you have dissociative gaps in events that occurred during the training? What do you think about the perpetrator(s) of the abuse? Remember that CPTSD is a relatively new concept, so nobody's gonna rag on you if you're wrong. There's a lot that we still don't know yet. Just because it's associated with childhood trauma usually doesn't mean that may always be the case.
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CriCri

1y

Example: I was initially diagnosed with medical trauma/medical PTSD. However once we dug further with the therapist is came up that the feelings of neglect, abuse, abandonment, helplessness that I was feeling in the hospital were the same I felt as a young teen when traumatic things happened in my family life...then more and more traumatic events kept happening which reinforced those feelings... So my diagnosis changed to complex PTSD because there are lots of traumas that I need to work on in EMDR. The way I was explained it by my therapist is that the recent trauma is only the tip of the iceberg
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lifeismid

1y

CPTSD is sadly not on the dsm-5 (yet, here's to fingers crossed) which makes it a lot more difficult to diagnose since not all therapist's will diagnose you for it. Childhood trauma could have given you cptsd. I'm not sure about your military experience and how that would tie in as i have never had military experience so I would suggest researching and posting on here (which obviously you've done) to understand this better. There's no such thing as a normal reaction trauma. There's definitely common reactions, but no normal reactions. Try not to dismiss your feelings, they are extremely valid and difficult to understand and process so don't let anyone stand in the way of your healing journey. I wish you the best of luck!

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

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