Trauma isn’t just determined by the severity of the event itself. When you have an experience that is distressing and life-threatening, you may not have the capacity to integrate that experience into your brain and body in a way that allows you to process it and move forward. This leaves you in survival mode even when the event is over, and can develop into Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These are common single-event traumatic experiences that can develop into PTSD:

• Sexual violence

• Surviving a natural disaster

• Severe accidents (transportation, work accidents, etc.)

• Robbery, home invasion, or any sort of life-threatening attack

• Medical emergency

• Sudden loss

• And more

Symptoms of PTSD are categorized into four parts: intrusive memories (flashbacks and nightmares), avoidance of the traumatic memory, negative changes in your mood, and hyper-arousal (startle response, hyper-vigilance, insomnia, and anxiety).

Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (also known as complex trauma and C-PTSD) involves an exposure to chronic trauma, typically over many years. Often, folks with C-PTSD experienced attachment and relational trauma, and/or were traumatized everyday by their environment. These are common root causes to C-PTSD:

• Physical, verbal, sexual, and/or emotional abuse from caregivers

• Material and/or emotional neglect form caregivers

• Domestic violence

• Wars, genocide, state violence, and displacement

• Racism and discrimination on a systemic and interpersonal level

• Emotional and/or instrumental parentification

• Chronic medical trauma

• High-control religions and cults

• Foster care placement, policing, and family separation

• Other Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Symptoms of C-PTSD often include the four parts of single-event PTSD, but also involve a wide-range of additional symptoms such as depression, low-self worth/ shame, emotional dysregulation and mood swings, emotional flashbacks, issues with interpersonal relationships, over-control, hypo-arousal and dissociation, and somatic symptoms. C-PTSD is commonly misdiagnosed as other disorders in the DSM-V-TR, but can be co-morbid with them as well.