The genesis of complex PTSD is most often associated with extended periods of ongoing physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood. This attitude then allows us to easily recognize and quickly respond to them from a position of self-compassion, self-soothing and self-protection. Moreover we can balance the polar opposites of flight and freeze, which in their moderate manifestations looks like a balance between doing and being, between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system arousal, between left and right brain processing.Īdvanced recovery correlates with letting go the salvation fantasy that we will never have another flashback, and moving into an attitude of accepting the inevitability of a modicum of flashbacks. Another way of describing this is that we have good balance between the polar opposites of fight and flight, i.e., we can vacillate healthily between asserting our own needs and compromisingly acquiescing to the needs of others. Moreover, there is an increase in our ability to use our fight, flight, freeze and fawn instincts in healthy non-self-destructive ways, so that we only fight back when under real attack, only flee when odds are insurmountable, only freeze when we need to go into acute observer mode, only fawn when it is appropriate to be self-sacrificing. As it shrinks, the user-friendly ego has room to grow and to develop the kind of mindfulness that more readily recognizes when the critic has taken over, which in turn allows us to more readily disidentify form or fight against its perfectionistic and drasticizing processes.Īnother sign of recovering occurs as a gradual increase in our ability to relax - to resist overreacting from a triggered position, i.e., from an inappropriate fight, flight, freeze or fawn response (See my article: “A Trauma Typology”). Over time we become more and more proficient at managing them and alleviating unnecessary states of activation this in turn results in flashbacks occurring less often, less enduringly and less intensely.Īnother key sign of recovering is that the critic begins to shrink and lose its dominance of the psyche. return to topĮffective recovery work leads to an ongoing gradual reduction of emotional flashbacks. In this vein, I believe that many substance and process addictions also begin as misguided, maladaptations to parental abuse and abandonment – early adaptations that are attempts to soothe and distract from the mental and emotional pain of complex PTSD. Moreover most of the diagnoses mentioned above imply deep innate characterological defects rather than the learned maladaptations to stress that children of trauma are forced to make– adaptations, once again that were learned and can therefore usually be extinguished and replaced with more functional adaptations to stress. Feelings of panic or itchiness in the eyes can be masked with medication, but all the other associated problems that cause these symptoms will remain untreated. Calling complex PTSD “panic disorder” is like calling food allergies chronically itchy eyes over-focusing treatment on the symptoms of panic in the former case and eye health in the latter does little to get at root causes. This is not to say that those so diagnosed do not have issues that are similar and correlative with said disorders, but that these labels are incomplete and unnecessarily shaming descriptions of what the client is afflicted with. This is also true of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and some dissociative disorders which are similarly excessive, fixated freeze responses to trauma. Further confusion arises in the case of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder), as well as obsessive/compulsive disorder, which is sometimes more accurately described as an excessive, fixated flight response to trauma. In my experience, many clients with Complex PTSD have been misdiagnosed with various anxiety and depressive disorders, as well as bipolar, narcissistic, codependent and borderline disorders. It currently resembles a large dictionary. Renowned traumatologist, John Briere, is said to have quipped that if Complex PTSD were ever given its due – that is, if the role of dysfunctional parenting in adult psychological disorders was ever fully recognized, the DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders used by all mental health professionals) would shrink to the size of a thin pamphlet. Written by Pete Walker What may I have been misdiagnosed with? Why does it take so long to actually get that you’re recovering? What is the Abandonment Depression? The Abandonment Melange? Frequently Asked Questions About Complex PTSD What may I have been misdiagnosed with?
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