Chapter 7 Resources
PTSD and Complex Trauma
ADVICE
When we have an experience that overwhelms our capacity to process it and let it go, it remains within our nervous system and cellular memory, waiting to be triggered, re-experienced and hopefully, this time, processed and released. However, if we are not aware that we are being triggered and having trauma responses to ordinary situations in life, we may find ourselves over-reacting and/or feeling unusual amounts of fear, doubt and worry and not know why. This can have a cumulative effect and oftentimes leads to serious depression and anxiety.
This is what trauma - unprocessed negative experiences - does to us. This disorder is called post-traumatic stress disorder and, in cases where long-term toxic relationships and/or bullying have caused repeated negative experiences, it is called “complex trauma.”
A large part of my healing came from understanding how early trauma affects our neurology. I had always thought that PTSD was something that war veterans or persons who had lived through extreme and horrible childhood abuse and neglect dealt with. My therapist, Bobbi Fosburg, helped me understand that anyone can suffer from PTSD since trauma is, in fact, a human response to an experience, of any kind, that overwhelms your current capacity to process it. It stays with you and has a cumulative effect on your nervous system and your mental and emotional well-being.
I was surprised and relieved when Bobbi explained how my early experiences could, in effect, rewire my brain in such a way that led me to become more susceptible to the pressures of life and subsequently, to developing serious depression, anxiety and mood disorders, than someone with a neuro-typical brain. And it didn’t take being a victim of severe child abuse or being a war veteran to be affected by PTSD. She referred to post-war and other severe trauma as the Big “T” and all other trauma as the Little “t”. She did not minimize the little “t” and explained that it can be just as traumatizing and damaging as the Big “T”.
Resources
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) worked wonderfully for me and within several months my trauma had completely subsided. For more information about PTSD, EMDR and Complex Trauma, please visit these websites:
PTSD Examined. The Five Types of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
https://bestdaypsych.com/ptsd-examined-the-five-types-of-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/
What is Complex PTSD? Symptoms, Treatment and Resources
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322886#symptoms