Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- A history of subjection to totalitarian control over a prolonged period ( months to years ). Examples include hostages, prisoners of war, concentration-camp survivors, and survivors of some religious cults. Examples also include those subjected to domestic battering, childhood physical or sexual abuse, and organized sexual exploitation.
- Alterations in affect regulation, including
- Persistent dysphoria
- Chronic suicidal preoccupation
- Self-injury
- Explosive or extremely inhibited anger ( may alternate )
- Compulsive or extremely inhibited sexuality ( may alternate )
- Alterations in consciousness, including
- Amnesia or hyperamnesia for traumatic events
- Transient dissociative episodes
- Depersonalization/derealisation
- Reliving experiences, either in the form of intrusive PTSD symptoms or in the form of ruminative preoccupation.
- Alterations in self-perception, including
- Sense of helplessness or paralysis of initiative
- Shame, guilt, and self-blame
- Sense of defilement or stigma
- Sense of complete difference from others ( may include sense of specialness, utter aloneness, belief no other person can understand, or nonhuman identity )
- Alterations in perception of perpetrator, including
- Preoccupation with relationship with perpetrator (includes preoccupation with revenge).
- Acceptance of belief system or rationalizations of perpetrator
- Alterations in relations with others, including
- Isolation and withdrawal
- Disruption in intimate relationships
- Repeated search for rescuer ( may alternate with isolation and withdrawal)
- Persistent distrust
- Repeated failures of self-protection
- Alterations in systems of meaning
- Loss of sustaining faith
- Sense of hopelessness and despair
Copied from Trauma and Recovery: The aftermath of violence – from domestic abuse to political terror by Judith Herman
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