What is C-PTSD?

I’ve talked about trauma before but today I want to talk about what is C-PTSD? In the last decade, we’ve come so far in our understanding of what trauma is and how it can affect us in the long term. “Trauma is defined as “exposure to an incident or series of events that are emotionally disturbing or life-threatening with lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, and/or spiritual well-being.” – Trauma-Informed Care

So, what is C-PTSD?

We’ve come a long way in understanding trauma over the last decade. We know now it’s not just about “what happened,” but how those experiences affected us. Trauma isn’t a single event for everyone. Sometimes, it’s a series of moments that pile up over years, especially when they happen in environments where you felt trapped, powerless, or unsafe.

Unlike PTSD (which often stems from a single traumatic event, like an accident or assault), C-PTSD develops after prolonged trauma. Think: childhood abuse, ongoing domestic violence, growing up in a war zone, or even years of emotional neglect. It can also come from religious trauma, medical trauma, systemic oppression… the list goes on. At its core, C-PTSD is your nervous system’s response to living in survival mode in a situation that was unsafe or made you feel trapped or powerless.

Also, not everyone who goes through long-term trauma develops C-PTSD. Our brains, bodies, and support systems all play a role (shoutout to the biopsychosocial model for reminding us that mental health is never one-size-fits-all and we are all so different).

What is C-PTSD from a lived experience point of view?

Prefacing to say: Everyone’s experience is different. Some people with C-PTSD shut down, some turn to people-pleasing, some turn to substances, some carry on just fine until they aren’t. It is always going to look different but I want to share a glimpse of what it looks like. Sometimes symptoms on paper don’t capture the daily weight of it.

Imagine looking for danger everywhere. You were shown that even people who are supposed to love you and care for you can hurt you. So strangers are untrustworthy, and the people in your life are untrustworthy too. But *maybe* if you can be good enough, and nice enough, and give enough – they won’t hurt you. But you’re pretty sure that won’t work – so you look at every action and change of tone, trying to decide if it means unlovable, worthless, about to abandoned or abused.

There are moments when you’re having a great day and then suddenly an emotional flashback slams into you. And it’s like your body is back in the past. Emotional flashbacks don’t look like the typical reliving-a-memory type of flashback. They’re waves of shame, fear, or sadness that crash into you out of nowhere even if your rational mind knows you’re okay.

Then there’s the push-pull of relationships.

Over-explaining, people-pleasing, or bending over backward to “earn” love, all while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And for a lot of people – it’s like that every day. You don’t trust life because at one point life let you down and you didn’t have safety when you needed it. You don’t trust people but you want to trust people and feel loved and accepted and all that good stuff – but what if they abandon or hurt you. And then you don’t trust yourself because you never know when your brain is going to do that thing where it flashes back to a feeling out of nowhere, ruining the day and taking you out of the present and back to the past.

It’s exhausting, right?

When we look at a list of symptoms we often see them in singular way. But often those symptoms are things that are being juggled constantly, every hour of every day.

Common Symptoms of C-PTSD:

• Emotional Dysregulation – Difficulty managing emotions, frequent mood swings, or feeling numb.
• Hypervigilance – Always being on high alert for danger, even in safe situations.
• Intrusive Memories – Flashbacks, nightmares, or reliving traumatic events.
• Avoidance – Avoiding places, people, or memories related to the trauma.
• Negative Self-Perception – Feelings of shame, guilt, or believing you’re fundamentally flawed.
• Relationship Difficulties – Struggles with trust, fear of abandonment, or unhealthy attachment patterns.
• Dissociation – Feeling disconnected from yourself or reality; memory gaps.
• Chronic Health Issues – Physical symptoms like headaches, fatigue, or chronic pain related to trauma.

What Helps? Let’s Talk Coping for C-PTSD

First and foremost: therapy.
It’s one thing to manage symptoms like shame or emotional overwhelm, but therapy can help you connect the dots and really understand how your experiences shaped you and your beliefs about yourself/others/life. Trauma-focused therapies like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and Internal Family Systems (IFS) can be incredibly helpful.

Grounding, grounding, grounding. A huge thing with C-PTSD is a lack of feeling safety. Grounding exercises are a way to anchor yourself in the present instead of floating back into that mental space of being unsafe. Here’s a big list to start with.

Self-compassion. Be the voice you needed when you were going through it. You needed calm, safety, love, and compassion. Focus on those things now too (it’s not too late). Talk to yourself like you’d talk to a hurting friend.

Find your community. Isolation feeds C-PTSD and that tendril that tells you that you will never find stability or safety in your life. Find the people that remind you of the opposite. Whether it’s a support group, a trusted friend, or an online community.

It’s okay if “progress” looks like surviving one day, then the next, then the next. You’re here and you’re doing the best you can and that’s pretty awesome.

What’s helped you cope? What’s something you wish you knew earlier?

If you want some tools to help you on your journey, these might help.

Affirmations

Shame Spirals

Trigger Journal