Ptsd is different than CPTSD

[Three Roses]

Here's a really good article about the differences of these two commonly confused disorders.

http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/complex-ptsd-response-to-prolonged-trauma-0603137

[radical]

    Chronic fear, or expectation of,abandonment. Many people with C-PTSD are diagnosed with an attachment disorder, and neediness, fear of abandonment, overwhelm and sometimes, regression during times of stress are common in C-PTSD.  Conversely, aloofness, feelings of needing to earn belonging, to please and appease, others, excessive caregiving, and self-abandonment may result.
    Difficulty controlling emotions, or in expressing or feeling a full range of emotions or changes in personality.
    Disturbances in self-perceptioni, including an excessive or obsessive preoccupation with the feelings and perceptions of others, and persistent feelings of shame
    Obsession with perpetrators and frequently changing perceptions of perpetrators. A sexual abuse survivor, for example, might go back and forth between viewing the abuser as evil and loving, and might continue an unhealthy entanglement with that person.
Difficulty  with, or inability to form appropriate boundaries, and difficulty perceiving disrespectful or abusive behaviour when directed at themselves.
Repeated vicitimisation across the lifespan.
    Emotional flashbacks: Rather than intrusively remembering the traumatic event, a person with C-PTSD might instead simply get emotionally overwhelmed and re-experience the emotions he or she felt during the traumatic events without ever actually recalling or thinking about the traumatic event. This is particularly common during periods of stress. There is an inability to access 'executive' brain functions, and extreme distress. A person might, for example, begin sobbing or feel terrified during a minor disagreement with his or her partner, or they may be unable to respond at all.
Inappropriate levels of personal entitlement, either too little or too much.
A lack of appropriate self-compassion and self-esteem.
Excessive or inadequate empathy for others, sense of responsibility, and conscience.
A lack of integration of emotional, intellectual and somatic sense and intelligences.
Extreme isolation, both physical and psychological.
Cognitive difficulties, including memory, sequencing, the passage of time, decision-making organisational, and other executive functions are often adversely affected.
Hypervigilence to threat or social rejection.

I felt the description was lacking to say the least.  It read to me as a description of borderline personality disorder.  This keyboard mouse drives me crazy, so this may be a mess.
Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[mourningdove]

Hey radical, check this out:

These three disorders [somatization disorder, borderline personality disorder, and multiple personality disorder] might perhaps best be understood as variants of complex post-traumatic stress disorder, each deriving its characteristic features from one form of adaptation to the traumatic environment. The physioneurosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is the most prominent feature of somatization disorder, the deformation of consciousness is most prominent in multiple personality disorder, and the disturbance in identity and relationship is most prominent in borderline personality disorder. The overarching concept of a complex post-traumatic syndrome accounts for both the particularity of the three disorders and their interconnection. The formulation also reunites the descriptive fragments of the condition that was once called hysteria and reaffirms their common source in a history of psychological trauma. (126)

-Judith Herman, Trauma and Recovery

[radical]

Hi Mourningdove,
I appreciate that, I wanted to explain that what was described seemed to be just one variation on the cPTSD cluster of reactions.

There is some disagreement too.  Some experts believe there is a BPD and a BPD-like responses to repeated trauma.  I don't know which is true and I didn't mean to be judgmental.

Being a fawn/freeze type, with over-controlled emotions, a preference for solitude rather than clinging behaviour, there wasn't much in the description as written, that I could relate to from my own experience, and I thought it was pretty narrow and ignorant, all round.

[mourningdove]

Being a fawn/freeze type, with over-controlled emotions, a preference for solitude rather than clinging behaviour, there wasn't much in the description as written, that I could relate to from my own experience

It makes sense that you wouldn't like it, then. I thought it did an adequate job of differentiating between PTSD and C-PTSD, which seemed to be its aim. Perhaps it is succinct at the cost of being incomplete.

[mourningdove]

Some experts believe there is a BPD and a BPD-like responses to repeated trauma.  I don't know which is true

I don't know either, but I've noticed that when Bessel van der Kolk speaks about "BPD," he ends up talking entirely about about developmental trauma (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2NTADxDuhA).

[radical]

I think it was more than just "succinct".  It repeatedly talks about 'event' singular despite cPTSD being about more than one event, by definition. It talks about attachment disorder without mentioning the effects of betrayal and loss of the ability to trust due to abuse perpetrated by those we should be able to most trust.  It fails to mention inappropriate trust, as in the case of Stockholm Syndrome, and trauma bonding.  It emphasises overreaction without any mention of 'underreaction' or the fact that the present day reaction is not inappropriate for the event(s) that triggered the reaction.

The description wouldn't need to be much longer to incorporate these issues.

Added to reply to your comment while I was typing:

So does walker, but I don't think this does justice to BPD either.  However this kind of cPTSD is just one variety.

[mourningdove]

You're right that the article does repeatedly refer to a singular traumatic "event" when talking about EFs. I missed that the first time.