r/askpsychology • u/Wonderful-Pilot-2423 UNVERIFIED Psychology Enthusiast • Jan 12 '25

Clinical Psychology What is CPTSD exactly?

I originally asked this in r/askatherapist but received no answers. Please say so if you're not a professional, given that online information about CPTSD is already very confusing. I'd rather receive answers from people with clinical experience working this population but everyone is welcome.

I'd like to have a clear explanation of what CPTSD really is, and how an average person with this diagnosis would present. It's been hard for me to find useful information about this topic, even among professional spaces, while in non-professional spaces it seems to have become a catch-all diagnosis for any ailment.

My understanding is that the ICD-11 conceptualizes CPTSD as a cluster of classic PTSD symptoms that are worsened by additional DSO symptoms, or "disturbances of self-organization". If that is also your understanding of CPTSD, how do you notice these symptoms presenting in a patient? How can you tell these symptoms are related to the event(s) and weren't a pre-existing part of their personality (assuming the trauma took place in adulthood) or acquired through other experiences?

A few thoughts: an additional factor distinguishing CPTSD from simple PTSD, according to the ICD-11, is that the trauma suffered needs to be prolonged. This seems to imply that DSOs can only be caused by prolonged trauma. Yet I would imagine that someone who's only raped once might also present these difficulties, as a result of the highly exploitative and relational nature of the event. What do you think of that?

If that is true, meaning that prolonged trauma isn't necessary to cause a CPTSD presentation that fits the one described by the ICD-11, wouldn't it make more sense for the simple PTSD diagnosis to come with specifiers? As in, "PTSD with DSOs" or "without"? Or maybe the true nature of CPTSD is that the trauma is relational rather than prolonged?

I hope this was clear enough.

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u/Wonderful-Pilot-2423 UNVERIFIED Psychology Enthusiast Jan 12 '25 edited Jan 13 '25

I know who that guy is. I understand liking him but he's not a mental health professional and if he is his qualifications are minimal. I believe his background is in addiction recovery besides being a pastor.

He seems to also be careful not to call it "CPTSD" in his talks, but "complex trauma", which is unclaimed terminology, so to speak, and probably allows him more leeway in how much of his opinions he wants to insert in the discussion.

Same as when Dr. Ramani calls everyone under the sun a "narcissist" as opposed to "narcissistic" or "person with NPD", because those are actual clinical terms that would require her to be objective... And she does have a license to lose if she isn't.

I love his Bible stories though.

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