If you are struggling with Complex PTSD, you likely have a history of one or more of the following experiences:

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• Domestic violence

• Childhood physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect

• Sex trafficking

• Fundamentalist religion or cult experience

• Hostage, prisoner of war, or concentration camp survivor

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​After prolonged subjection to these experiences, a survivor will experience persistent changes in six fundamental areas, including affect regulation, consciousness, self-perception, perception of the perpetrator, relations with others, and systems of meaning. Following are examples of possible changes in each of these areas:

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1. Affect regulation

   • Dissatisfaction with your life, chronic suicidal thoughts, self-injury, difficulties with anger, difficulties with sexuality

2. Consciousness

   • Loss of memory (or unusually detailed memory) of traumatic events, feeling disconnected from yourself or your surroundings, feeling outside of your body, reliving experiences through intrusive memories, thinking obsessively about traumatic experiences

3. Self-perception

   • Helplessness, the inability to take initiative, shame, guilt, self-blame, a sense of stigma, a sense of difference from others (feeling completely alone, like no one can understand you, or nonhuman)

4. Perception of perpetrator

   • Excessive focus on the relationship with your perpetrator, belief that the perpetrator has total power, idealization, a sense of a special or supernatural relationship with the perpetrator, acceptance of the perpetrator's belief system

5. Relations with others

   • Isolation, withdrawal, disruption in close relationships, repeated search for a rescuer, persistent distrust, repeated failures of self-protection

6. Systems of meaning

   • Loss of sustaining faith, hopelessness, despair