About Complex Trauma

What is Complex Trauma?

Complex Trauma is a personality disorder characterised by intense feelings of anger, depression or anxiety, followed by severe difficulty regulating those emotions. Your patterns of thinking or actions may seem rigid to the point where interferences cause you severe distress. The intense and unstable nature of the condition can alienate sufferers, causing them to feel isolated – and even increase the risk of self-harm and suicide.

While a person with depression or bipolar disorder will experience the same mood state for a prolonged period of time, a person with borderline personality disorder may appear to experience “breaks” between their mood swings.

Causes of Complex Trauma

As with most conditions, there is no single cause of Complex Trauma.

Genetic and environmental factors, as well as brain chemistry, do play a role in the onset and progression of the condition, which is predominant throughout adolescence.

Complex Trauma often improves with age, and impulsive and anti-social behaviours tend to settle by the age of 30 to 40.

Signs and Symptoms

Complex Trauma is a complex psychiatric condition in which a person has difficulty managing their behavioural, psychological and cognitive impulses. Proper diagnosis is based on a clinical assessment by a mental health professional. Criteria of the disorder may or may not include the following:

Behavioural

• Threats or attempts related to suicide or self-harm
• Substance use or abuse
• Antisocial tendencies
• Risky sexual behaviour (i.e., unprotected sex, multiple partners, infidelity)
• Other risk-taking behaviour (i.e., reckless driving, spending sprees, gambling)
• Self-destruction
• Social isolation
• Excessive neediness or fear of abandonment
• Intense or chaotic relationships
• Avoidance or lack of self-direction
• Difficulty empathising
• Binge eating or other eating disorders
• Extreme reactions to real or perceived threats

Psychological

• Feelings of depression or hopelessness
• Low self-esteem or distorted self-image
• Fluctuating sense of identity
• Narcissism or superiority
• Anxiety or nervousness
• Paranoia or emotional detachment
• Suicidal thoughts
• Erratic moods
• Uncontrollable anger
• Irritability
• Feelings of boredom or emptiness

Cognitive

• Paranoia
• Hallucinations
• Suspiciousness
• Disassociation
• Neurosis