'What's the difference between PTSD vs CPTSD?' | ep.214

Understanding the Difference Between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Exploring Symptoms, Impact, and Treatment Approaches in Therapy Sessions

Audience questions:

1. How does trauma due to a single event (ex: a car accident or rape) differ from trauma from an extended period of time and multiple associated incidents (ex: a soldier in heavy combat during a deployment or being in an abusive relationship over years)? How do symptoms and the overall impact differ? How does the approach that a therapist takes to treat these two different scenarios differ? Is one easier to recover from than the other? 01:30

2. Why, at the end of every session, does my therapist ask me if I want to go ahead and schedule the next appointment or reach out for one later? I know I’m reading too much into this but the thought of her thinking I don’t really need therapy popped into my head. 09:53

3. Please talk about ruminating! It’s brutal, but it’s helped me remember and process narc abuse and bolstered me in my nc decision. But I need to move on, too. Thank you, Kati. 13:46

4. Why is it that self-harmers across the board all seem to struggle with validation of their emotional pain and self-harm? It’s as if we are in an unspoken competition to prove who has the worst pain. I see this in myself, and my OCD accentuates it. So there can be an element of compulsion to my self-harm. The bar keeps moving higher as to what I have to do to myself to prove my emotional pain is severe and the degree of self-harm valid... 18:30

5. Kati I was wondering why you don’t see patients anymore. I know you are busy but you have such great advice. Also I have been wondering why boundaries are hard for me. I broke my boundaries with my therapist and it seems to be hard not to do it again. I think I have an anxious attachment to her and I... 25:26

6. Why does upholding my boundaries feel so defeating? To give insight- I'm in a toxic relationship where my partner is regularly passive aggressive and my boundary is "I cannot tolerate this behavior, I get really panicky and actually don't hear what you're saying, so- whenever you do x, I will leave our conversation and go to my room." I am saving up to eventually leave, because he doesn't see a fault in his behavior and it's getting really exhausting... 31:06

0:11: 💡 Distinguishing between trauma from single events and multiple events, exploring symptoms, impact, and treatment differences.
5:29: 💡 Understanding the distinction between PTSD and complex PTSD, including treatment approaches and triggers.
10:15: 💭 Understanding rumination, therapist's scheduling approach, and communication in therapy sessions.
14:37: 💭 Understanding the impact of rumination on anxiety and the need for validation in self-harmers.
19:24: ⚙️ Impact of childhood neglect on self-harm behavior and the importance of inner child work.
24:06: ⚖️ Exploring boundaries in therapy, inner child work, and reasons for not seeing patients anymore.
28:25: 💡 Exploring the challenges of setting boundaries when dealing with anxious attachment in relationships.
32:54: 🛡️ Exploring the challenges of setting and maintaining boundaries for protection in relationships.
37:23: 🌱 Exploring the challenges of setting boundaries while recovering from extreme people pleasing behavior.

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[amberinthemist]

The biggest healing factor in my cptsd was going low contact with my parents. You can't heal from bad treatment when the toxic people are still in your life. There's just no getting around that part. You can't heal from poison while still being poisoned.

[koffinkiss]

21:24 My mom would brag about how I never cried when I got physically hurt as a kid because everytime I did she would ignore it and act like nothing happened to "teach me not to cry". What she actually taught me was to never acknowledge or process physical pain and that my injuries don't matter. Now as an adult I feel like I shouldn't be allowed to take pain medication, even with my chronic migraines, because "I should be able to handle it and walk it off". All she taught me was how to neglect myself.

[EleonoraStein]

CPTSD can shape your personality, it has been reality for so long, it is part of you. Even when the bad people are no longer part of your life.

[wendyjanson]

Kati, you were AMAZING on the Today Show! Long time listner, first time texter!
Bravo!!

[DadouC]

Thank you Kati xx Especially for talking about emotional neglect when you overcame the question about sh. I think many of us struggle a lot considering our difficult past as "traumatic", or even just neglect. At least for me, I find it reassuring that you somehow validated this kind of struggle. Sometimes, hearing it from someone else is the first step towards, maybe someday, acknowledging it to our own story. It means a lot xx

[MystearicaClaws]

After watching the BPD video this makes so much sense. I checked off like ALL the BPD types.... and I had decades of trauma that I'm only just freeing myself of

[daviddanielsson]

C-PTSD from my perspective: I imagine that PTSD related to single events in adulthood impacts a person's sense of safety and leads to "classic" symptoms of PTSD. In "The body keeps the score" Bessel van der Kolk writes about "Developmental trauma disorder" as synonymous to C-PTSD. Combining environmental impact and repeated traumatizing events early on in life will not only lead to one "not knowing what it feels like to be safe", but it will also affect one's sense of identity. Which is probably why I also have a dissociative disorder.

In therapy this has lead to the need for extensive safety and stabilization before trauma processing.

I'm not a mental health care professional, btw.

[kylapollard]

I have so much emotional and health neglect it’s still hard for me to believe it. I would be told I was fine, after falling over, because I wasn’t bleeding. I constantly had to prove why I needed to see a doctor or go to the hospital, even as an adult (chronically ill, disabled and have chronic mental health). The only way I knew how to express my pain was to self harm, even that was used against me when they found out. It’s rough, yes. The reason I’ve shared this is Kati has a good point on how self harm usually is an indicator of emotional neglect. People/kids don’t do it for fun a high majority of the time.

[Andrew.Spartacus.C.]

I have been having crying fits on and off throughout this episode.
Brought some clarity and reprieve, after so long. Thank you Kati.

[cindyfoster]

I have CPTSD . The truth is, I will never heal completely. My world of people will always be small. I've been through 4 therapists, and none of them has earned my trust. Regarding asking your patients if they want to make an appointment. Made me feel like they didn't want to see me. That part of my CPTSD, abandonment.

[robynparkinson]

CPTSD's impact on self concept can be massive, it is negative, but itmay or may not involve low self worth. Sometimes I think maybe I don't have these common feelings of not being valuable just because there's not enough self concept to even get that far!!! I like your wording as some online therapists simply default to low self worth being a key symptom of CPTSD. To those of us with a different negative impact on our self concept those pronouncements can feel very invalidating.

[Barry-tpvd]

Re rumination / Louise Hays' book, You can heal your life . Says ..."thorts are words and words can be changed . So wright down your negative thort that keeps repeating. Then replace it with a positive statement . Now its your go to affermation to be repeated whenever the old thort trys to creep back in. Eg, "i hate my job, this really sucks" could be replaced with "My positive vibe makes a difference in this world" or "i thrive on positive thorts, life supports me in every way" . Since 1990 when i read the book, ive used this technique many times to target negative self talk. We create our own reality . Always make the affeamation in the present . Eg / "I eat only foods that nourish me." vs/ " I need to start eating more healthily." Thankyou, peace n love to all 😊

[lisaward]

22:50 Thank you so much for all the work you do and put into yourself and pass on the us. So many of your videos and messages really resonate with me ❤

[mickeyrisenmay]

It’s interesting you bring up bpd and cPTSD being linked as I was inaccurately diagnosed with BPD when I had cPTSD so to me they are linked in my mind

[stellapatterson]

Loved this video, so fasinating and helpful. Thank you for all your work.

[AmandaMaria]

When you say trauma that happened as a child or during childhood, does that include teen years? My trauma occurred throughout all of my teen years and I haven’t heard many people talk about that age group specifically and how trauma impacts them.

[littlefire]

4:20 that’s one hell of a concept! Nice.
I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD BPD and PTSD
@14yrs old my mom and I were abducted by a 🛸
BPD EVR AFTER AND IM NOW 48 and my mom passed the anniversary of the event and on her only sons wedding anniversary.

[juliaalzofon]

Kati, you are amazing, and I watch almost all your videos! Just one little thing I would like to point out. At about 7:10 you say, "it's not harmful anymore". That assumes a person's trauma is in the past. For some people, threats and harms, including physical, verbal (and anxiety) attacks are ongoing and saying "it's not harmful anymore" can be perceived as dismissive. I would want to be sure a person feels safe from harm before telling them they are safe from harm. I know you get this, it just didn't seem clear enough in the video.

[RICKRATT]

What about PSPTSD? Parochial School PTSD is a real thing. Nuns still haunt my memory to this day. No lie.

[donnaechlin]

Just love you katie you help you soo much 😊