Trauma-Informed Blog
New content weekly! Survivor Stories, Research Articles, Poetry, and more written by clinicians, coaches, survivors, and mental health professionals.
Remember...
Important Information About Our Content
Everything you find on this blog, CPTSDfoundation.org, or within our wider digital communities is created for educational and informational use only. No content shared here—whether by our staff or guest contributors—is intended to supersede or replace the clinical relationship you have with your medical or mental health providers. We are here to support your journey with information, but we do not provide medical advice or treatment. Guest opinions are their own and may not represent the views of CPTSD Foundation. Privacy Policy and Full Site Disclaimer, Terms of Service.
What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD)?
Most people have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder that afflicts many men and women returning from a war zone. It is characterized by flashbacks, unstable mood, and survivor’s remorse....
Reclaiming Power Back from Triggers
Anyone who has ever had a flashback or a dissociative episode knows what triggers are and how they can affect lives. This article will examine triggers in-depth to help you understand their...
Inflammation, Myelin Repair, and a Cure for Mental Illness
Those people who live with the effects of complex post-traumatic stress disorder sometimes believe that the symptoms they have are made up and all in their imaginations. Many feel they are weak...
Brain Inflammation and Its Connection to Severe Mental Illness
In the last article, we began discussing how brain inflammation is indicated in the formation of severe mental illnesses. Today we are going to explore two major mental illnesses, major...
Inflammation and the Brain Changes Observed in Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Formerly I stated this series would be split into two parts. However, due to the enormous amount of information available, I have decided to offer four articles instead. In our previous article,...
The New Research about Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
There have been some truly remarkable research papers written about complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) in the past few decades. Some of the research focuses exclusively on CPTSD while...
The Outer Critic, Self-Parenting and the Thirteen Steps of Healing
This series of articles has focused on emotional flashbacks. We’ve discussed how they feel, what causes them, and the turmoil they bring into relationships and lives. In this article, we will...
The Connection Between Emotional Flashbacks and the Inner Critic
It was Pete Walker, an M.A. in psychoanalysis, who first coined the phrase emotional flashback to describe the gut-wrenching experience of reliving the helplessness and dissociation caused by...
The Living Hell of Emotional Flashbacks
In our last article, we discussed the differences between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). One of these dissimilarities involves the...
The History of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and an Introduction to Emotional Flashbacks
Our brains are hardwired to react viscerally to traumatic events. They then store those emotions in our central nervous, so that when we feel and experience similar future events, we will be...
Discovering Your Abilities and Preparing for Your Ideal Employment
Finding a job that you enjoy can be difficult if you live with a mental health condition like complex post-traumatic disorder. This is especially true when you need to drop out of the workforce...
Working with a Mental Health Disorder and The Americans with Disabilities Act
On July 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). This law was a huge leap towards helping people of the United States, facing mobility and...
What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
“Complex PTSD comes in response to chronic traumatization over the course of months or, more often, years. This can include emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuses, domestic violence, living in a war zone, being held captive, human trafficking, and other organized rings of abuse, and more. While there are exceptional circumstances where adults develop C-PTSD, it is most often seen in those whose trauma occurred in childhood”.
