Core beliefs are vital to who we are as humans, guiding how we treat ourselves and those around us. When a person has suffered complex trauma, these critical internal viewpoints often become skewed.

This is especially true when one has formed complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD).

In this article, we will examine the effect complex trauma has on one’s core beliefs which in turn fuels CPTSD.

Complex Trauma

Complex trauma is experiencing childhood abuse and neglect in the child’s early years in their relationships with their caregivers. These negative experiences significantly impact a child’s social, emotional, and psychological development (Danese & McCrory, 2015).

Children react to complex trauma in various ways, with some responding right away while others wait until adulthood to remember and react to those memories.

Some of the forms of complex trauma children may experience include the following:

• Bullying
• Medical trauma
• Community violence
• Sexual abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Narcissistic abuse

Children who experience complex trauma show many signs they are being mistreated, and this maltreatment has many effects, such as the following.

Psychological changes. Research has shown that children who experience complex trauma have distinct changes in regulating their emotions, developing a sense of self, and forming their self-worth (Prather & Golden, 2009).

Physical changes. Research shows that a child who experiences childhood complex trauma has changed the structure and function of their brains (Brenner, 2022). It is believed that these changes result from higher cortisol levels associated with high stress.

Behavioral changes. Children who have been exposed to complex trauma have many changes in their behavior, such as an increased risk of self-harm and increased risk of suicide.

Complex trauma impacts how a child functions; if left untreated, the changes will persist into adulthood (Danese & Widon, 2020).

Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

This article would not be complete if it didn’t explain the definition of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). CPTSD is formed in response to experiencing extreme childhood trauma.

This trauma (abuse or neglect) occurs over many months and sometimes several years. These traumatic events may include:

• Living in a war zone
• Domestic violence of any kind
• Being held captive
• Human trafficking
• Being a victim of an organized sex abuse ring
• Sexual abuse
• Physical abuse
• Narcissistic abuse
• Severe neglect

The above are exceptional circumstances and center around being completely at the mercy of another person who controls their victims. A lack of the ability to escape also is a significant factor in forming complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

Children are so vulnerable to forming CPTSD because they haven’t the cognitive ability or emotional skills to understand what is happening to them entirely. For a child to admit to themselves that their caregivers, who have been abusing them, do not love them is akin to emotional death.

The impact of complex post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms is profound, and a list is included below.

• Losing memories of trauma or reliving them
• Difficulty regulating emotions that often manifest as rage
• Depression
• Suicidal thoughts or actions
• Sudden mood swings
• Feeling detached from oneself
• Feeling different from others
• Feeling ashamed
• Feeling guilty
• Difficulty maintaining relationships
• Difficulty trusting others
• Seeking our or becoming a rescuer
• Feeling afraid for no apparent reason
• Having a feeling of always being on the alert
• Becoming obsessed with revenge on the perpetrator
• Feeling a loss of spiritual attachment and either ignoring or depending upon religion for self-worth

The implications of CPTSD are tremendous, leaving the child in a complex mess and their core beliefs skewered.

The Core Beliefs of Survivors

Core beliefs are binary ways of thinking about yourself or others. Core beliefs shift gradually and can become more positive over time with effort. These thinking patterns, positive or negative, profoundly affect children and, later, the adults they become.

Positive core beliefs, such as “I am worthwhile,” enrich a survivor with a sense of belonging and success, while negative core beliefs are broad, negative, and judgmental.

Some examples of positive core beliefs may be as follows:

• I deserve to be loved.
• I am a worthwhile person.
• I am worthy and available to receive love.
• I deserve to live and to live well.
• I can trust and be trusted.
• I am safe.
• I am whole.

Often formed in childhood, we tend to see who we are as people through our core beliefs, and these critical thought patterns shape how we interact with the world around us.

Too often, people who have survived complex trauma and have formed complex post-traumatic stress disorder have core beliefs that are unhealthy and unhelpful. Thoughts such as the following often plague survivors.

• I am a bad person.
• I am worthless.
• I am shameful.
• I don’t deserve love.
• I deserve bad things.
• I am not enough.
• I am damaged.

Clearly, these thoughts are harmful and limit how well we encounter our lives. Importantly, these negative core beliefs are changeable with hard work and perseverance.

The Impact of Negative and Positive Core Beliefs 

Because core beliefs were formed early in your childhood, changing them is a challenge. Your environment taught you that the world is dangerous and you aren’t worth the ground you stand on.

You were neglected and traumatized to the point that your perspective of the universe was splintered and torn apart by the negative clues in your childhood environment. Because these beliefs are deeply set due to early adoption, you have accepted them as true and somewhat unchangeable.

Often, negative core beliefs work against you and are often secretive and invisible to yourself. Negative core beliefs often aren’t conscious cognitive thoughts directing you in your life; they are silent and quietly direct how you behave and carry on in the world.

At other times, however, you may know you are pessimistic about yourself and blame others for your plight. While it is true that at one time, the people you trusted as a child to care for you failed, the simple truth is that you are responsible for your negativity today, no one else.

Changing Your Core Beliefs to Treat Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is fueled by negative core beliefs that keep you trapped in the past. Once you understand what your negative core beliefs are, you can begin the process of changing them while healing your CPTSD.

First, you need to pay attention to what your mind is saying. Listen to yourself think and say those thoughts aloud to clearly hear the negative messages you are telling yourself.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder directly results from the negative thought patterns you formed in childhood and have brought into your adult life. Ask yourself, “How does having negative core beliefs hold me back in my life?” Listen carefully to the answer you give yourself and act to change.

Next, it is time to replace negative core beliefs and self-talk with new positive self-interactions. Begin exchanging the negative tapes playing in your head put there by your abusers for positive ones. For example, instead of telling yourself how ugly or worthless you are, try telling yourself in the mirror to your face how beautiful and worthwhile you are. Repeating to yourself positive affirmations you can find on the Internet is helpful too.

You may need professional mental health help to climb out of the cell your caregivers imprisoned you in. Seek out someone who understands trauma and how to treat it. Once you have found a therapist, stick with them.

Your negative core beliefs will tell you that you cannot heal from complex post-traumatic stress disorder, so you should quit trying. Don’t believe those thoughts. Instead, double down on your efforts to gain new insights into yourself.

Ending Our Time Together

Healing from complex post-traumatic stress disorder and changing your core beliefs will not be easy. You will travel down a less-taken road on your healing journey because many survivors will either give up or never try.

Give yourself credit for reading this piece and those like it. Doing so means you recognize that your worldview and outlook are skewed and desire to change them.

As someone who has been working hard on her CPTSD and core beliefs for decades, I witness that changing how you believe about yourself and the world can and will change. It takes a lot of effort, but it is well worth it.

Changing negative core beliefs to positive ones takes time, but the benefits are enormous.

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.” – August Wilson

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Sharon Salzberg

References

Bremner, J. D. (2022). Traumatic stress: effects on the brain. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience.

Danese, A., & McCrory, E. (2015). Child maltreatment. Rutter’s child and adolescent psychiatry, 364-375.

Danese, A., & Widom, C. S. (2021). The subjective experience of childhood maltreatment in psychopathology. JAMA psychiatry, 78(12), 1307-1308.

Prather, W., & Golden, J. A. (2009). A behavioral perspective of childhood trauma and attachment issues: Toward alternative treatment approaches for children with a history of abuse. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 5(1), 56.

Additional Posts in this series:

What are Your Core Beliefs?
Negative Core Beliefs
Core Beliefs and Happiness in Life

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Shirley Davis

My name is Shirley Davis and I am a freelance writer with over 40-years- experience writing short stories and poetry. Living as I do among the corn and bean fields of Illinois (USA), working from home using the Internet has become the best way to communicate with the world. My interests are wide and varied. I love any kind of science and read several research papers per week to satisfy my curiosity. I have earned an Associate Degree in Psychology and enjoy writing books on the subjects that most interest me.