Abuse of alcohol or abuse of substances to avoid and numb their feelings.Avoiding thinking or talking about trauma related topics.Hypo-arousal: feeling numb or cut off, feeling detached from others, dissociating, feeling flat or empty.Hyper-arousal: problems with sleep, irritability, anger, anxiety, hyper-alertness, exaggerated startle response.Re-experiencing or re-living unwanted memories as flashbacks or nightmares.Trauma survivors can present with a wide range of problems and symptoms, ranging from physical, psychological and maladaptive coping strategies and may report any of the following: What does childhood trauma look like in adults? The symptoms of CPTSD The brains of people with CPTSD show an enhanced sensitivity to threat and are usually in a chronic state of ‘red alert’.High levels of cortisol make it harder to learn and block memories forming.The amygdala is overstimulated and is in constant overdrive.Chronic stress reduces the size and functioning in the area of the brain that processes memory.The neurological systems that process emotions are significantly compromised in people who've experienced chronic childhood trauma:

Traumatic memories are therefore ‘re-experienced’ rather than ‘remembered’ Flashbacks and re-living of the trauma occur because the amygdala has kicked in and the hippocampus has gone ‘offline’ and is unable to contextualise the memory in the moment. Memories have not been processed and fully integrated into autobiographical memory and they remain stuck in implicit (feeling) memory. The amygdala is over-sensitive and the capacity of the thinking brain is reduced in people who've been exposed to trauma in childhood and develop CPTSD. After the danger has passed, the normal response is for the thinking brain to then react, regulate responses, plan, problem solve, and allow arousal levels to return to baseline. This evolutionary response to danger takes the fast route via the amygdala, rather than the longer thinking route via the cortex, which has aided our survival. At times of danger, we become overwhelmed by feelings and impulses and we don’t think about or contextualise our experiences – we simply react to the danger rather than thinking about it. The ‘thinking part of the brain’ (the neocortex), becomes less active and shuts down. This causes an increase in heart rate, breathing rate and muscle tension. The amygdala is triggered if it senses any kind of threat or danger and causes the brain stem to react instinctively and activate the fight, flight or freeze response. The amygdala, part of the limbic system, is the brain’s ‘smoke detector’ and emotional memory centre. PTSD in childhood affects the development of your brain at a crucial time in your life. The risk of developing CPTSD is greater if the trauma or abuse is repetitive and prolonged, involves harm or abandonment by caregivers and if it occurs at a developmentally vulnerable age such as early childhood or adolescence, which are critical periods of brain development.ĬPTSD differs from PTSD in one significant way, which is that the latter is more typically associated with a single traumatic incident or set of traumatic events. This event is the trigger of a variety of PTSD symptoms such as reliving the trauma in nightmares and severe levels of anger, anxiety and guilt. What is CPTSD?ĬPTSD is very similar to PTSD in that it's a type of anxiety disorder that's related to a traumatic event that has occurred in your past. One such area is their mental health, where children are at risk of developing profound and long-lasting mental health problems into adulthood, such as complex PTSD (CPTSD). Page medically reviewed by Dr Liam Parsonage (BA, MBBS, MRCPsych, PGCert) Consultant Psychiatrist at Priory Hospital North LondonĬhildren who experience early childhood trauma, abuse or neglect are at risk of not developing properly, which can have lasting effects on many areas of their health in the future - as the American Academy of Paediatrics details.

Signs of childhood trauma