Brain Biology

C-PTSD is a classification for describing mental health, however you may not have heard much about it or may liken it to PTSD which is a much more understood disorder in 2021.

Although not yet recognized by the DSM-5 please know a Complex PTSD diagnosis should not be overlooked as it is a critical mental disorder that requires very specific treatment. The DSM-5 is a regulated system that contains many diagnosis such as PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Schizophrenia, Eating Disorders and more. Sadly the DSM-5 is funded by the profits of the very drugs that promote it which is why it is heavily drug and experimentation based. This means if a mental health disorder exists but doesn’t rely on drugs and hence heavy trial periods & monetary profits that it simply doesn’t get the support it needs to be made available for diagnosis.

No drugs needed? That equals no money, no profit, no corporate fame and that, in a world full of financed systems, is a massive NO GO.

So let me explain to you about Complex-PTSD and how it has been “discovered”, how it differs from, but also is a product of repeated and unmanaged PTSD. As well as a brief explanation of the biology of C-PTSD and the way it distorts the functioning of our nervous systems.

The biological mechanisms and functioning of the nervous system in an individual with C-PTSD are misfiring and have become choatic over time to ensure the survival of the organism.

Nothing is wrong with the individual. The being isn’t flawed and has not formed splits that are to be broken and fragmented forever. On the simplest level the C-PTSD being is the outcome of unsafe environment combined with daring survival.

From within the perspective of the C-PTSD survivor, life feels like an overwhelming and confusing struggle to understand existence. They often cannot define the core of the personality and they live via the human organisms innate determination to keep fighting for life, belonging, and the remaining chance to feel wanted on the earth.

The understanding of complex trauma grew out of PTSD, treating trauma and persistent memories and in a big part from understanding why War Vets never seemed to respond to regular therapy.

It was during this time therapists started to notice that victims became highly agitated during talk therapy that included a common therapy module back then; appropriately called flooding. The silver lining that came from this is that experts in the field of mental health discovered this wasn’t simple PTSD and that the body seemed to undergo a reactivation of memories sending the body into a traumatic response similar to the initial encounter that was repeating on a day to day and sometimes even moment to moment basis.

Bessel Van Der Kolk, Peter Levine, Stephen Porges other leading scientists and mental health experts have collectively helped us to understand that essentially PTSD was repeating in the body to such a degree that the effects of the influx of cortisol and adrenaline on the body were actually changing the individuals biology, neurological processing and nervous system reactions.

Experiencing adversity, especially as a child, and especially when you cannot get free, changes a person. Not just linguistically speaking because its easy to throw the term around but because it is scientifically proven. It isn’t that the person becomes traumatized and that they are "traumatized", rather their bodies have memory loops that are essentially stuck on replay and this causes the body itself to have a traumatic response. In PTSD simple methods of treatment can help marry memory, helping the body return to a normal state. But the body of the C-PTSD survivor becomes so conditioned to reacting in acts of survival that it forgets how to let go and relax even when danger is not present. The survivor of trauma can relive a memory 5, 10, 20, 40 years after the event has stopped.

So while PTSD comes about from a one off event such as being caught in a flood, escaping a fire, taking a bullet, and the like; C-PTSD comes about from repeated events. Either by the replaying of a one off event which causes a mimicking pattern in the body OR by experiencing trauma, neglect, abuse and other harsh circumstances over and over again that the body simply cannot process the constant influx of stress hormones. These hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline flood the body and now it must expend energy to cope with this influx. Over time this pattern becomes habitual and instead of enjoying the unfolding of life, one must adapt to a life that ensures survival.

The critical factor in understanding C-PTSD is that once the emergency stops, the conditions and the fragmented memories don’t stop. The body doesn’t stop bracing for abuse. It keeps on looping and coursing fractured memories through the misunderstood body. It isn’t until these memory patterns are gently recognized, nourished and processed into a coherent understanding within the individual that one can start to access more clarity in life.

Evolutionarily speaking C-PTSD is a product of the complexity of the human being. Now that we have the high brain and its systems that make us able to process and imagine much more than lower species. We also have a much higher capacity to deposit and use memory for survival and creative invention which is a very unique and special part of the human experience. However, it also creates a lot of room for disorder. If you envision a very basic, old fashioned computer. And then think about the wires it needed to work back then. We see when its wires become crossed it only takes a small amount a readjusting from modern man to make it work again. But if you think of a complex modern computer system with its abundance of possibility, memory, processing and energy input; we see much more room for confusion and misinformation. We can relate to the complexity needed to fix or understand the core systems in use of a modern computer to man vs. Ape.

Humans are no different to the evolution of computers. We seem to have come to a stand still on the outer layer, externally; from amoeba to chimp to man. But on the inside, our intelligence, our ability to “achieve, “problem solve” and “invent” is moving forward on rapid fire. Evolutionarily speaking this is due to our brains growth, the development of the high brain ie, memory processing and sensory storage and our collective intelligent force. This accelerates the left hand functions of our brain so much so that it is now dominating our creative, imaginative, and unitive right hand side.

As we learned to deposit memory, with it came the ability to deposit all aspects of sensory perception. That is not only its visual, movie like aspects but also its smells, tastes, touches and other highly dominating sensual attributes such as light /dark or hot/cold.

In the correct functioning human system, all of these aspects of memory come into the person and then deposit to the hippocampus or memory part of the brain as a coherent whole. Sound is stored in the semantic (auditory) hemisphere and speech in Wernicke’s area which is the part of the brain dedicated to critical language processing.

When normal memory is consolidated the separate aspects of a memory come together and wire together (unite) so they are filed away nicely into our meaningful high brain. Upon retrieval of memory whether conscious or subconscious, all aspects of memory come together to give a relatively clear “impression” that helps the individual maneuver through the current situation. The reasons are always different. Sometimes for enjoyment, sometimes for creation, sometimes for the simple repeating of day to day tasks that keeps us afloat and sometimes for survival.

These memories are critical for helping humans maneuver through ones environment and this is where we differ from lower species. Unlike the deer who becomes stunned and plays dead to avoid being eaten in the wild. Humans call upon their past intellect and problem solving abilities to create potential outcomes to survive. When our body deems freedom unattainable, we too, like the deer, can freeze, fight, fawn or faint to ensure survival.

Here we have a critical mechanism come in to play called the Dorsal Vagal Complex. It is associated with the vagus nerve which I’m not sure people actually understand. Like the rumour of the pineal gland and not using fluoride based toothpaste can somehow bring miraculous enlightenment, I have found that the vagus nerve has been spoken of ignorantly for popularity and in a sense, as a fad rather than in its true light.

I won’t delve deeply into the vagus nerve now but I will speak more of its processes in a later section as a way I hope I can help you to understand.

Essentially what I want to say now, is that when the human is confronted by situations that pose danger (and sadly this is more common than we realize), the body becomes stressed and the mechanisms of the vagus nerve and its branching nervous systems shut the body down into lower levels of functioning to essentially keep the person as safe from danger as can be. When this happens, all aspects of the experience; the smells, the touches, sounds, tastes, all consolidate as separate parts - out side of time - and doesn’t come together again to form a coherent whole when the time comes to retrieve the memory.

Due to this simple mechanism of memory processing we must be gentle with ourselves and our memories as it is a very fragile and transitory thing. Memory can become heavily distorted and the goal is never to “dig up memory” but rather consolidate what is triggering us.

As a result of the way memory is stored when trauma is present we now see the one off event that invokes a traumatic response. Therefore giving someone the potential to develop PTSD. Not all people will develop PTSD even if they both experience the exact same event and this is all based on past conditioning and how the body responds to the situation. From the point of developing PTSD we see the individual either go two ways and it essentially comes down to support and understanding. They either process the event, the car crash, the natural disaster, the rape, the witness of death; with love, support and a team of specialized people who understand the process of how trauma lives in the body. If this all goes well, we see the individual recover as they understand and are able to place the event into a coherent timeline within. But if the person doesn’t have support. If they have no one to talk to about the experience or they try to hide the memory they do not recover and sadly many times they simply have no idea what has occurred to them on a biological level and have no support to guide them through.

Collecting the fragments of a memory and depositing them into the hippocampus gently and mindfully so as to not evoke more traumatic responses in the body is very important in treating trauma. We see here with more minor one off traumas or residual traumas, processes like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing), tapping or other consolidation therapies can help the trauma. This occurs by trained professionals who use processes of fast memory processing. However, it is better to treat Complex trauma and childhood trauma by collecting the fragmented senses, uniting them and helping to deposit them into the high brain. This gently guides the survivor to form a memory that is now whole, much less invasive and makes sense in the timeline of our life.

EMDR and instantaneous consolidation of memory can be very dangerous for someone living with CPTSD because the depositing of such a painful memory may have a cascading effect and trigger the remembrance of many other associated memories that the individual isn’t ready to face. Leading sometimes to the most devastating of acts. Instead, the ideal therapeutic setting would be, to assist the survivor of complex PTSD to slowly understand triggers, how the memories are locked in the body in different senses; causing us to relive the past in an instant. It is crucial to teach methods of emotional regulation alongside all other work as well as encouraging secure attachments in the homes and environments of the survivor. This means helping to teach the value of relationships that are meaningful, trustworthy and make the individual feel safe. The survivor needs at least one figure of secure attachment in their life to ensure progression and provide support/understanding through complex recovery. This figure must also understand emotional regulation and how to retrace triggers which helps the survivor to create both an environment of safety: physically and mentally where they are in control.

When the person finally accepts and sees the truth of how Complex Trauma develops in the body, a profound empathy helps to guide the individual to a place of gentle self care and acceptance of all the emotions and “parts” they have existing within. The aim is to never separate or admonish the parts of experiences but to see them in their light and truth. To softly encourage them and welcome them home. Home to core of the personality, the core of the heart, the wholeness of the being.

Living with complex PTSD is a life long dedication to self care, understanding and practices of embodiment. But it isn’t to be seen as a task or some “activity” to ever reach the end of. Because we are always evolving and by reassessing and nurturing our foundation from the roots up, we ensure a lifetime of wellbeing and feeling control in our bodies and environments.

Thank-you for joining me, I look forward to sharing more about this in the future.

We all deserve love, care, guidance and the chance to heal.

I bow