Complex Trauma
Multiple and compounded traumatic events
Complex trauma invloves:
- Mutiple traumatic events
- Different types of traumatic events
- Interpersonal in nature (within close relationships)
- Occurs during developmental years (childhood to adolescence)
Complex trauma can look like:
- Challenges with emotional stability and regulation
- Dissociation (feeling disconnected, numb)
- Negative view of self (low self-esteem, shame, guilt)
- Heightened sense of threat (hypervigilence)
- Self-impacting behaviours (self-harm, substance use)
- Sleep disturbances, nightmares (possibly recurring)
- Physical difficulties (such as pains, nausea)
Chronic Trauma
Repeated traumatic events
Chronic trauma involves:
- Prolonged occurance of repeated (or sustaining) traumatic events (high stress)
- Same event occuring repetitedly (such as, challenges with illness/disability, abusive relationships)
- Can occur during developmental years or during adult years
Chronic trauma looks like:
- Intrusive thoughts
- Sleep disturbance and distressing dreams/nightmares
- Avoidance of people, places, things, and activities that are triggering
- Cognitive impacts (memory issues, negative emotions, feeling apathetic)
- Negative view of self (low self-esteem, shame, guilt)
- Self-impacting behaviours (self-harm, substance use)
- Physical difficulties like pain
