Are all signs of C-PTSD unusual? The psychiatric community normally cluster them separately and call them “disorders.” If you think about it, the criteria on the DSM is basically how you organize complex trauma symptoms (symptoms that represent the type of dysregulation of their nervous system functioning), and we could even include many of the physical illnesses.
The long-term activation of the stress-response system — and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones — can disrupt almost all the body's processes, especially if that occurs in childhood, while the brain and most organs are developing.
Trauma produces a “reorganization” of the way mind and brain manage perceptions among all the alterations that the brain suffers from. This has repercussions on the development of the self and everything involved, which causes alterations in personality and behavior.
So, even action like “not noticing” the inadequacy of some of your behavior may be an unusual sign of complex trauma that correspond to dissociation and lack of awareness, but almost nobody will notice that until the person is maybe in therapy.
So, for the sake of giving everybody the chance to find unusual signs, here is a long list of manifestations of complex trauma:
Personality/Behavior distress: fear, the subjective experience of danger, is the core emotion and the primary dysrhythmia in developmental trauma, and in PTSD. So, fearfulness for ridiculous things could be unusual
Extreme emotions and overreactions
Lack of tolerance of emotions, own or others
Rapid shifts from one feeling state to another: calm then terrified, reasonable then enraged
Difficulty concentrating, restlessness, fidgety
Fast speech without time to breath
The chest is inward or protruding
Hypersensitivity to light, sounds, noise
Rapids shifts in attitudes towards others: “I love you, I hate you”
Alterations in consciousness/Transient dissociation
Alterations in self-perception – shame and guilt
Emotional intensity
Incongruent emotional manifestations: laugh while recounting sad stories
Lack of awareness
Incongruent conversation: responds something from a different subject
Physical symptoms with no medical cause
Always leaving relationships/Can’t leave a bad relationship
Instead of forming specific memories of the full event, people who have been traumatized remember images, sights, sounds, and physical sensations without much context
Losing the capacity to organize experience into logical sequences and to translate feelings and perception into words
Difficulty integrating sensory information
Autoimmune deceases like Rheumatoid Arthritis
Heart-related problems and disease
Respiratory system-related problems and disease
Digestive problems: irritable bowel, digestive issues, diarrhea, constipation
Reproductive system-related problems
Diabetes
Chronic pain Pain/Fibromyalgia
PNES are attacks that may look like epileptic seizures but are not epileptic and instead are caused by psychological factors.
Perception distortion
Impaired sense of self
Sudden changes in behavior
Impaired self-awareness
Resilience may erode slowly
Resilience drops quickly
Persistent Illness
Becoming isolated or over clingy
Moodiness
Overreaction to normal stress
Easily depressed
Crying without reason
Fake crying
Trouble sleeping
Poor memory
Risky Behavior
Lack of Hope
Ringing in ears
Cold skin and clammy
Turning pale
Irritable,
Aggressive, labile, fearful
Victim role
Intimidating,
manipulative
Escapist
Hyper-critical
Difficult to relate to, to trust, or depend upon.
Mistrustful
Paranoid
Dependent
Display of disorganized attachment patterns
Impulsive
hyper-sensitive
hyper-vigilant
Distracted
Restless
Withdrawn
Self-absorbed
Disturbed body/self-image
Alterations in self-perception
Extreme inexplicable shame and guilt
Dissociation
Depersonalization
Derealization
Complainers of psychosomatic physical ailments or diseases
Somatization
Paranoia
Fear of death
Physical symptoms with no medical cause
Bitterness/fear toward God or others
Confusion/disgust with God or religion
Loss of trust in God and/or clergy
Waiting for God to fix it
Despair related to the perceived loss of spirituality