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Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Americans with Disabilities Act

Getting the Accommodations You Need

Shirley J. Davis
6 min readAug 1, 2022
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

Millions of people are affected by disabilities every day. When people think of a disability, they often think of people in wheelchairs or who are blind. However, many disabilities cannot be seen.

This article will cover complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and how it is affected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

What is CPTSD?

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder forms when people experience ongoing and inescapable relational trauma, such as child abuse or neglect. The pain suffered by abuse or neglect leaves scars because it was repeated and usually, but not always, perpetrated by a family member or friend.

The National Council estimates for Behavioral Health that 70% of adults in the United States have experienced at least one traumatic incident in their lifetime. Also, 33% of children have been exposed to community violence. This exposure to violence and trauma causes the child to grow into an adult with CPTSD.

Adults with CPTSD often experience symptoms different from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as amnesia, chronic mistrust, chronic physical pain, dissociation, debilitating…

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Shirley J. Davis
Shirley J. Davis

Written by Shirley J. Davis

I am an author/speaker/grant writer in the U.S. My passion is authoring information about mental health disorders, especially dissociative identity disorder..

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