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The LGBTQIA+ Community Complex Trauma, PTSD, and CPTSD
Childhood trauma’s long-lasting effects
With all the trauma the LGBTQIA+ community faces nowadays, we must discuss how complex trauma from your past has shaped who you are today. No, I don’t mean that childhood trauma caused you to be gay; you were born that way. However, there are many ways that maltreatment might affect you as an adult.
This piece will discuss how complex trauma, CPTSD, and PTSD affect you today. We will also discover together that, despite these three diagnoses, you can overcome them while maintaining and possibly gaining more respect for yourself.
What is Complex Trauma?
Complex or relational trauma is experienced as a child or an adult. First named in the 1990s by Judith Lewis Herman, Ph.D., complex trauma has much in common with post-traumatic stress disorder sharing some symptoms.
However, complex trauma has added symptoms, such as:
Emotional symptoms
Disbelief, shock, denial
Difficulty concentrating
Confusion
Anger
Mood swings
Irritability
Anxiety
Fear
Guilt and shame
Feeling hopeless
Being numb
