Complex PTSD (CPTSD)

What Is Complex PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)?

While you may have heard of trauma and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), you may wonder, “What is CPTSD, and how is it different from PTSD?”

You may not be as familiar with the terms “complex trauma” or “complex post-traumatic stress disorder.” These conditions may also be called complex PTSD, CPTSD, or C-PTSD.

Hanley Center is a CPTSD treatment center offering the latest, evidence-based, age- and gender-specific treatment options for anyone experiencing CPTSD. We understand this complex condition and offer hope. Our offerings include a premier Residential Mental Health facility, as well as treatment for complex PTSD in patients with co-occurring substance use disorders.

What happens with CPTSD is that your limbic system gets flooded with stress hormones. As a result, it stays stuck in fight, flight or freeze mode.

With CPTSD, you constantly feel on edge. Nothing seems to help. The emotional trauma gets physically stuck in your body. Professional care is needed.

Complex-post traumatic stress disorder profoundly impacts the health of our nervous systems because our difficult memories feel like they are happening to us in the present moment. Over and over, our bodies relive the trauma from decades prior. This type of complex trauma is not related to a single accident like an attack or car accident but rather a series of traumas over a long time.

This is why age- and gender-specific treatment is critical. For people with mental health disorders without co-occurring substance use, we also provide a community of like-minded individuals through our sophisticated Residential Mental Health Program, offering individualized therapies for complex PTSD treatment.

Sometimes, with CPTSD, the experiences have taken place over months or years. Though it generally starts in childhood, CPTSD can develop from an adult traumatic onset episode or recurrent stressors.