While most everyone will experience trauma at some point in their lives, not everyone who experiences trauma will experience PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptoms.
Complex PTSD (CPTSD) is caused by ongoing trauma that lasts for months or years, whereas PTSD is caused by a single traumatic event.
However, both create symptoms that negatively impact the body.
Symptoms of PTSD include:
- Anxiety or depression
- Intrusive thoughts or flashbacks
- Feelings of low self-worth
- Feelings of hypervigilance
- Mood swings
- Panic attacks
- Feeling triggered “for no reason”
- Easily startled or frightened
- Zoning out or losing chunks of time
- Guilt or shame
- Irritability, outbursts, angry behavior
- Trouble concentrating
- Trouble feeling emotions, feeling numb
Both PTSD and CPTSD can cause a person to feel alone, damaged, worthless, and completely different from other people – so you may feel like nobody could ever understand you or what happened to you. This makes relationships and friendships extremely difficult, and isolation (or playing possum) is real.
The physical effects of PTSD are far-reaching and not limited to the following:
- It alters gut bacteria and creates digestive issues, which may lead to inflammation or poor neurotransmitter function long-term.
- It creates anxiety and hypervigilance that come out of seemingly nowhere. This may feel like chest pains, headaches, or stomachaches.
- It increases resting pulse rate and blood pressure – or drops it too low. When the body is in a high cortisol, sympathetic dominant state, blood pressure and pulse rate can be higher, but over time, the low cortisol compensatory effect may lead to very low resting heart rate and pulse, which creates symptoms of dizziness or vertigo.
- It creates restless sleep and impacts cortisol awakening response, leading to blood sugar imbalances.
- It can make you crave quick-fueling foods like processed carbs, sugar, or drugs/alcohol for numbing.
- It can cause numbness and tingling throughout the body, dizziness, or out-of-body feelings.
If you are experiencing or have experienced these symptoms, it’s not all in your head and you’re not alone. Finding treatment for the root cause is draining. BUT. There is hope. I’ll share more on that in part two.
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