Symptoms (Giourou et. al., 2018; Cohen & Mannarino, 2015) can include:

• feelings of shame and guilt or failure

• feeling permanently damaged and ineffective

• feelings of threat

• social withdrawal

• despair

• hostility

• somatisation 

• a diversity from the previous personality  

• flashbacks (i.e., re-experiencing the traumatic event) 

• numbness and blunt emotion 

• avoidance and detachment from people, events and environmental triggers of the predisposing trauma 

• autonomic hyperarousal

• affective dysregulation 

• adversely disrupted belief systems about oneself as being diminished and worthless

• severe hardship in forming and maintaining meaningful relationships along with deep-rooted

Symptoms (Giourou et. al., 2018; Cohen & Mannarino, 2015) can include:

• anxiety, sadness, anger affective dysregulation

• avoidance of trauma reminders

• self-injurious behaviors

• non-compliance

• hypervigilance

• poor sleep

• increased startle reactions

• stomach aches and/or headaches

• intrusive trauma-related thoughts and memories

• false or irrational trauma-related beliefs

• dissociation

• psychotic symptoms

• irrational thought processes

• impaired relationships with family, friends, peers

• social withdraw

• decline in school concentration, performance, or attendance

• difficulty in trusting others

• maladaptive behaviors - sexual behaviors, bullying, aggression, drinking alcohol to cope with problems, 

binge eating, extreme social reassurance seeking, etc.

A recent study of Palic et al, suggests that C-PTSD has roots not only with childhood trauma but with exposure to all forms of adulthood trauma (Bryant-Davis, 2019, Giourou et. al., 2018; Karatzias, et. al, 2019). 

Traumatic events that create C-PTSD include, but are not limited to:

• prolonged domestic violence

• childhood sexual, physical. or psychological abuse

• childhood neglect

• torture 

• genocide campaigns

• slavery or human trafficking

• victim’s inability to escape due to multiple constraints whether these are social, physical, psychological, environmental or other 

• traumatic bereavement

• survivors of institutional abuse such as that occurring within foster care and religious organisations 

• societal trauma such as poverty, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and nativism

• living with a family member who has a substance abuse issue