The Complexity of Complex Trauma

Alterations in Affect Regulation and Impulse

• Affect regulation

• Modulation of anger

• Lethargy or hyper-activity

• Self-destructive

• Suicidal preoccupation

• Difficulty modulating sexual impulses

• Excessive risk-taking

Alterations in Attention or Consciousness

• Amnesia

• Dissociation

• Derealization

• Depersonalization

• Numbness or separation from body

• A draw to fantasy

• and/or analysis

• Aware of past or future, but not present

• Lack of context or 'center'

Somatization

• Digestive system

• Chronic pain

• Cardiopulmonary symptoms

• Conversion symptoms

• Sensory anomalies

• Sexual symptoms

Alterations in view of SELF

• Ineffective

• 'Permanently damaged'

• Guilt and responsibility

• Shame

• 'Nobody can understand.'

• Learned Helplessness

Alterations in view of OTHER

• Inability to trust

• Revictimization

• Recreation of painful patterns

• Victimizing others

• Compliant and/or rebellious

• Passive-aggressive

Alterations in view of WORLD/UNIVERSE

• Despair or hopelessness

• Fatalism

• Loss of previous religious beliefs

• Inability to adapt to systems

All this info from Lifekeycounseling.com