How complex trauma can develop

• Card 1

  Complex trauma tends to be associated less with a single frightening event and more with an ongoing situation — one where difficult or harmful experiences happened repeatedly over time, and where leaving, escaping or being protected wasn't a realistic option.

• Card 2

  Circumstances often associated with complex trauma

  • Childhood abuse, neglect, or growing up with a caregiver who was frightening, unpredictable or unavailable
  • Domestic abuse or coercive control within a relationship
  • Ongoing bullying, harassment or discrimination
  • Captivity, trafficking, or war and conflict
  • Repeated medical trauma, particularly in childhood
  • Any situation where harm was repeated and escape felt impossible

• Card 3

  Childhood is a particularly sensitive period because a developing nervous system and sense of self are being shaped in relationship with caregivers. When safety, comfort and consistency are missing during those years, a child may adapt in ways that helped them survive then, but which can continue to run in the background long into adulthood.

• Card 4

  Entrapment is a key idea here. When a person cannot physically leave, cannot emotionally leave (because they depend on or love the person involved), or cannot see a way out, the body and mind often shift from short bursts of fight-or-flight into longer-term states of hypervigilance, shutdown, or fawning — because those short-term responses aren't sustainable over months or years.

  Not everyone exposed to these circumstances develops C-PTSD, and people can develop it after experiences not listed here. Trauma responses depend on many factors, including support available at the time, age, temperament and other resources — none of which are anyone's fault.

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