Today I’m talking about the main signs and symptoms of Acute, Secondary, Chronic, Complex and Developmental Traumas (including Complex PTSD).
Today we’re continuing our series on Trauma, by starting a discussion on the different signs and symptoms of trauma. Specifically, we’ll talk about the main signs and symptoms of Acute, Secondary, Chronic, Complex and Developmental Traumas.
This series is here to help you understand what trauma is, what the signs and symptoms are, and how and why God created you in a way that includes trauma. We’ll cover the basics of this mental health dysfunction, all the way into some of the science of how it wires into your memories and nervous system. This will give you the foundation for understanding how to heal any trauma you may be carrying. Because trauma is one of the main causes of stress in life as a human.
This is the 4th in a series of 10 posts called “What is Trauma”. Learning about trauma can be overwhelming and even triggering. I encourage you to go slow, letting God lead you to where He needs you right now. And if at any point your get triggered and need help, there are free and paid resources linked at the bottom of each post. They’ll help you out of those triggers, back into the state of peace in your mind and body. You deserve that, so don’t shy away from help if you need it. I’m praying for you.
Today I’m starting our discussion by talking about the main signs and symptoms of Acute, Secondary, Chronic, Complex and Developmental Traumas (including Complex PTSD).
In the next post I’ll talk about dissociation, and the one after that I’ll talk about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences).
If you missed the previous posts, I introduced what trauma is, along with the 5 different types of trauma (Acute, Chronic, and Secondary, and Developmental, Complex and Complex PTSD). These are great introductions into trauma that will help you understand these symptoms deeper.
When you carry Acute Trauma, you’ve lived through 1 single event that has wounded your brain and body. This 1 single event can leave a lasting impact on your health including your:
The symptoms you experience and how they show up in your life are unique to you. Every person’s symptoms will vary.
There’s no correlation between the number of symptoms you have and the severity of your trauma. You can experience a few or all of these symptoms and suffer just the same.
The good news: When you heal your trauma, these symptoms often diminish, or disappear completely. This depends on if your trauma is the only root cause of these symptoms or not. It’s possible that other physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual things are causing them as well.
The symptoms of Acute Trauma are as follows:
The mental symptoms you can carry include:
The emotional symptoms you can carry include:
The behavioral symptoms you can carry include:
The physical symptoms you can carry include:
When you carry Secondary Trauma, you’ve developed trauma symptoms over time from being in close contact with someone who has trauma.
As you can see from the list on Acute Trauma, the symptoms of trauma include behavioral changes that can impact you as a caregiver, spouse, child, etc. These impacts over time can lead to your brain and body getting wounded with your own trauma as well.
The symptoms of Secondary Trauma are similar to Acute Trauma, with the possibility of them being greater, as the exposure to pain was ongoing (not just from 1 single event). If the behavior of these individuals you’re caring for gets abusive, it’s possible that your trauma can grow into higher levels like Chronic or Complex Trauma. The symptoms of Secondary Trauma would then begin to appear more like Complex Trauma (Big C).
The good news: When you heal your trauma, these symptoms often diminish, or disappear completely. This depends on if your trauma is the only root cause of these symptoms or not. It’s possible that other physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual things are causing them as well.
When you carry Complex Trauma (Big C), you’ve lived through chronic and prolonged exposure to multiple highly stressful events that have wounded your brain and body at high levels. This typically includes abuses from other people (often those closest to you), with at least 1 type of abuse being physical in nature. And it often happens in early childhood.
This type of trauma is the combination of Chronic and Complex Traumas, with Developmental Trauma if you were a child when the abuse happened.
It’s the highest level of trauma you can carry, and is often at the level of PTSD. As such, it impacts every aspect of your life (and health).
The good(ish) news: When you heal your trauma, these symptoms often diminish, or disappear completely. This depends on if your trauma is the only root cause of these symptoms or not. It’s possible that other physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual things are causing them as well.
Due to the nature of this level of trauma, healing it completely is harder than with Acute and Secondary Traumas, but not impossible. Healing a portion of it can diminish your symptoms and bring much need relief in your health.
The symptoms of Complex Trauma include all of the symptoms of Acute Trauma, often at greater levels, with more symptoms showing up at once. As well as the following:
The mental symptoms you can carry include:
The emotional symptoms you can carry include:
The behavioral symptoms you can carry include:
The physical symptoms you can carry include:
In the next post, I’m continuing our discussion on the signs of symptoms of trauma with a deep dive into dissociation (one of the main symptoms of trauma).
In the one after that, I’ll talk about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences).
If you’re struggling with trauma triggers and life-altering effects they bring, I have resources for you.
While I always encourage healing in 1-on-1 sessions with a therapist or trauma coach, you’re also going to need help in between those sessions.
Here is a free video of one of my favorite mental health techniques for turning off trauma triggers. It’s a quick 5 minute exercise that will shift you back into the state of peace in your mind and body.
I also have a full Membership of videos and audios (just like the free one) to help you turn off your triggers anytime, anywhere. Some are short exercises to turn off your triggers quickly so you can get back to your life, while others are longer opportunities to turn off your triggers and release the hard emotions that came with them.
You deserve to live and thrive in the state of peace in your mind and body. And God wants that for you.
If you’re struggling with trauma and the damaging effects of it, know that it’s not only ok to get help. It’s beautiful.
From one survivor of this hard life to another,
I’m praying for you ♥︎
– L aura
