Dr. John A. King distinguishes PTSD, which comes from a single bounded event, from CPTSD, which develops from prolonged repeated trauma like captivity, domestic violence, or childhood abuse. CPTSD often resurfaces later in life as vivid recollections of sustained abuse.
Let's just talk briefly about the difference between post-traumatic stress disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. The major difference is post-traumatic stress disorder happens because of a traumatic event that is— that has a top and a tail to it, a beginning and an end. It might be a mission overseas. It might be a series of time in country. What complex post-traumatic stress is, is prolonged over many years. And often it could be things like captivity, concentration camps, prisoner of war, long-term domestic violence, long-term childhood sexual abuse, entrapment in some ways. It's where a person feels totally helpless and unable to escape from the situation. And it seems to cascade upon them, particularly later in life. Often people with CPTSD, it comes back in later recall of a series of events that happened in childhood.
