PTSD (Post Trumatic Stress Disorder) is complicated. It affects people in many different ways and there is many differents responses and ways to recover from a trumatic event.

CPTSD, (Complicated) PTSD, is more complicated than PTSD.

To undertsand the difference it is best to understand how they come to be. PTSD stems from a trumatic event. CPTSD stems from a trumatic experience of some longevity.

So imagine 9/11, PTSD. Being kidnapped and kept in a basement and abused for years, CPTSD.

On a lower scale a minor car crash could bring on some level of PTSD, or an abusive boyfriend who wasn’t physical but made you walk on egg shells, which you can get out of but stay for some time, can also easily bring about CPTSD.

Both have a similar range of responses that overlap and of course different people respond very differently to truma.

There’s a key difference, PTSD does not tend to change the basic core personality, however CPTSD does frequently.