• Not recognized by mental health professionals as a valid (or “billable”) diagnosis.

And still, it is…

• Feeling like you always have to prove to everyone that you are good enough
• Isolating yourself because there is no one you can trust
• Having explosive outbursts of rage at the store clerk because he forgets your receipt or your cat because she threw up on your carpet or your friend because she didn’t answer your text
• Not remembering the reasons behind your anger or your sadness or your hopelessness
• Cutting yourself to take the pain away
• Being sure everybody is angry with you and saying bad things about you
• Wishing you could die so there would be an end to your pain
• Feeling guilty because you didn’t suffer “real” trauma
• Never living, but just surviving day-to-day

Complex PTSD is all this, and much, much more.