20/12/2024
Over the past few decades, PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) has gained recognition as being a severe mental health condition that affects war veterans and servicemen traumatized in the line of duty. This suffering is incredibly real and many are still not receiving the proper care or treatment they deserve. Even so, they have remained 'the face of the disorder' despite other groups of trauma survivors existing at higher risk. In the most recent years, more adult survivors of sexual assault and workplace harassment have had their voices heard and the consequences of theit trauma be recognized - finally. But the group who's remained largely, almost wholly, left out of these global conversations is the group most likely to develop PTSD in their lifetime: abused children.
We now not only understand the diversity in who is being disrupted by these life-altering experiences, but also that there's a distinction between classic PTSD and Complex PTSD. This observation and education has just been slow to catch on - professionally and publicly. To further challenge our gathering of data and applying what we DO know, for those abused as children, many don't exhibit the symptoms of PTSD *while* they're still children. Sometimes, their unpredictable, high-stress, or aggressive behavior gets labeled as 'oppositional defiance,' having 'reactive attachment,' or a conduct disorder. For children who instead present highly dissociative, non-communicative, and/or living under a completely different set of social rules than their peers, they are frequently receiving misdiagnoses of autism, ADHD, or even other cognitive or medical disabilities.
These misdiagnoses (when they are, in fact, incorrect - as the overlap between genuinely autistic children and co-occurring trauma or abuse is itself quite high) are not only harmful, stigmatizing, and keeping them from proper care, but once these children become adults, they may be completely unaware of their abuse history or its impact on them. Specialists have already discounted its importance, or even existence, in their lives for them (often unconsciously but, sometimes, intentionally). This can condition the survivor to, in turn, do the same.
All forms of PTSD are life-altering, severe, and the survivors of each are too frequently given improper diagnoses and treatment along the way. It makes it harder for each group to get the care they need and deserve whenever these misconceptions, myths, and generalizations continue to mislead us. When it comes to treating survivors of child abuse, furthering the awareness of Complex PTSD and pushing for better education on the effects of childhood trauma - in any context, severity level, or presentation - is paramount to helping them. We promise to continue doing just that until there's no longer a need.
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