04/09/2026
September is C-PTSD Awareness Month. I have Complex PTSD. Complex PTSD has changed the way my brain and nervous system respond to the world because of prolonged exposure to trauma.
I can be competent. I can lead teams. I can facilitate a room full of people. I can laugh, travel, make plans, get excited about food, have meaningful conversations, and genuinely enjoy my life.
I can also feel like getting out of bed is too much work. I become forgetful. I take longer to respond to messages.
I withdraw. I become less warm and expressive. I don’t have the energy to explain what is happening because I don’t even have the words for it myself.
This is where C-PTSD can be particularly difficult. Because from the outside, it can look like I’m being distant, unresponsive, unreliable. Or simply lazy or having a bad attitude.
Truth is, I may be triggered by something that doesn’t make sense to anyone else. I may be trying to regulate emotions that feel disproportionately big.
I may be exhausted. Brain scans of people with C-PTSD show we are constantly on alert, flooded with survival hormones that drain our energy.
If you find it hard to understand or relate to this, imagine living with it and trying to act ‘normal’ every day of your life when you start your day already exhausted.
I am still me on the days when I am productive and thriving. And I am still me on the days when I can barely get out of bed. C-PTSD is not my whole story.
I’m sharing this because I think silence can be more damaging than discomfort. Also, maybe someone reading this has been quietly struggling too. Or maybe you love a person who has been struggling and wondered, “Why are they like this?” What we need most isn’t fixing. It’s safety (usually felt through consistency in behavior of others towards us). It’s patience. It’s compassion. If this educates even one person, or makes someone feel seen or heard, then it is worth having shared it.
