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The Psychology of People Who Have Endured Too Much Trauma [View all]
A number of years ago I found a website with a list of 35 symptoms of complex PTSD. The instructions were simply to count the number of symptoms that apply to you. If you have 7 or more of these symptoms then you likely have CPTSD. There were two symptoms I felt did not apply. I scored 33 out of the 35.
A lot of what’s described in this video are symptoms of CPTSD. The problem with CPTSD is that it becomes hardwired into your nervous system. I had a pretty fucking major crisis in my early twenties when I realized this. It felt like a life sentence.
Is your "laziness" actually exhaustion? Is your "need for control" actually a desperate search for safety? The traits you likely judge most harshly in yourself are often not defects—they are scars. We tend to believe that if we were "better" people, we would be more relaxed, more trusting, or more open. But psychology tells us a different story: these behaviors are not signs of a broken character; they are signs of a nervous system that has worked incredibly hard to keep you safe.
In this deep dive, we look at the biology of survival. When you endure chronic stress or childhood instability, your brain—specifically the amygdala—rewires itself for hyper-vigilance. You become an expert at reading micro-expressions and anticipating danger, but you lose the ability to rest. This video explains why you feel like a car with the engine revving in neutral, why you might feel "numb" to survive, and why your high-functioning armor is so heavy to carry. It is time to understand the machinery under the hood so you can finally stop fighting your own biology.
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