***Although worldly labels do not trump the truth of scripture, they can be useful to target an audience and for research and analysis purposes. The Bible remains the ultimate source of wisdom, identity, problem-solving, etc., not branches of psychology built on manmade systems and misleading doctrine. Furthering the use of labels as diagnoses or self-identity is not the goal of this article.
General terms are the devil’s playground. Trauma is one of these terms that could refer to a one-time event, a series of intermittent similar events, a temporary season of life-altering events, or an ongoing experience, etc. Although individual circumstances may vary, trauma often stems from an event that is unexpected, unnatural or deviously inhumane.
Trauma is not found in the experience itself, but in how a person reacts to an experience. Since every human is uniquely designed by the Creator, different people can go through similar experiences and come out with different physical, emotional, psychological, or physiological reactions. On the other hand, human beings can only react in so many ways, so although the magnitude and type of reaction may be multifaceted in society, humans all react to inhumane treatment with similar general patterns of behavior.
This is where the devil likes to lump all trauma into one broad category so that the general patterns and remedies will validate the majority while deeply isolating and wounding the most troubled souls. For generations, sufferers of complex trauma have seeked out help and been left out in the cold, but God is responding to their prayers and unleashing His healing onto the masses. There’s still a journey to travel as survivors embark on the road less travelled toward the realm of healthy connection.
Complex trauma may be a newer identifying label, but it is not new. Although its effects on people and behaviors have been identified, its internal confusion and potential resolutions still continue to baffle even the most highly ranked psychologists and trauma specialists. People with it get diagnosed with a wide range of labels including but not limited to depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, high functioning autism, ADHD, and more lately, BPD. Its internal ongoing difficulties and stress on the body can also lead to a wide array of autoimmune disorders and medical conditions.
Complex trauma is not a one-time event or a devastating shared human experience necessary for human growth and development. It’s not something everyone goes through in life, which explains why it’s often so misrepresented and misunderstood. Complex trauma is an unspoken and unguided programming that occurs slowly over time as a person adapts to the survival and entrapment of an abusive environment.
It can occur in any environment where a person cannot escape due to age, violence or coercive control, such as various types of cults, continuous and prolonged warzone deployments or domestic violence as an adult, etc. but the complexity of childhood leads the way in complex trauma-related issues and research because it happens while the brain is still in development.
What differentiates childhood complex trauma from other types is that — other than the general discernment that something may be wrong — the child remains unaware of the trauma growing inside them. What they do notice, however, is the feeling of disconnect and isolation from others – a constant nagging and assessment of being different and of not coping with life as easily as others seem to. Without outward connection and validation, the internalized struggle leads to an intense ongoing self-analysis that inevitably leads to self-hatred and finally, an extreme black and white cycle of codependency or lack of empathy, emotional suppression or dysregulation, and self-abandonment.
Complex trauma occurs as a child learns how to navigate daily life while carrying an internal undefined substance of neglect, which is a hole full of unmet basic connection needs. This festering hole goes ignored until it becomes big and tender enough to bring the unwavering desperation that begs to be filled with the comfort of self-sabotaging habits and survival mechanisms. Since the hole is an unconscious adaptation and the child isn’t cognitively aware of it’s potential backfire, it ultimately breeds into a self-sabotaging adult who unknowingly leads a life built around protecting their nurtured wound from triggers.
The adaptations that helped the child survive an abusive childhood suddenly flips a switch on them in adulthood. The unhealthy habits formed for survival now work to destroy them. For someone with complex trauma from childhood, learning to function in daily life becomes excruciatingly uncomfortable and outright painful. The internal throbbing is sustainable for some time, but there comes a point where it becomes too much. The unexpected happens. Life gets hard. People die. Disappointments pile up. Relationships fall apart. The inability to connect on a basic human level and cope with the dysregulation of emotions becomes an unavoidable problem. It is not just difficult, but a consistent ripping and widening of a deep open wound; it’s a constant suffering.
Before healing, these complex trauma survivors live in a stunted state, internally functioning as children. They struggle internally with many basic functions of life. They spend ample time on simple self-care and basic routine tasks that healthier people take for granted. When a complex trauma survivor hears that every person experiences trauma, they immediately begin to compare and self-analyze, wondering if they are just weaker than everyone else. They are actually exhausted from over-functioning, but with a reality discerned using a defective compass, they begin to wonder if maybe they are just defective or inadequate. The intention of suggesting that all people experience trauma often comes from a good place, but this attempt to make a positive statement actually triggers these trauma sufferers into their preprogrammed cycle that feeds self-abandonment.
Complex trauma survivors may use similar words as non-survivors to define their state, but to them, the words don’t carry the same definition. A child only knows what they are taught. If a child sees yellow and is told it’s purple, how would they come to know? In the same way, trauma survivors have been coping with extreme levels of suffering for most of their life, usually from the womb, and they’re taught that it’s normal. When they struggle with the maltreatment, they’re often led to believe they’re actually the problem, so self-soothing and internalized coping mechanisms form.
In adulthood, a “hard” day for a trauma survivor surpasses their high level of trauma tolerance. What for others might be an unexpected delay, a bad review at work or a difficult conversation or relational struggle, for trauma survivors “hard” could mean a life-changing occurrence or deeply traumatizing and wounding experience. They tend to minimize their own self-abandonment symptoms because of its consistent level of normalcy in their lives, but this cycle is anything but. It is ruthless and even outright dangerous. For example, the anxiety or depression labels could actually mean shutting down for days or weeks, an extreme internal overwhelming paralysis to the point of financial struggles, job loss, homelessness, dark demonic thoughts, or even drastic attempts to leave this world.
Because of the difficulty for unhealthy trauma survivors in explaining its abnormality to healthy cohorts, the misunderstanding is understandable. However, believing that “we’ve all experienced complex trauma” is like believing that “we’ve all experienced starvation.” Complex trauma is not momentary hunger from an unfilled basic need; it is learning to survive and adapt to long-term starvation.
Every human being who has ever existed has suffered; no one gets through life unscathed. However, different people go through different things and every person experiences life differently. Not everyone has a servant Job experience. Not everyone has a Paul experience. Not everyone has a Joseph experience. Not everyone has a David experience. Not everyone has an Esther experience. Not everyone comes from the same place and has the same calling from God. He builds us up in different ways to equip us for His divine purpose.
Complex trauma does happen to many people, but it is not something that everyone goes through. In many cases, it is also not something instantly transformed through the cleansing of salvation. There is much to gain through the process of refining. It can be healed through God’s wisdom and insight, but minimizing its existence and effects only limits connection, increases misunderstanding, and makes finding solutions more difficult. Trying to force healing through judging, condemnation or discipline also pushes God’s struggling sheep away from fellowship.
Complex trauma builds over decades of time. It comes with a daily dose of undeserved oppression, shame, neglect and devaluation. It’s the only way of life its sufferers have ever known. Recovering survivors living in open wounds need a consistent avalanche of undeserved patience, grace, compassion, and encouragement while they develop the wisdom to overpower the devil’s tactics and strongholds.
Although a worldly label can never define or become branded into the identity of a born-again believer, being forced to adapt to inhumane survival took their entire childhood and for most, years of adulthood. It can take just as much time to unravel the web of snares and replace them with the freedom of God’s healing.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3
He uncovers the deeps out of darkness
and brings deep darkness to light.
Job 12:22
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
2 Corinthians 10:4
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
John 10:10
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Genesis 50:20
Therefore encourage one another
and build one another up.
1 Thessalonians 5:11
