08/15/2025
❖ Complex PTSD Criteria: Part 6 ❖
We've reached the final C-PTSD criterion and it's a heavy one. "Alterations in One's System of Meanings" may sound like a confusing mess of words, but it's actually a real simple one to follow and we're here to help make it extra clear!
The best way to understand this criterion is to consider all the ways prolonged trauma might overhaul how one sees the world and all that gives life meaning. It’s, painfully, very common for survivors to, at some point, feel their life is completely hopeless or meaningless—as if it's already been ruined, they'll never be okay, or even that they only bring pain to the world. The severity of their trauma can generate a level of despair most cannot truly visualize themselves
having to contend with.
Beyond faith, hope, and 'life's meaning' lie other major value systems that are often jilted by trauma. What is good or bad, right or wrong, moral or immoral—these are things many believe we are just born knowing, but even if that were true, prolonged trauma can dramatically rewrite it all. A survivor can believe THEY are bad or immoral just by virtue of being exposed to bad and immoral things. Against their will.
Survivors may’ve been taught abuse or pain “feels good”, or is something done out of love and care. Abusers proficient in psychological abuse can even convince a survivor that things like sexual abuses are 'good' or make them 'special'. Without elaborating in too much upsetting detail, you can see how one's moral compass or sense of right and wrong could be turned upside-down - especially if hurt by someone with
complete power over them.
Beyond that, survivors can even believe it's "right" or "just" for them to suffer, get hurt, or be neglected; or that it’s a "good" thing when they're self-destructive—as if that's what's "supposed to happen," "deserved," or paying some debt they feel they owe. Conversely, as the external or public battle between what's just/unjust and fair/unfair plays out, survivors may side with abusers and worry that folks are treating them too harshly for their crimes. Sigh. It is heavy stuff.
As a survivor gets older and breaks free of the abuse, these "systems of meaning" can get convoluted beyond recognition–especially after exposure to new ways of thinking via safe friends/family. Yet, because belief systems are SO personal and individualized, it can be extremely difficult for anyone else to convince them they're holding onto powerful distortions from trauma. It's something you can help guide a survivor to see for themselves, but ultimately, they have to learn and decide what feels right to them and them alone.
Like all of the challenges outlined in the last 6 criteria, this difficulty can also be worked through. Through therapy, or even hearing from other survivors that you yourself would never think of as 'bad' or 'immoral' for what they went through, you can make sense of these misguided beliefs. You CAN find your way.
You can feel inspired and gain a sense of hope for your life again. You can reclaim a faith if that feels right to you. It is absolutely possible to feel that the world is okay - maybe even good - and that YOU are wonderful in it. We would love to see this for you and will be here every day of that journey should you need a safe place to land.
💜💙💛
