The Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) Self Test

The following is a list of common conditions and symptoms associated with CPTSD. It is not exhaustive, nor has everyone with CPTSD experienced all of the conditions or symptoms. It should not be used for diagnostic purposes. However, it may give you a sense of whether what you are struggling with may be related to CPTSD. The more you answer “yes” to the questions, the more likely it is that you may be suffering from CPTSD.

At this time, CPTSD is not an official diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). CPTSD is often misdiagnosed as several other conditions such as borderline personality disorder, dissociative identity disorder, major depressive disorder, attachment disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. If you have been diagnosed with any of these or another disorder and you feel that your diagnosis does not fully capture the breadth of your symptoms (and particularly if you were chronically traumatized as a child) it may be useful for you to take this use this questionnaire.

Many people find relief in recognizing that they are suffering from CPTSD, as it helps to identify the source of their suffering as being related to what they lived through earlier in life and not that there is something inherently wrong with them. Moreover, there is hope: people can recover from CPTSD.

(N.B. The terms caregivers and parents are used interchangeably throughout the questionnaire.)

Past Experiences/Conditions

Do you believe that you were neglected or abused as a child?

Yes/No

Were your caregivers available to soothe and protect you when you had adverse experiences?

Yes/No

Did you experience ongoing traumatic events in your childhood?

Yes/No

Did you have the sense that you wanted to escape from your family home, but lacked the means to do so?

Yes/No

Did you have regular fantasies about being rescued from your life?

Yes/No

Were your experiences and perceptions regularly denied or discounted?

Yes/No

Did you feel that your parents were cruel?

Yes/No

Did you feel that your caregivers were insensitive to your needs

Yes/No

Did you feel that you were essentially invisible to your parents?

Yes/No

Did you lack any of the basic necessities of life?

Yes/No

Did you regularly have the sense that you hated yourself?

Yes/No

Did you find it especially difficult to calm down or soothe your own distress?

Yes/No

Did you use substances (including food) to regulate your emotions?

Yes/No

Did you feel spaced out like your body was there but you were not?

Yes/No

Were you responsible for meeting the needs of or soothing the distress of your own parent(s)?

Yes/No

Did your parents misuse substances?

Yes/No

Did you feel chronically vigilant, like you were on guard all the time for then next bad thing that was going to happen?

Yes/No

Did you have other sources of trauma in your childhood such as being bullied at school?

Yes/No

Were your caregivers themselves traumatized in their childhoods?

Yes/No

Were your parents incarcerated for periods of time during their childhoods (such as in an Indian residential school or a concentration camp?

Yes/No

Did your caregiver(s) suffer from mental illness?

Yes/No

Present Experiences/Conditions

Do you have a difficult time regulating your emotions?

Yes/No

Do you feel chronically on guard as though something bad is just around the corner?

Yes/No

Do you feel spaced out much of the time like you are not really present or inhabiting your body?

Yes/No

Are you harshly critical of yourself inside your own head?

Yes/No

Do you feel sad much of the time?

Yes/No

Are you preoccupied with suicide?

Yes/No

Are you inclined to injure yourself?

Yes/No

Do you have difficulties with anger (either explosive anger or inhibited anger or both)?

Yes/No

Do you believe that your sexuality is either compulsive or extremely inhibited?

Yes/No

Do you have a difficult time remembering certain childhood events or blocks of time?

Yes/No

Do you sometimes feel like your thoughts or feelings or you yourself are unreal somehow?

Yes/No

Do you sometimes feel like your surroundings are not real?

Yes/No

Do you experience flashbacks (i.e., the reliving of past experiences or emotional states)?

Yes/No

Do you feel helpless and/or that you have lost all initiative?

Yes/No

Do you feel a chronic sense of shame, guilt or self-blame?

Yes/No

Do you experience a sense of being defiled or stigmatized?

Yes/No

Do you feel that you are substantially different from other people?

Yes/No

Are you preoccupied with your relationship with a caregiver(s) who neglected or abused you?

Yes/No

Do you sometimes feel that the caregiver(s) who neglected or abused you are all powerful?

Yes/No

Do you feel grateful to or do you idealize the caregiver(s) who neglected or abused you?

Yes/No

Are you convinced that you have a special relationship with the person/people who neglected or abused you?

Yes/No

Have you adopted the belief system or the rationalizations of the person/people who abused or neglected you?

Yes/No

Do you tend to isolate yourself or withdraw from others?

Yes/No

Do you have a difficult time finding or maintaining intimate relationships with others?

Yes/No

Do you have a hope that someone will find and rescue you from your life circumstances?

Yes/No

Do you find yourself consistently mistrustful of others?

Yes/No

Do you have a difficult time protecting yourself from others?

Yes/No

Do you find it difficult to believe in anything in an ongoing way?

Yes/No

Do you feel hopeless or despairing much of the time?

Yes/No

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