Growing Up with Complex PTSD

What It Felt Like — and How I Made Sense of It Later

Summary

What if the parts of you that felt “too much” were never the problem — but signs of trauma you didn’t know you had?
In this post, I’m sharing what Complex PTSD looked like in my life before I had the language for it.
From emotional flashbacks to people-pleasing to shame I couldn’t explain — this is the story of how I began to make sense of my past, and what I’d tell my younger self now.

✨ Includes a bonus journal prompt + grounding practice at the end.

---

Some of us didn’t know we were traumatized.

We just thought we were:

• Too sensitive

• Too angry

• Too needy

• Too much

We didn’t have the words.
We just had the feelings — the shutdowns, the spirals, the shame.
And we tried to manage it the only way we knew how:
Stay quiet. Stay small. Stay safe.

This post is for anyone who’s ever looked back at their childhood and thought:
“Wait... was that trauma?”

---