It was never weakness. It may be Complex PTSD.

Complex PTSD, or CPTSD, is a trauma response that develops after prolonged or repeated experiences you could not escape, such as childhood abuse or neglect, ongoing domestic violence, or sustained emotional harm. Alongside the familiar signs of trauma, it changes how you manage emotion, how you see yourself, and how safe you feel in relationships. It is a normal response to abnormal circumstances, not a personal failing.

PTSD usually follows a single frightening event and centres on re-experiencing that event, avoiding reminders of it, and a persistent sense of threat. Complex PTSD carries all of those features and adds three further patterns: difficulty regulating emotions, a deeply negative view of yourself, and difficulty feeling close to other people. In short, PTSD is often about what happened, while Complex PTSD also shapes who you have come to believe you are.

In its eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases, the World Health Organisation defines Complex PTSD as the three core features of PTSD, which are re-experiencing, avoidance, and a persistent sense of current threat, together with three disturbances in self-organisation: problems regulating emotion, a persistently negative sense of self, and difficulties in relationships. This quiz is built around those same criteria.

No. This quiz is a structured self-reflection, not a diagnosis. It helps you notice patterns in your own experience and gives you language for them. A formal diagnosis can only be made by a qualified health professional who understands your full history. Think of this as a starting point for that conversation, not a replacement for it.

Most people finish in around five minutes. There are eight short questions about how you have been feeling, and you answer each one honestly on a simple scale. There are no right or wrong answers.

Your results are emailed to you as soon as you finish. Over the following seven days you also receive a short series of emails that explain what your results mean, unpack how Complex PTSD works, and point toward what recovery can look like. Nothing needs to be purchased to receive any of it.

Yes. The quiz and the seven days of follow-up emails are completely free. More than ten thousand people have taken it so far, and it exists to give the language of Complex PTSD to the people who need it most.

Your answers are collected securely through Jotform for one purpose only: to send you your results and the accompanying email series. Your information is never sold and never shared. You can unsubscribe from the emails at any time.