One of the things that often gets shattered when it comes to complex PTSD is "trust".

When we are children we have no choice but to "trust" our parent/caregiver. Children simply don't have the life experience to know what to do and how to respond or even that their overall navigational skills will take a lot more time to develop. So, we are designed to "trust" by nature and imprint.

If you watch birds for example, when birds build a nest and lay eggs, from that moment that developing baby bird completely depends on the parent to lay on that egg and keep it warm so it can slowly develop. Then when the baby hatches, again it is completely dependent on the parent to nourish it and still keep it warm because the baby bird doesn't even have feathers yet. As these babies grow they learn to "trust" that the parent will show up with food and the noises they make get a lot louder.

Watching baby birds is educational, but, these baby birds reach maturity in such a short time compared to a human child. Human children have to "trust" a lot longer than any other mammal. A human child is VERY dependent and VERY susceptible when it comes to imprinting based on what they experience in their environment.

Having to "trust" also means "believing". For example, young children can be encouraged to actually "believe" in Santa Clause and Unicorns and lots to things that are not actually REAL.

Trauma chips away at our "trust". When we are young we "learn" how to survive despite this challenge. However, children are still very vulnerable to "believing". Children are STILL very vulnerable to "Monkey see, Monkey do", so appropriate because after all we are "primates".

The symptoms that you are describing that present with PTSD are the symptoms that individuals struggle with when the individual faces enough trauma, or a major trauma to the point where their "trust" is so badly shattered that they begin to pull away and slowly isolate. This includes "self trust" too.

The correct therapy is crucial because what someone struggling with PTSD needs help with is rebuilding trust, in someone else and THEMSELVES. Each individual will be different depending on their "history" too. A good "trauma" specialist must also be able to take into consideration the patient's "cultural" beliefs too. A trauma specialist's first goal when treating a "trauma patient" is creating a SAFE environment for that "trauma patient". It can take the patient a while "just" to feel safe with a therapist because the trauma patient's "trust" has been completely SHATTERED.

Unfortunately, what often happens is that a trauma patient/ victim is often told "Just get over it, Just forget it, Let it go, You have to see it this way, It is not that important, You are thinking wrong, You ARE wrong, Stop thinking about it, You have to move on, get with the program, JUST SNAP OUT OF IT, don't dwell, just to name a few WRONG responses". Unfortunately, some of the worst offenders are one's own family and even friends too. MOST people who struggle with PTSD/complex PTSD will talk about feeling and being LONELY with their challenge. Also, there is a deep "fear" in talking about themselves too, this is due to "total lack of trust" and not knowing HOW to talk about it.

So, it's not at all surprising that someone struggling can't see a "future" or begins to "isolate" and "withdraw" and develop all the symptoms that present with PTSD. The sensitivity level is very high in more ways that can actually confuse and frighten someone who experiences a post traumatic breakdown that if not addressed correctly develops into PTSD.

When something is shattered, it takes a lot of time to SLOWLY put a lot of pieces back together where a person can "learn" to live and slowly regain their sense of "trust".