I'm sorry you're struggling so much

I think I have the same diagnosis as you, as well as others. But L didn’t label it the same way. I think she used the term "relational" and not "complex".

So it's the trauma part that bothers you? I'm not trying to minimize, I'm actually trying to (forgot the actual word) make it easier to think about: everyone has trauma to a degree. Same with everyone experiences mental health issues to agree (i.e. many people experience depression without having a diagnosis. To have your diagnosis means that you have symptoms caused by your trauma. I don't know too much about your diagnosis, but if I'm correct, "complex" means more overtime, relational type trauma. Whereas not complex usually means trauma tied to a specific event. Again, that's just my understanding.

Like I mentioned before, I struggled with the diagnosis, too. I'm not ashamed, but like you I just am not sure if it counts, like am I over exaggerating my experience, am I faking it? But the symptoms fit. I had to ask L if she really believed what I went through was trauma. Couldn't it just have been a bad childhood? She said, and so did T, that what I went through wasn't normal not even for a bad childhood. That everyone has bad things in childhood.

I think part of my reason for having a hard time with the diagnosis is because of my diagnosis with BPD. 20+ years ago it was believed that you had to have CSA or physical abuse to have BPD. I didn't have that. And so many people thought I was faking my symptoms. So now currently, it's hard to accept the trauma diagnosis because again, I didn't experience CSA of physical abuse.