Dear Candice:

Maybe I do not understand: are you saying that before this man came into your life, you never experienced significant anxiety or depression: that you had a good childhood, enjoyed good mental health as a child, and a teenager, all the way to adulthood, and then you (a mentally healthy adult woman with no history of mental health issues) discovered after the fact that a boyfriend cheated on you on one occasion, and as a result of that discovery- your mental health turned upside down, catastrophically destroyed, and therefore he indeed single handedly ruined your life?

*Complex PTSD, (C-PTSD) is “a response to prolonged, repeated experience of interpersonal trauma in a context in which the individual has little or no chance of escape” (Wikipedia), and it applies to children who, stuck with parent/s they couldn’t escape, suffered prolonged, repeated trauma inflicted on them by their parent/s. An adult suffering from C-PTSD originated in childhood is more likely to react severely to events in adult life, such as in the context of romantic relationships.

anita