It has been a very deep dive in a period of chaos and change as I continue to evolve as an artist.

Once stepping away from the last chapter of life, and into a new flow, and a new space, remaking connections, and understanding of who I really am has begun to emerge.

I began to realize last year, that I might be neurodivergent, or highly sensitive, and began to slowly and not so slowly explore this. 

I think perhaps a book is emerging from this.

For now I leave this as a placemarker, and just let it go, and let my mind go elsewhere just for this moment.

Below are ChatGPT created images, feeding ideas, asking questions: my lifetime has been embracing change and experimenting with new tools. I set the intention to let go of my relationship with AI, but give thanks for its support in helping me understand and collate research.

Complex Trauma, 2e/Autism, and Intensity

A cross-framework research reference

Compiled September 22, 2026 · general research summary, not a clinical assessment

This reference summarizes what the published research says about three frameworks that are sometimes discussed together: Complex PTSD, 2e (gifted + autistic) traits, and Dąbrowski's five overexcitabilities. Each section covers documented manifestations; a closing section covers where the three genuinely overlap versus where they only resemble each other on the surface. Every claim is sourced at the end.

1. Complex PTSD (ICD-11)

ICD-11 defines Complex PTSD as the three core PTSD symptom clusters plus three additional "disturbances in self-organization" (DSO) that reflect the impact of prolonged or repeated trauma.

Body

●      Physiological: exaggerated startle response, sleep disruption, elevated baseline arousal, somatic pain with no clear medical cause, physiological reactivity to trauma reminders.

Mind

●      Core PTSD symptoms: re-experiencing (flashbacks, intrusive images), avoidance of reminders, a persistent sense of current threat.

●      Affect dysregulation: emotional swings that feel too fast or too large, or shutdown.

●      Negative self-concept: persistent shame, worthlessness, or a sense of being permanently damaged.

●      Relational disturbance: difficulty feeling close to or trusting others.

Brain

●      Amygdala: hyperactive threat detection.

●      Hippocampus: reduced volume, reduced contextual memory.

●      Prefrontal cortex: hypoactive, weaker top-down regulation of the amygdala.

●      Insula: altered, linked to depersonalization and interoceptive disruption.

2. 2e / Gifted + Autistic Traits

"Twice-exceptional" (2e) describes the co-occurrence of high measured ability in one or more domains alongside autism. This is a newer, thinner research base than the trauma literature.

Body

●      Sensory: over- or under-responsivity across multiple channels at once (auditory, tactile, proprioceptive); seeking or avoiding specific physical input; atypical motor patterns.

Mind

●      Asynchronous development: uneven skill development across domains — real strength alongside real difficulty.

●      Focus: sustained, deep attention on specific interests.

●      Social communication: the "double empathy problem" (Milton, 2012) reframes this as a two-way mismatch between autistic and non-autistic people, not a one-sided deficit.

●      Masking: effortful compensation for social difference, often exhausting over time.

Brain

●      Findings are heterogeneous: amygdala and cerebellum are the most consistently studied regions, but no single, consistent neuropathology has emerged across studies (Donovan & Basson, 2017).

●      2e specifically: current research favors neuroplasticity — not a fixed structural difference — as the more promising lens (ScienceDirect, 2022).

3. Dąbrowski's Five Overexcitabilities

A psychological construct from Kazimierz Dąbrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration — not a diagnosis, and not linked to a specific neuroanatomical signature.

The five domains

●      Psychomotor: surplus energy, rapid speech, physical restlessness, a genuine need for movement.

●      Sensual: sensory and aesthetic experience registering more intensely — both pleasure and aversion amplified.

●      Intellectual: a drive to understand underlying systems and structure, not just collect facts.

●      Imaginational: a vivid inner world, metaphorical thinking, elaborate fantasy — described in the literature as active internal processing.

●      Emotional: deep empathy, strong lasting attachments, somatic emotional response (e.g. stomachaches when nervous), moral intensity.

4. Where These Cross Over

The senses are where all three frameworks converge most visibly. Sensual OE, autistic sensory processing differences, and C-PTSD's sense-of-current-threat can all produce the same outward picture — strong reactions to noise, light, or touch — but the proposed mechanism differs: constitutional intensity (Dąbrowski), atypical neural wiring present from early development (autism), or a conditioned threat response layered onto a nervous system that learned the environment wasn't safe (trauma).

The same pattern holds elsewhere. Psychomotor OE's surplus energy and C-PTSD's hyperarousal can both look like restlessness, but one is framed as an intrinsic drive toward action and the other as a nervous system braced for threat. Emotional OE's intensity and C-PTSD's affect dysregulation can both produce large, fast emotional swings, but one is a trait present across contexts and the other is tied to specific triggers and a damaged sense of safety.

Imaginational OE's vivid inner world and dissociation are worth holding apart with particular care. Daydreaming and fantasy in the Dąbrowski framework are chosen and generative, without losing track of where you are; dissociation is involuntary and threat-triggered — a disruption rather than a creation. From the outside both can look like "somewhere else"; the difference is whether it's a door that was opened or one that opened on its own.

None of these three frameworks were built to talk to each other, which is why the overlaps aren't fully resolved in the published literature — they are observations worth holding loosely rather than a single unified diagnosis.

References

• Complex PTSD: diagnosis and management (ICD-11 criteria) — Stubley, Chipp & Buszewicz

• The Memory and Identity Theory of ICD-11 Complex PTSD — Hyland, Shevlin & Brewin

• Neurobiological profiles: PTSD vs. complex trauma

• Overexcitability and the Gifted (SENG)

• The double empathy problem — Dr Damian Milton

• The neuroanatomy of autism – a developmental perspective — Donovan & Basson, Journal of Anatomy (2017)

• Neurobiological insights into twice-exceptionality: circuits, cells, molecules

• Deep pressure therapy — mechanism and research

• Global Indigenous perspectives on autism and autism research — Bruno et al. (2025)

• Autism diagnosis as biographical illumination — Tan (2018)

This document summarizes published research for general understanding. It is not a diagnostic tool and does not represent a clinical assessment.