Mind Control and Complex Trauma

Children, young adults, and adults can suffer mind control and complex trauma. Mind control can also be a broad phenomenon experienced by people groups, organizations, and countries. Other times, it can be used as a directed form of psychological abuse. 

Complex trauma is the cumulation of “multiple interpersonal threats”¹ or abuse during childhood. It may come as the result of mind control or other abuses. Dr. Karol Darsa—psychologist, author, and creator of RITTM (Reconnect Integrative Trauma Treatment Model)—offers insight into healing.

Understanding Mind Control

Mind control compromises a person or group²’s freedom of choice by altering their perception, motivations, and behavior. Some mind control techniques aren’t done maliciously; for example, most advertising involves pushing emotions for a desired outcome (buying their product). 

Malicious mind control aims to control another person (or group) through fear, deprivation, and confusion. For example, research found people in controlled environments with sensory stimulation removed (like visuals, smells, sounds, and other sensations) moved into a malleable emotional state. The process worked by only allowing select information to the sensory-deprived person. In that state, new ideas or beliefs could be implanted and believed³. 

As an example, the only stimulation provided to someone could be a repeated fact of any sort. With nothing else to occupy or influence their thoughts, it can be easier to believe and act upon whatever information is provided. 

Similar emotional states could be achieved through abuse and trauma, where stress and abuse return the brain to its primal, animalistic survival functions. In its worn-down state, the victim’s brain could accept and believe almost anything about themselves or the world around them. 

Mind control as a form of abuse could lead to complex trauma and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (c-PTSD), especially if it occurs in childhood. 

An adult with c-PTSD caused by mind control may struggle to trust others, themselves, and their reality. Sometimes, they may not even know why they don’t trust; just that they don’t. 

Complex Trauma and Its Prolonged Impact

C-PTSD usually occurs due to childhood trauma. Complex trauma can have more severe consequences² than non-complex trauma. It can also cause the onset of depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use disorder, and dissociative identity disorder (DID). 

C-PTSD can have more long-lasting effects² because it occurs after repeated, inescapable traumatic events. It’s more common to experience in childhood, but it can happen at any time of your life. PTSD, in comparison, occurs as a single instance (like a rape, tornado, or car accident). Staying in activated stress states and experiencing them often, especially in childhood, can cause the more severe psychopathy and cognitive deficits associated with c-PTSD. 

That means that children with c-PTSD are more likely to grow into adults with major depressive disorder, anxiety, psychotic symptoms, and addiction. Children with c-PTSD were also found to have lower IQ scores² and poorer executive function as adults. 

Psychopathy⁴, lower IQ scores, and poor executive functioning can have prolonged effects in adulthood. When caused by c-PTSD, these effects occur independent of other variables like genetic disposition, motivation, and effort.

Recognizing Signs of Mind Control and Complex Trauma

You or someone else could be experiencing mind control if you recognize these tactics:

• A person or group uses terror, threats, and manipulation to mold the brain into its more primal survival mode. Escape feels impossible, either physically, mentally, or socially.
• You or someone else believes the perpetrator and whatever truths they tell about you, someone else, or the world.
• You comply with their wishes and demands to survive. You’ll believe or do anything they ask out of forced trust and the need to survive. In a state of survival, your brain struggles to process information logically, which is why you may continually trust and believe the perpetrator. Doing what they say often feels like the only way to stay safe.  

Complex trauma has several distinct signs⁵, too. 

• Re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks
• Dissociation
• Interpersonal challenges with relationships
• Self-destructive behaviors (like substance use)
• Irritability and hyperarousal, or emotional numbness
• Social withdrawal
• Hostility 

You may notice these signs in yourself or someone else as a child, young adult, or adult who’s experiencing c-PTSD.