Hi ashen, and a big welcome along.

You don't make things better, in fact; nothing you can say or do will make things better for her. She has to make things better for herself, and trying to force her, persuade her or any other method will most likely backfire and just make her dig her heals in harder.

She is obviously going through a very tough time at present, but unfortunately, whilst medication is a little relief in the early stages, its certainly not a long term goal. You need to get her on here and let her chat about her issues. We have a private area for those with PTSD, so we can chat in private, if that helps you when telling her about the place.

All you can do is exactly what your doing, support and just be there for when she comes to her senses again. PTSD is ugly, and it only gets worse. Us with PTSD have pretty much one chance at living some sort of normal life, though still with restrictions, in that knowledge is the key. Medication is a great bandaid to the situation, and it certainly helps a person control things initially, basically gives a person time to try and sort themselves out, but soon enough the body will become immune to the medication and everything goes back the way it was, generally with the person taking more medication because they no longer get the same effect.

You need to get your partner to start learning about PTSD, signs, symptoms, triggers, and techniques to identify, react and conquer when symptoms popup constantly. Lets not tap dance around this, its not going to be quick, nor is PTSD curable, so your in for the long hall. PTSD can be controlled, not cured, but definately controlled to the point of a fairly normal existance, though the person MUST want to control it, or else learning fails before it begins, so to speak.

If your partner won't come onto this board and chat privately with us, with people who actually do know what she is going through, what she is suffering and those off us who all suffer the same things and battle day in, day out, then you need to start printing techniques off from around the web, go to veterans support and get information, and start learning with her, because your role in helping her identify symptoms is just as important as her role of identification and application is. The problem is, is that sometimes we need someone to tell us things, because we are so focused on trying to keep something down, apply techniques to controlling PTSD, that sometimes we lose sight of other facets of the illness.

It is life threatening, don't be fooled otherwise, and it will kill a person if left unchecked, not treated or through ignorance and denial of the person suffering.