Donate for PTSD Donate - PTSD Forum is quite costly to run, maintain and improve. All donations are appreciated.
New To PTSD Forum FAQ's - All you need to know contained in Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
PTSD Forum Extra's PTSD Forms - PTSD Forum provide a PTSD assessment and self analysis form. PTSD Learning - Contains some PTSD learning information and presentations.
Recommendation  PTSD Forum recommends the use of Firefox Browser with Search Status add-on, plus your countries relevant English dictionary add-on. This enables forum members to spell check and remove typical toolbars from their browser.
| | Notices | Welcome to PTSD Forum. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a life threatening, debilitating disorder that can break down a sufferer’s body through anxiety and stress. Further it poses a significant suicide risk resulting from the brains neurological imbalance and chemical depression. Sufferers often live in denial, thus this community is aimed at helping PTSD sufferers help themselves through others experiences, guidance and education. We are here for the sufferer, spouse and families surrounding PTSD. Spouses and family are too often forgotten in this equation, and often they receive all the worst that PTSD has to offer. If you're involved in any way with PTSD, get registered and help yourself now. Non-active members will eventually be deleted. If you are not a sufferer, carer or someone within the mental health industry, and active, then there is little reason for you to be a member of this forum. Non-active members with zero posts are deleted periodically during the year. |  | 
10-03-2007, 12:04 PM
| | Moderated Member | | Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4
| |  Boyfriend is a Katrina Survivor
Hi -- I've been dating a wonderful guy for the past four months. He is a Katrina surivor and suffers from PTSD. Need suggestions on how to cope with this, especially emotional distancing, fear of commitment, etc. |
11-03-2007, 08:31 AM
|  | | | Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Newfoundland & Labrador
Posts: 1,830
| |
Welcome to the forum kaytiej. You've asked quite an enormous question. I suggest you read this forum thoroughly, especially the Information sections, and learn everything you can about PTSD. Knowledge is power, and as a family member I've found the more I learn the better I am able to cope. Communication is vital. Talk everything out with your boyfriend as openly as you are able, and be truly willing and open-minded to his feelings and requests, even if they seem silly to you. Know also that your boyfriend is the only one who can truly work on himself to heal. Friends and family can be there for support and guidance, but the person with PTSD must do all of the legwork themselves. I wish you good luck! |
19-03-2007, 08:44 AM
| | Moderated Member | | Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4
| | Thanks for the kind welcome
Kathy:
Thanks so much for the kind welcome. I have been reading as much as I can on this forum -- I know this relationship is going to be difficult, but I care for this man very much, and don't give up easily. It seems that the closer we get, the more he pulls away. I'm certain this is not unusual.
Being with him is sometimes like being on a roller coaster ---- up and happy one minute, dark and distant the next. I'm hoping that once he moves to the town where I live (he just got a teaching job at the university where I am employed), and can finally have a place to call home, he might feel more settled and grounded, and can move forward with the healing process.
I want to help him more than anything, to help him to feel whole again.
Kaytie |
19-03-2007, 11:41 AM
|  | Administrative Editor PTSD | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 7,299
| |
Welcome to the forum Kaytie, glad to have you here with us all. The best things you can do is merely support him, talk with him, and try and keep him as open, honest and talking as much as possible about everything he feels. The more he does this with you, the less issues will develop between you both. A PTSD sufferer must talk openly within a relationship, and the partner must also return the conversation. It is a deep level that must be communicated at all times to ensure issues that cause stress are minimized.
Last edited by anthony; 19-03-2007 at 11:43 AM.
|
20-03-2007, 01:52 PM
| | Moderated Member | | Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4
| | re: Katrina
Hi, Anthony:
Thank you for making me feel welcome. I appreciate it.
We do speak very openly, but I feel that I should only talk about his experiences following Katrina when he feels like speaking about them. Is this advisable? I don't want to force the issue -- he knows that I will listen, and am compassionate and, perhaps, empathetic, as I also suffered from a mild case of PTSD following my sister's death in a car accident in the 1990s.
Is it normal for him to be fearful of relationships? When we first started dating things were light and wonderful, but as things progressed, and our attachment to each other grew, he seemed to pull away, to be more resistant, less affectionate, etc.
I want to make sure that I don't push too hard, and only take small steps that are within his comfort zone. But, I also know that my feelings, and my desire to move the relationship forward, are equally as important.
Thanks again,
Kaytie | | Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode | 
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off | | | |
Gender 
