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. |  | | 
19-03-2008, 12:56 PM
| | | | Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 21
| |
I understand and appreciate the alternate theories on scratching, but we were in New England in the dead of Winter. Not even the hardiest of bugs can survive our winters! I didn't make a big deal out of it, other than noticing to myself that they were very odd. Not trying to be over-dramatic, but I feel the scratching adds another piece to his PTSD puzzle. |
20-03-2008, 10:14 AM
| | | | Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 46
| |
langdon-
first and foremost, welcome to the forum. i want to comment on the concept of going to work and dealing with ptsd. in some cases, i think it depends on whether or not work or their job is considered a place of safety. i am a combat medic in the army and for me, my job is in a sense a place of security and sheer terror wrapped into one. it is a place of security or safety in the sense that everyone that i work with wears the same uniform i do and there is a form of trust in that. it is terrifying in the sense that when you deploy, medics often work on people alone when their on the line. and there is this "unsaid law" that states that everyone in your unit is expecting you, (as the medic), to save a person's life regardless of the situation that soldier might be in. its an enormous amount of pressure, especially when the adrenaline is flowing. i hoped this helped. respectfully, SM |
05-05-2008, 02:03 PM
| | | | Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 21
| |
Hello Friends,
I didn't think I'd be posting again but an amazing thing happened in that I heard from my friend after 3 months of silence! I figured everything was over because that is such a long time with no contact, but I took a chance on Friday and texted a simple birthday greeting. Today I received an email out of the blue apologizing for everything. He went through a real bad time with deep depression and reoccuring PTSD. And just as I learned from several of you here he said he pushed me away because he didn't want to hurt me.
So - I want to respond, but now I'm almost afraid to. I want him to know how glad I am to hear from him, but not knowing what stage of recovery from this last episode, I don't know how much to say at this point.
Any suggestions? |
05-05-2008, 06:42 PM
|  | Administrative Editor PTSD | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 7,199
| |
Hi Langdon,
Your partner will be up and down more yet, though all I could suggest is be direct, but do not push them into a corner to make decisions in the frame of mind they likely are. Be open, be honest, be direct, but just leave the ball in their court for the time being. Don't allow yourself to be a doormat though either... be careful of that from a sufferer with uncontrolled PTSD. |
08-05-2008, 01:39 PM
|  | | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: USA
Posts: 122
| |
Langdon, you need to follow your heart AND your head. Since you are just tentatively getting back in touch now, your fear is very understandable. Let him know you are very glad to hear from him and you miss him. But it probably wouldn't be good to go over-board and say everything you've been saving up to say for the last three months, right? 
Realize that the road will be very rocky and that your emotional strength will be tested. You have to learn to set boundaries, or, as Anthony said, don't be a doormat. Every relationship requires boundaries, but that is especially true with PTSD. It may also be that you will be shut out again at some point in the future. You have to decide whether this relationship means enough to you to cope with that. Your decision regarding what your heart can take will guide you.
Cowgirl | | 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 
Gender 
