The VA has an excellent "Fact Sheet" devoted to the special problems and opportunities of PTSD in a relationship. It's well worth reading. Click here for the link. The fact sheet is entitled, "Partners of Veterans with PTSD: Caregiver Burden and Related Problems," but the "related problems" are so many more than alluded to in that simple and generic title. In the "meat" of the fact sheet quite a few topics are covered, including: marital adjustment and divorce rates; interpersonal violence and domestic violence; mental health of partners (because PTSD can have a negative effect on others, as well); and caregiver burden. If you or a loved one suffer from combat trauma, please take the time to read and review this short but useful handout.
Why is this topic so important? As the fact sheet says, "Research that has examined the effect of PTSD on intimate relationships reveals severe and pervasive negative effects on marital adjustment, general family functioning, and the mental health of partners. These negative effects result in such problems as compromised parenting, family violence, divorce, sexual problems, aggression, and caregiver burden." That's a whole lot of important topics, with significant impacts on the individual sufferers, and their friends and families.
Aphrodite Matsakis, Ph.D., and Patience Mason have both written powerfully about the spouse and family member's experience of a veteran with PTSD. Matsakis' most recent book is Back from the Front: Combat Trauma, Love and the Family. It's somewhat of a restatement of her earlier classic, brought up to the present, called Vietnam Wives: Facing the Challenges of Life with Veterans Suffering Post-Traumatic Stress. Patience Mason, who's devoted the last umpteen years to writing words of wise counsel to others about living with a PTSD sufferer, authored the classic, Recovering from the War: A Guide for all Veterans, Family Members, Friends and Therapists. As Charles Figley, Ph.D., writes about the topic, these women both know "about living with someone with a disability (PTSD) that, like a disease, destroys people and their relationships with others."
