Living With Someone Coping With Ptsd
Living with a person who is struggling with PTSD is a challenge, but you shouldnt feel alone when supporting the person you love. You should never take these symptoms personally because PTSD hijacks the nervous system and causes a constant state of hyper-awareness.
Consider the following strategies to help you cope with another persons PTSD. These include:
- Writing out your feelings and thoughts that you want to work through or discuss during therapy sessions
- Having a plan for setting boundaries, such as expressing discomfort with topics
- Writing down questions or goals for improvement that you have about PTSD, which could be coping with it and healing from it
Journaling About Your Nightmares
Image rehearsal therapy is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy sometimes used for nightmares in PTSD.
IRT involves writing down your nightmares but deliberately changing them into more positive versions in your journal.
You then can reread these new versions daily with the intent of replacing the original nightmare theme in your memory moving forward.
Helping Someone With Ptsd Tip : Provide Social Support
Its common for people with PTSD to withdraw from family and friends. They may feel ashamed, not want to burden others, or believe that other people wont understand what theyre going through. While its important to respect your loved ones boundaries, your comfort and support can help them overcome feelings of helplessness, grief, and despair. In fact, trauma experts believe that face-to-face support from others is the most important factor in PTSD recovery.
Knowing how to best demonstrate your love and support for someone with PTSD isnt always easy. You cant force your loved one to get better, but you can play a major role in the healing process by simply spending time together.
Dont pressure your loved one into talking. It can be very difficult for people with PTSD to talk about their traumatic experiences. For some, it can even make them feel worse. Instead, let them know youre willing to listen when they want to talk, or just hang out when they dont. Comfort for someone with PTSD comes from feeling engaged and accepted by you, not necessarily from talking.
Do normal things with your loved one, things that have nothing to do with PTSD or the traumatic experience. Encourage your loved one to seek out friends, pursue hobbies that bring them pleasure, and participate in rhythmic exercise such as walking, running, swimming, or rock climbing. Take a fitness class together, go dancing, or set a regular lunch date with friends and family.
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Ptsd: A Growing Concern
For many people, the term post-traumatic stress disorder is exclusively reserved for soldiers or cops. However, PTSD is a common diagnosis that can occur in just about anyones life. According to the American Psychiatric Association, PTSD affects approximately 3.5% of US adults every year.
Individuals with PTSD have intense thoughts and feelings related to an experience that caused them trauma. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares.
These thoughts and feelings often cause intense sadness, fear, anger, depression or feelings of detachment from others. People with PTSD will often avoid situations or people that remind them of their traumatic event.
PTSD develops in approximately one in three people who experience trauma.
From this definition, its clear that this condition can impact many more people than just police officers and soldiers. Some common causes of PTSD include a physical or sexual assault, serious accidents, abuse, torture, war and conflict, traumatic events and more.
As the condition is quite common, theres a probability that youll end up loving someone with PTSD. If this happens, you must understand how to help them cope with their condition so they feel healthy and safe.
Some Dos And Donts For Managers
Espyr also provides other services that assist people who have experienced traumatic events. Annually, Espyr provides over 500 critical incident responses. Some may be as brief as an hour or two debriefing bank employees after a robbery some may be a weeklong deployment as in responses after a hurricane. These psycho-educational services help to normalize reactions and provide tips about coping with personal responses to traumatic events. They also inform people about when and how to seek further assistance. Espyrs mental health consultants also help guide, support, and provide resources to managers whose team has experienced a traumatic incident.
Espyr provides both Employee and Student Assistance Programs that serve as a barrier-free means to get no cost professional assessments for PTSD. Espyr also provides screening and wellbeing assessments for law enforcement, first responders and healthcare professionals who are frequently exposed to traumatic events in their daily work. Another Espyr service related to PTSD is TalkNow, a 24/7 problem-solving and emotional support line staffed by mental health professionals that can also connect people with PTSD symptoms with resources, referrals, and assistance.
If you know someone who has experienced a traumatic event and might be experiencing PTSD symptoms, reach out. Just ask if they would like to talk. Help them start down a path to assessment and treatment that can improve their quality of life.
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Societys Conflicting Ideas About Ptsd
PTSD is a condition that occupies an odd space in our society. We joke about experiencing PTSD from watching a horror movie or having a crappy job interview. Its associated with people we think of as strong, and with people we deride as fakers. Its a condition that you cant see. A person living with PTSD can have walked away from the event that caused their trauma: combat, sexual assault, a violent attack, a car crash, a terrorist attack, a natural disaster.
The event can last a moment, or, as with neglect, domestic violence or sexual abuse, the event can last many years. Eight million Americans live with PTSD. Theres a good chance that someone youve worked with work with has experienced it.
Continue Your Daily Routine
Avoid letting your loved one hole up for too long. Try to help them stick to a routine similar to the one they followed before the trauma. Without being pushy or overbearing, please encourage them to spend time with friends and family and socialize in settings with no connection to the traumatic experience. Make sure they also pursue physical activity so their body can release those happiness-boosting endorphins.
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Deal With Anger And Volatility
PTSD and anger problems are often related. PTSD often leads to challenges when managing impulses and emotions, which might manifest in your loved one as moodiness, extreme irritability, or explosions of rage. A person dealing with PTSD lives in a constant state of emotional and physical stress. Since they experience sleep troubles like insomnia, it means theyre constantly on edge and exhausted, increasing the likelihood theyll overreact to daily stressors.
For many of those with PTSD, anger might also be a mask for other feelings like helplessness, guilt, or grief. Anger allows them to feel powerful instead of vulnerable and weak. Others might suppress their anger until it erupts at a time you least expect. You should watch for signs that your loved one is angry and try to remain calm. Try giving them personal space and ask how you can help. Anger is a healthy emotion, but chronic anger spirals can have adverse consequences.
Where To Find Help For Ptsd
If you are struggling with panic, anxiety, depression, rage or other life-controlling issues following a traumatic incident, you may be dealing with PTSD. If someone you love is being haunted by this crippling disease, you can play a role in their recovery. Call our toll-free helpline, , 24 hours a day to speak to an admissions coordinator about available treatment options. We are here for you. Call us now.
1 PTSD: National Center for PTSD. What Is PTSD?Negative Coping and PTSD PTSD: National Center for PTSD. 1 Jan. 2007.
2 PTSD Treatments.Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association. 21 July 2017.
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Ptsd Is A Very Real Illness
PTSD is a debilitating anxiety disorder that occurs after a traumatic event, like war combat. Experts estimate 8 million adults have PTSD to varying degrees each year in the United States. Like depression or other mental and behavioral issues, its not something that a person can snap out of.
Symptoms arise anywhere from three months to years after the triggering event. In order to be characterized as PTSD, the person must exhibit these traits:
- At least one re-experiencing symptom . D. installed security cameras in his home to monitor threats and had terrible nightmares.
- At least one avoidance symptom. D. didnt like crowds and would avoid activities that included a lot of people.
- At least two arousal and reactivity symptoms. D. had a very short fuse and would get frustrated easily when he wasnt understood.
- At least two cognition and mood symptoms, which includes negative self-esteem, guilt, or blame. D. would often say to me, Why do you love me? I dont see what you see.
D. once described his PTSD to me like a constant waiting game for ghosts to jump from around the corner. It was a reminder that bad things happened, and that that feeling might never stop. Loud noises made it worse, like thunder, fireworks, or truck backfire.
There was a time we sat outside watching fireworks, and he held my hand until my knuckles turned white, telling me the only way he could sit through them was to have me next to him.
He also had explosive outbursts of rage, which left me in tears.
Things I Learned From Dating Someone With Ptsd
One lesson: Caring for yourself is essential.
How we see the world shapes who we choose to be and sharing compelling experiences can frame the way we treat each other, for the better. This is a powerful perspective.
Theres nothing that can make you feel as powerless as living with a partner with post-traumatic stress disorder .
For three years, I was in a relationship with a man who experienced PTSD symptoms daily. My ex, D., was a decorated combat veteran who served in Afghanistan three times. The toll it took on his soul was heartbreaking.
His flashbacks and dreams of the past drove him to be hypervigilant, fear strangers, and fend off sleep to avoid nightmares.
Being the partner of someone who has PTSD can be challenging and frustrating for many reasons. You want to take away their pain, but youre also dealing with your own guilt at needing to care for yourself, too.
You want to have all the answers, but you often have to come to grips with the reality that this is a condition that cant be loved out of someone.
That said, understanding the disorder can help make it easier for both you and your partner to communicate and set healthy boundaries.
I spent years trying to understand how PTSD affected my partner, and, ultimately, had to walk away from our relationship. Heres what I learned.
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Free Brochures And Shareable Resources
- Helping Children and Adolescents Cope With Traumatic Events: This fact sheet presents information on how children and adolescents respond to traumatic events, and what family, friends, and trusted adults can do to help. Also available en español.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: This brochure provides information about post-traumatic stress disorder including what it is, who develops PTSD, symptoms, treatment options, and how to find help for yourself or someone else who may have PTSD. Also available en español.
- : Help support PTSD awareness and education in your community. Use these digital resources, including graphics and messages, to spread the word about PTSD.
Common Internal Ptsd Triggers
- Physical discomfort, such as hunger, thirst, fatigue, sickness, and sexual frustration.
- Any bodily sensation that recalls the trauma, including pain, old wounds and scars, or a similar injury.
- Strong emotions, especially feeling helpless, out of control, or trapped.
- Feelings toward family members, including mixed feelings of love, vulnerability, and resentment.
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Do Not Force Someone To Relive Their Experience
This links to point two, give the person the time and space they need. Reassure them what they gone through is an understandable reaction/feeling to a traumatic event. Also be mindful in most cases, as managers and colleagues we are not trained counsellors. Only encourage them to speak about their reactions if and when they are ready to do so.
How To Help Someone With Ptsd Sleep
Sleep problems and anxiety disorders often go hand in hand. When your mind is restless with worry, it can be hard to get to sleep at night. However, PTSD comes with the added complication of nightmares and sleep disturbances. That means when you do get to sleep, you may not get good rest. Nightmares may wake you up, or cause restless sleep, leaving you feeling tired the next day. Sleep disorders are common health problems in the United States, but its a serious issue.
Sleep problems can contribute to several mental and physical health problems, including poor concentration, depression, obesity, and heart disease. Getting your sleep under control can be an important step in addressing broader mental health issues.
If PTSD is the reason a loved one is struggling to sleep, a few things may help in addition to treating PTSD directly. Good habits that promote sleep are called good sleep hygiene. Several ways to improve sleep hygiene include the following:
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What Is Workplace Ptsd
âPTSD is commonly defined as a psychiatric disorder that develops after witnessing or experiencing extremely traumatic events, such as combat crime an accident a natural disaster or a physical, emotional, or sexual assault,â Manly explained.However, the DSM still does not include a definition of post-traumatic stress disorder specific to the workplace, Manly said. But that doesnât mean workplace PTSD doesnât have consistent, recognizable patterns.Joyce Marter, licensed psychotherapist and author of The Financial Mindset Fix: A Mental Fitness Program for an Abundant Life, said workplace PTSD is characterized by the âdifferent emotional, cognitive, and physical challenges people experience when they have difficulty coping with negative, abusive, or traumatic aspects of their jobs.â This could mean situations such as a supervisor dressing down subordinates in front of colleagues or being required to be responsive and available to requests at any time of day, including days off or being asked to perform tasks they arenât trained for, such as performing maintenance on machinery theyâre unfamiliar with or without the required safety protections.
âEmotionally, we might not be able to feel close to others as we experience apathy, anxiety, depression.â
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How To Treat Ptsd
If self-coping doesnt work for your loved one, youll need to know how to treat PTSD another way. Find a doctor to talk to and offer to go to the visit together. Many people find answers in formal treatment. Psychotherapy and medication are very effective for recovering from a trauma. Learn about cognitive behavioral therapy and medications used to treat PTSD, and share this information with your loved one.
Take The Time To Listen Actively
We often feel we have to have all the answers to help someone. Actually, we dont have to know what the best course of action is. If the person does want to speak, let them do so freely. Resist the temptation to interrupt them or provide your perspective on things. You may also need to be prepared to actively listen on several occasions as they may way want to relate the story piece-by-piece. This is particularly important if someone talks to you about racial and/or sexual abuse. Engaged silence is supportive.
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Build Trust With The Employee
As highlighted above, it is common for individuals with PTSD to lose trust in those around them, so taking steps to build or maintain that trust is incredibly important.
Offering reassurance when your employee needs it, demonstrating empathy when communicating with them, and making supportive adjustments to their working environment will all help to increase the employees sense of security and safety.
Work Through Survivors Guilt
Feelings of guilt are very common among veterans with PTSD. You may have seen people injured or killed, often your friends and comrades. In the heat of the moment, you dont have time to fully process these events as they happen. But lateroften when youve returned homethese experiences come back to haunt you. You may ask yourself questions such as:
- Why didnt I get hurt?
- Why did I survive when others didnt?
- Could I have done something differently to save them?
You may end up blaming yourself for what happened and believing that your actions led to someone elses death. You may feel like others deserved to live more than youthat youre the one who should have died. This is survivors guilt.
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