Hi, everybody. A few years ago, my wife was diagnosed with PTSD resulting from childhood abuse. I had always known that she was prone to depression, but she was only diagnosed with PTSD after she started dissociating and had left us thousands in debt by using shopping as a coping mechanism. Since her diagnosis, she has been undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy, which has helped.
Since she doesn't seem to realize when her PTSD symptoms are flaring up in many cases, I try to be alert to the signs that I've seen in the past, as well as keeping an eye on our finances. As I'm sure you can imagine, we often end up in huge arugments when I try to get her to see that things are getting worse, although when she's feeling better she seems to appreciate it.
Anyway, when I see her having problems managing money or controlling her anger, I feel like I have to point it out and encourage her to talk to her therapist about it. This is often an uphill battle, but I feel like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. If she doesn't get help during those times, we both know from experience that the anger will impact her job, and the compulsive spending will eventually put us in debt over our heads. While I don't want to upset her or start a fight, I can't just ignore it and hope it'll work out, because she doesn't seem to recognize that anything is wrong until it gets to a critical stage.
I think what I'm looking for here more than anything is a place to vent once in a while, when I feel like I can't handle it anymore, although I'm interested in talking to other spouses in similar situations.
Thanks in advance for the support. From the threads I've been reading, this seems to be a great group.
Since she doesn't seem to realize when her PTSD symptoms are flaring up in many cases, I try to be alert to the signs that I've seen in the past, as well as keeping an eye on our finances. As I'm sure you can imagine, we often end up in huge arugments when I try to get her to see that things are getting worse, although when she's feeling better she seems to appreciate it.
Anyway, when I see her having problems managing money or controlling her anger, I feel like I have to point it out and encourage her to talk to her therapist about it. This is often an uphill battle, but I feel like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. If she doesn't get help during those times, we both know from experience that the anger will impact her job, and the compulsive spending will eventually put us in debt over our heads. While I don't want to upset her or start a fight, I can't just ignore it and hope it'll work out, because she doesn't seem to recognize that anything is wrong until it gets to a critical stage.
I think what I'm looking for here more than anything is a place to vent once in a while, when I feel like I can't handle it anymore, although I'm interested in talking to other spouses in similar situations.
Thanks in advance for the support. From the threads I've been reading, this seems to be a great group.