Ptsd Advice For Us

[LinsdseyD512]

My husband, Tim, was diagnosed with PTSD after he finished up in Iraq in 2008. I wanted to share our story with the hopes of reaching out to other Vet’s that have a similar experience. When he first arrived back home, I noticed that little situations such as leaving the light on inside the bathroom or waiting in line for fast food, would cause Tim to become extremely agitated. He would burst out in a violent rage over nothing. I knew this was not the same man that I married, so after multiple incidents, we decided to seek treatment for his condition.

His body did not respond well to the typical antidepressant medication, so he decided to use Risperdal. Risperdal does a good job of controlling agitation, intense paranoia, and brief psychotic reactions. However, the side effects were noticeable, especially insomnia.

Overall, the medication has been extremely helpful. Are there any suggestions on how to combat my husband’s case of Insomnia with either traditional or alternative treatment methods?

 

[BigBear]

Hi Linsdsey,

Is he seeing a therapist? Meds without therapy is not too likely to produce a permanent solution.

Glad you are here.

Bear

 

[May1321]

Hi Linsdsey... Welcome to the forum.

I wish I could help. I'm presently on board with two Combat sufferers.

My brother is on some sort of mild insomnia pill as well as one for his anxiety.

Meds make me nervous, though, and all I can really vouch is that my boyfriend is not taking his anxiety meds but occasionally uses the sleeping pills he was prescribed to help him stay knocked out through his dreams. If he sleeps, he is less agitated, however, he doesn't regularly take his sleeping pills because they can affect him the whole day after, so I've noticed that if he is severely agitated from work and life, and hasn't slept on top of it, even the sleeping pill won't help.

Trying to eliminate things that upset his sleeping and therefore next day agitation has been our approach and it seems to be working better.

The fear is that the anxiety pill may affect him negatively during the day which he needs to be on alert because of his job. We'll see... this may be something he revisits when he starts up with a psychologist which he has agreed is needed to help in the solution and outcome much more than he gave credit to to begin with.

As for my brother's results? I haven't really spoken to him since he started back to the VA.

 

[LinsdseyD512]

Hi Linsdsey,

Is he seeing a therapist? Meds without therapy is not too likely to produce a permanent solution.

Glad you are here.

Bear

I totally agree with you, we just moved from Tx to Colorado and we are going to find a Therapist in Denver.

 

[Sandra]

Welcome to the board Lindsey0512. I hope your husband is able to deal with this.

 

[LinsdseyD512]

Welcome to the board Lindsey0512. I hope your husband is able to deal with this.

Thanks for your support Sandra, I am just glad that he is finally able to see that there are so many other people who have PTSD, it makes him realize that he is not fighting this battle alone!

 

[AngelaMarie]

I'm glad your husband sees that he is not alone. One of the hardest things for me before I found the forum was feeling alone. At least now I have somewhere to come where people understand!:)