Love didn't conquer the hair he ripped out of my head.
Love didn't conquer the bruises the doorknob leaves on my back.
Love didn't conquer the fear I felt when he said he was going to slit my dog's throat and hang him from the ceiling for me to find.
Love didn't conquer the fear I felt when he said he was going to slit
my throat and bury me in the backyard.
I saw a true PTSD escalation early on from my SO. Within the first 3-6 months, maybe even earlier, I saw him lose his sh*t and rage in public over something (that seemed) trivial. I'm not talking about an isolation or an off-handed or misleading commenting, I mean a full on blow out. And I have seen much worse from him since. PTSD is so unpredictable. No one here can tell you what will or won't happen because some of us in long term relationships with our sufferers still get caught of guard in our relationship, despite being with/living with them for years.
In my opinion, we as humans like to think and feel that we are special. That the way we feel is special, that the people we have in our lives are special, and that our situation is special. We're not as special as we think we are. We're not as unique as we like to think, and our situations certainly aren't unique. Those things I listed at the beginning of my post? Don't think for one second that they can't happen to you or they won't happen to you, because they can. And if you are in a relationship with someone with unmanaged PTSD (unmanaged meaning not participating in or seeking treatment of one or more kind)? Then those things can
definitely happen to you, especially if you aren't able to establish good boundaries and self care (like I have struggled with). And that list's not even the half of it.
I'm not talking directly to just you,
@Serendipity424, but to other commenters, as well. Hope is a wonderful thing. But it can also be a dangerous thing. That's my two cents buzzkill.