I’ve recently been diagnosed with PTSD. My psych said that it’s possible that my wife’s cheating / betrayal caused the trauma. Does that make any sense?
* I worked for the MOD and Home Office as a civilian telecoms engineer for a number of years. Deployed to Northern Ireland, Nigeria, Croatia during the Balkans conflict, Iraq and Kuwait for a short stint. Never encountered combat. Never encountered anything remotely traumatic while deployed, although many of my army colleagues were injured.
* Traveled around South America. My wife and I was arrested and held at gunpoint by two masked women carrying Kalashnikovs in Bolivia. Still don’t know why. But we remained calm and I talked ourselves out of it.
* Traveled in North Spain for a bit and got caught up in an ETA gunfight - I was keeping a low profile in the apartment above, whilst the gunfight was escalating below. I ended up getting teargased whilst evacuating and got caught up in the ensuing riot.
* About 10 years ago, in the UK, whilst coming out of a night club, my brother in law and I was set upon by three guys in an unprovoked attack (one carrying a dog chain, another a car jack and another a wheel brace). Outnumbered and with weapons, they took us down and proceeded to (and continued to) beat us up even when we were unconscious. I got away with severe lacerations but they fractured my brother in law’s skull. They only got put away for 6 years - for GBH. Should have been attempted murder.
* Recently I was driving near Shoreham Airport on the south coast of the UK and narrowly missed being hit by a crashing military jet. I was driving towards the aircraft (about 200 meters) when it crashed into the road, killing a number of people, which I witnessed. You know, burning bodies etc…
* Been in a number of near fatal car accidents - two broken ankles, fractured sternum, etc…
* And there’s other things - father recently passed away, I grew up in a tough area (fights, drug abuse, etc), possible narcissistic mother etc…
Yeah, bad luck, but, I don’t delve on those things. They don’t give me the flashbacks etc…
What seems to have sparked this off for me, was my wife having an affair… My flashbacks and trauma seems to be centred on her betrayal and gaslighting, over ten years ago. It’s nuts. It doesn’t add up. It wasn’t life threatening or anything. But for me, that’s my trauma.
I’ve got all the symptoms, and my psych agrees that it’s PTSD. The symptoms have been escalating for ten years but this year they’ve become uncontrollable. And I don’t know why.
Could my wife’s affair really be the cause of my PTSD?
* I worked for the MOD and Home Office as a civilian telecoms engineer for a number of years. Deployed to Northern Ireland, Nigeria, Croatia during the Balkans conflict, Iraq and Kuwait for a short stint. Never encountered combat. Never encountered anything remotely traumatic while deployed, although many of my army colleagues were injured.
* Traveled around South America. My wife and I was arrested and held at gunpoint by two masked women carrying Kalashnikovs in Bolivia. Still don’t know why. But we remained calm and I talked ourselves out of it.
* Traveled in North Spain for a bit and got caught up in an ETA gunfight - I was keeping a low profile in the apartment above, whilst the gunfight was escalating below. I ended up getting teargased whilst evacuating and got caught up in the ensuing riot.
* About 10 years ago, in the UK, whilst coming out of a night club, my brother in law and I was set upon by three guys in an unprovoked attack (one carrying a dog chain, another a car jack and another a wheel brace). Outnumbered and with weapons, they took us down and proceeded to (and continued to) beat us up even when we were unconscious. I got away with severe lacerations but they fractured my brother in law’s skull. They only got put away for 6 years - for GBH. Should have been attempted murder.
* Recently I was driving near Shoreham Airport on the south coast of the UK and narrowly missed being hit by a crashing military jet. I was driving towards the aircraft (about 200 meters) when it crashed into the road, killing a number of people, which I witnessed. You know, burning bodies etc…
* Been in a number of near fatal car accidents - two broken ankles, fractured sternum, etc…
* And there’s other things - father recently passed away, I grew up in a tough area (fights, drug abuse, etc), possible narcissistic mother etc…
Yeah, bad luck, but, I don’t delve on those things. They don’t give me the flashbacks etc…
What seems to have sparked this off for me, was my wife having an affair… My flashbacks and trauma seems to be centred on her betrayal and gaslighting, over ten years ago. It’s nuts. It doesn’t add up. It wasn’t life threatening or anything. But for me, that’s my trauma.
I’ve got all the symptoms, and my psych agrees that it’s PTSD. The symptoms have been escalating for ten years but this year they’ve become uncontrollable. And I don’t know why.
Could my wife’s affair really be the cause of my PTSD?