Hello everyone!
I'm courage. I have been using this website for about a week now and never formally introduced myself. I am a girlfriend/former girlfriend (its complicated lol) of an infantry Marine that is just now experiencing PTSD for the first time since he got home in the fall.
The question of whether or not to stick around and support him has never crossed my mind. I knew before he left for war that he may not be the same man when he got back home, who would be? What is the difficult part about it is that I always thought that we would be going through his trials and tribultions together. Yes I expected there to be times when he needed space, yes I expected to be sitting in counseling with or without him. But never did I expect the reaction that I and a lot of women on here have experienced, the complete isolation, feeling like he doesn't want anything to do with you at times, telling me I deserve better and he doesn't want to drag me down with him, not knowing if he wants to be with me or not.
This all happened literally it seems overnight. He seems to respond to me a lot more when the convo is light-hearted and friendly. When it goes to anything about a relationship or love or something he has to put effort into he shuts down completely and gets so frustrated. He will not tell me we are broken up, but will not say we're together. He has not been treated for his ptsd yet so I have a long road ahead of me.
Right now he thinks "no one can help" so I'm not even sure he is willing to get help yet. This website is my safe haven and helps so much that I'm not alone at all.
I'm courage. I have been using this website for about a week now and never formally introduced myself. I am a girlfriend/former girlfriend (its complicated lol) of an infantry Marine that is just now experiencing PTSD for the first time since he got home in the fall.
The question of whether or not to stick around and support him has never crossed my mind. I knew before he left for war that he may not be the same man when he got back home, who would be? What is the difficult part about it is that I always thought that we would be going through his trials and tribultions together. Yes I expected there to be times when he needed space, yes I expected to be sitting in counseling with or without him. But never did I expect the reaction that I and a lot of women on here have experienced, the complete isolation, feeling like he doesn't want anything to do with you at times, telling me I deserve better and he doesn't want to drag me down with him, not knowing if he wants to be with me or not.
This all happened literally it seems overnight. He seems to respond to me a lot more when the convo is light-hearted and friendly. When it goes to anything about a relationship or love or something he has to put effort into he shuts down completely and gets so frustrated. He will not tell me we are broken up, but will not say we're together. He has not been treated for his ptsd yet so I have a long road ahead of me.
Right now he thinks "no one can help" so I'm not even sure he is willing to get help yet. This website is my safe haven and helps so much that I'm not alone at all.
