Military Is This Even Ptsd??? Or Just Angry Depression?

[Never_falter2]

I did not read everything.
I just wanted to add that a lot of people can experience hypervigilance and fear without other people necessarily noticing. It all depends on self-restraint and decorum an how they express their emotion.

Look out for avoidance. My sufferer experiences hypervigilance but he won't go bananas or cry or wince or stuff like that. There is little signs from what I can see it now but it took a time until I realized which they are.
I also noticed I often do not know he experiences hypervigilance/fear. We have like codewords for how strong his hypervigilance is and sometimes he does tell me it is very strong and I had no idea. You cannot necessarily see it from the way he carries himself.

I also noticed there are sufferers who do not like calling it hypervigilance or fear. They might rather like calling it "feeling protective".
I know several sufferers including mine who do not have flashbacks like thinking they are really reexpering something but do have vivid memories.

 

[heyheyhey]

Yep. Wrong. Not everyone experiences every symptom of PTSD, and fear is not a requirement at all. Some p...

Yeah, come to think of it, I had it before without all the terror, that was a new addition a year or so later.

 

[Pearl Viner]

Spot on.

 

[dulcia]

For what it's worth, everyone's vigilance/hyper vigilance may not look the same. A lot of my vets trauma translates into rage. Crowded place out of his control? Rage. Anniversary date? Rage. Holiday? Rage. Triggered? Rage.

Sure, sometimes he will get drunk and open up about the fear and the nightmares. But otherwise, I'm not often privy to what's really going on in his mind. And I know he works hard to keep me from knowing what's going on in there at times.

 

[Never_falter2]

Sunday my husband did not want to get up. He typically just jumps out of bed in the morning, but not this time. I thought it was because he had been drinking with his friends the night before and tried to push him to get up because the two older kids were already awake and the oldest was jumping on the bed and asking for breakfast.
But he did not want to, just grabbed me and put his face between my breasts and did not want to let go of me and I got annoyed because I thought it was sexual and did not feel like cuddling at all with my oldest boy jumping up and down and asking for breakfast. So I was like "Stop that. Not yet. Let go of me, I need to fix fast and why don't you get up and be a help?".

Later he shared with me he was feeling really afraid and panicky. I had really no idea. Again.
So guys often shoow their feelings a lot different than us women do.

 

[anthony]

You don't need to have every symptom of PTSD for diagnosis. Look at each cluster, and you only need to meet the specific requirements for each. The only requirement is criterion A exposure.

 

[Stacieamy]

I would strongly advise finding a reliable source for PTSD education. The VA does have classes for family members.

Anger is the most common response to fear in those with PTSD. Also, it is extremely common to deny being fearful. You get so used to pushing emotions down and hiding them that the person becomes like a pressure cooker.
Also, detachment and emotional numbness is very typical.