I hope this is in the right place. It seems to be. I'm not a sufferer, and I'm not sure I necessarily count as a carer, but I have a very good friend who suffers from PTSD.
It's a strange story, but I met a very nice young man about a year ago through an online game. We struck up a tentative friendship over several mutual interests. At first, I didn't believe his stories (without going into detail (as I'm sure he wouldn't want me to) it dealt with losing a lot of people close to him and having family issues), but the more we chatted, I started to understand a little more as he shared with me. We've become close friends over this past year. He views me as sister/mother/friend and has confided a lot in me. We speak pretty much daily.
He is ex-military. From what he's said, there was an ambush and many of his men were killed. He suffered a head injury and also suffers from retrograde amnesia. He had very little to no support from his family. I do believe he had some sort of therapy or whatnot as he mentioned a few months after we met and started talking that his doctors noticed a big improvement in his condition (they wondered if he had met someone or started a relationship, etc).
I'm not sure what else to say. It's been a long road so far, and I've tried to learn what I can about PTSD and all, but I guess I'm looking for support and maybe a slap upside the head. There are a few people in my life telling me I need to be very careful not to get sucked into his mess and all that, but I'm not willing to just drop him and leave him hanging.
So thanks for listening. I look forward to reading all of your experiences and finding a few answers for myself.
~sunnylove
It's a strange story, but I met a very nice young man about a year ago through an online game. We struck up a tentative friendship over several mutual interests. At first, I didn't believe his stories (without going into detail (as I'm sure he wouldn't want me to) it dealt with losing a lot of people close to him and having family issues), but the more we chatted, I started to understand a little more as he shared with me. We've become close friends over this past year. He views me as sister/mother/friend and has confided a lot in me. We speak pretty much daily.
He is ex-military. From what he's said, there was an ambush and many of his men were killed. He suffered a head injury and also suffers from retrograde amnesia. He had very little to no support from his family. I do believe he had some sort of therapy or whatnot as he mentioned a few months after we met and started talking that his doctors noticed a big improvement in his condition (they wondered if he had met someone or started a relationship, etc).
I'm not sure what else to say. It's been a long road so far, and I've tried to learn what I can about PTSD and all, but I guess I'm looking for support and maybe a slap upside the head. There are a few people in my life telling me I need to be very careful not to get sucked into his mess and all that, but I'm not willing to just drop him and leave him hanging.
So thanks for listening. I look forward to reading all of your experiences and finding a few answers for myself.
~sunnylove
