Good Afternoon,
My name is Nancy. My fiancee has been back from Afghanistan now for about 1 year. And it's been a tough year. He had two deployments to Afghanistan and is now retired. I am a former Soldier as well and retired too. We have been together for 4 years.
I am educated and experienced as a Soldier and care giver so I tried to educate myself before he came home from Afghanistan on signs, symptoms and mechanisms for coping and dealing with post deployment issues. I hope that if others are experiencing the same emotional roller coaster that I am, they realize that no matter how much you try to prepare for something like this, you dont know what you are up against and its not your fault and it doesn't mean the person doesn't love you.
Until last week we have not had an episode of the extreme darkness since around Christmas (about 6 mos). During that time in December, we actually had about 3 nights of no sleep and him saying that we wouldn't make it through this. Our relationship would not survive. He started on medication the following Monday and that helped tremendously. We experienced the same thing last week, but this time he actually left. I really thought it was over this time. I prayed for almost 24 hours straight and He came home the next day after work, told me he loved me and we have made it through yet another hole in the road. I thank God.
We love each other, we plan to spend our life together and we both want that. I feel I've done well dealing up to this point, but I was completely blind sided last week by this last episode. I have also started on an anti-depressant to help me cope.
I hope to find support from other spouses in similiar situations as well as provide support to others.
Respectfully,
Nancy
My name is Nancy. My fiancee has been back from Afghanistan now for about 1 year. And it's been a tough year. He had two deployments to Afghanistan and is now retired. I am a former Soldier as well and retired too. We have been together for 4 years.
I am educated and experienced as a Soldier and care giver so I tried to educate myself before he came home from Afghanistan on signs, symptoms and mechanisms for coping and dealing with post deployment issues. I hope that if others are experiencing the same emotional roller coaster that I am, they realize that no matter how much you try to prepare for something like this, you dont know what you are up against and its not your fault and it doesn't mean the person doesn't love you.
Until last week we have not had an episode of the extreme darkness since around Christmas (about 6 mos). During that time in December, we actually had about 3 nights of no sleep and him saying that we wouldn't make it through this. Our relationship would not survive. He started on medication the following Monday and that helped tremendously. We experienced the same thing last week, but this time he actually left. I really thought it was over this time. I prayed for almost 24 hours straight and He came home the next day after work, told me he loved me and we have made it through yet another hole in the road. I thank God.
We love each other, we plan to spend our life together and we both want that. I feel I've done well dealing up to this point, but I was completely blind sided last week by this last episode. I have also started on an anti-depressant to help me cope.
I hope to find support from other spouses in similiar situations as well as provide support to others.
Respectfully,
Nancy
