General What An Revelation! Thank You!

[Steph_F]

Jan-Pattern wrote this in another thread:

"Only one thing to add... when you say " Even with PTSD, you know the difference between right and wrong" - actually, you may well NOT know the difference between right and wrong. It is a medical condition in which your brain 'takes flight' from reality under certain situations - in a range of different ways.

You, yourself, don't view getting emotionally close to someone as a threat to your existence, but for someone with severe PTSD, it can be just that, to their damaged mind. Under those circumstances, hiding and turning off a phone are maybe the only things to do, in an effort to 'protect' yourself from the 'threat'.Sometimes the 'threat' can be almost anything, including daylight or any sight or sound of a person, or the noise of birds tweeting... it is a very severe psychological condition and is not simply "he's upset" or "he's been through some tough times and behaves a bit oddly". It's more like what he's been through has torn him to pieces and the fragile threads that hold him together are snapped by ordinary everyday things, each and every day."

Thank you for this insight!! Thank you so much...I forget this about PTSD sometimes...maybe he truly doesn't know how he hurts me with his anger and yelling and insults.

 

[Jan-pattern]

Glad if it helps, Steph!

I think I'm helped a little by having a form of combat-ptsd myself, only I'm older and it was longer ago (thought on my arrival here it was all fixed, but being here helped me accept I still have plenty work to do...). So some things I can understand from the inside a little.

Dogs bark aggressively sometimes when they feel uncertain or frightened. I think soldiers do too. Everything about a soldier's training instructs them never to acknowledge fear, and then they're parachuted back into civvie life and expected to be able to talk openly to partners and therapists about their feelings, which may well include fear. Not 'only' fear of injury or attack or death, but fear of letting anyone close in case they harm the person they love, fear of letting down their comrades who died, fear of not being able to do what they are supposed to do - except they don't know what they are supposed to do because they are not in a military situation with SOPs and orders!

Jan