The Ripple Effects of PTSD

The Ripple Effects of PTSD
KALW
By Casey Miner
May 13, 2013

What veterans have seen at war doesn’t just affect them – it also affects the people around them. Journalist Mac McClelland has been reporting on how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects families and how they cope when very little treatment is available. KALW’s Casey Miner interviews McClelland about her recent article in Mother Jones magazine titled, “Is PTSD contagious?”

The article opens with Brannan Vines’ story:

“Brannan Vines has never been to war, but she's got a warrior's skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers. Super stimuli-sensitive. Skills on the battlefield, crazy-person behavior in a drug store, where she was recently standing behind a sweet old lady counting out change when she suddenly became so furious her ears literally started ringing. Being too cognizant of every sound – every coin dropping an echo – she explodes inwardly, fury flash-incinerating any normal tolerance for a fellow patron with a couple of dollars in quarters and dimes. Her nose starts running she's so pissed, and there she is standing in a CVS, snotty and deaf with rage, like some kind of maniac, because a tiny elderly woman needs an extra minute to pay for her dish soap or whatever.”

Brannan Vines’ husband, Caleb, did two tours in Iraq, where he suffered a traumatic brain injury, and developed severe PTSD. Since he returned from the war seven years ago, things have gotten worse – for Caleb, for Brannan, and for their daughter.

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My comment

This is and always has been a huge issue for families. I know because in 1982 I fell in love with a Vietnam veteran. One of the groups I belong to is Point Man International Ministries and they started in 1984, not just helping veterans with Out Post, but helping families with Home Fronts. Families are the front lines and we suffer because they are suffering. We heal when they heal but what is lacking is the knowledge they need to know to cope with all of this. I've been married since 1984, so it is possible if families understand and find support.
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In 2002 I finished my book FOR THE LOVE OF JACK HIS WAR MY BATTLE and republished it last year about finding peace living with combat PTSD. It can be done if families know what it is and what they can do to help veterans heal. We are on the front lines when they come home because we know them better than anyone else. We know what they were like before combat and what changed in them but all too often families have no clue what they seeing. They don't understand so they blame themselves. If they know then they do not take the veterans actions and reactions as personal.

I have worked with families that started out with no knowledge and going through hell because of it. Once they understood it, they moved mountains out of the way to help. I am a firm believer that if more families learned, we would see less suicides, less homelessness and a whole lot of healing going on.