What is PTSD?

I have spent the last few days telling you about some of my experiences with PTSD but I haven't really given you any in-depth information about what PTSD is or what to look for.  Someone told me that 80 to 90% of men come home different from war, but only some of them suffer true PTSD. Most of them re-adjust to life at home and they are fine but the ones with PTSD can never quite make that adjustment.  To give you a better idea let me tell you some things about my husband.  Before he deployed he was the kind of guy who could lay on the couch fall asleep and not pay attention to the world around him.  He was mild mannered low tempered meaning it took a lot to get him angry.  He always had things under control and he laughed a lot.  He loved to joke around he was easy to get along with.  He loved going to movies or going on dates with me.  That all changed when he came home.  I remember the first time I took him to the store with me when he got back.  We were there only a few short minutes when he started to freak out.  His body language changed and he started to get hostile.  He couldn't handle standing in line with people behind him.  Every time someone would brush past him or look at him for a second too long he would start to puff out like he was getting ready to attack.  It got to be so bad that I told him to just go wait in the car I would be there shortly.  A few days later we went out to eat and I had to ask the waiter to move us to the back of the restaurant so that no one would be sitting behind him.  That was the only way he would be comfortable enough to enjoy our meal out together.  And even then he was constantly looking around keeping watch.  That was the mild behavior.  What really scared me was his driving.  My husband is a Class A driver's license holder  meaning a Commercial Driver he used to drive 18 wheels before joining the army.  Moving on though, shortly after he came home we had to make a trip out and you should know people have to be careful when I am in the vehicle due to my spine injuries recklessness can make it worse, but anyway we were driving when this lady veered into his lane and almost hit his truck.  Then she got attitude and cussed him out.  It was a bad idea on her part he freaked out, started swerving toward her like he wanted hit her car yelling at her and scaring me to death.  I had never been afraid of him before but there is a first time for everything.  It has been almost a year now but he still tends to lose it he is the king of road rage.  Even now when I ride with him if he gets angry the car turns into a weapon.  He has the worst time controlling his temper.  It used to be that it took a lot for him to get angry but now he goes from calm to angry in 60 seconds.  Once he is angry he can't calm down and most times involves him storming out or pushing everyone away.  But enough about his symptoms lets get to what to look for and common symptoms that your spouse may exhibit.  

There is a website that I found helpful and most of the stuff I am going to tell you comes from that site.  At the bottom of this post I will leave the site address for you to look at there is so much information there.  But for now I want to take bits and pieces for this posting.  Lets start with; what is PTSD?  

PTSD is described as this: The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

1. The person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others
2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. 

For some PTSD can be brought on by a violent situation during war such as a shooting or an IED something of that nature but for others it can be an extreme emotional situation such as feeling like a loss of control or what they call shell shock (which means affected with combat fatigue, mentally confused, upset, or exhausted as a result of excessive stress).  PTSD can be considered acute which means lasting less than 3 months or chronic which means lasting more than 3 months.  

Now that we have discussed what PTSD is lets look at symptoms.  Some of the symptoms can come on quickly and others come on gradually.  In some cases the person can experience one or two at a time while others may have several symptoms at once.  The symptoms can come out of the blue or be triggered but an event, word, smell, image, or noise.  Here are some of the things to look for:

• Intrusive, upsetting memories of the event
• Flashbacks (acting or feeling like the event is happening again)
• Nightmares (either of the event or of other frightening things)
• Feelings of intense distress when reminded of the trauma
• Intense physical reactions to reminders of the event (e.g. pounding heart, rapid breathing, nausea, muscle tension, sweating)

• Avoiding activities, places, thoughts, or feelings that remind you of the trauma
• Inability to remember important aspects of the trauma
• Loss of interest in activities and life in general
• Feeling detached from others and emotionally numb(unable to show or express love)
• Sense of a limited future (lack of desire to marry, plan for future retirement, not expecting to have normal life span)

• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Irritability or outbursts of anger
• Difficulty concentrating
• Hyper-vigilance(on constant “red alert”)
• Feeling jumpy and easily startled

While my husband was deployed I had a friend stay with the kids and I who also suffered from PTSD.  It is amazing how different the symptoms can be from one person to the next.  I wouldn't say that this friend had a more severe case of PTSD just a different reaction to it.  He would get into moods where he would shut the world out.  He would go for hours to days without talking to anyone he would lose himself in video games. You could never tell if he was mad at you or just having one of his "moods".    

I can tell you that my husband has many of the symptoms on the list above.  And like I said before one person may have one or two symptoms while others may have all of them.  My husband has most of these symptoms some of them are mild while others make me worry about him.  For example when he came home the doctors gave him sleeping pills to help with his inability to fall asleep or stay that way.  But even those pills didn't work for him.  Now almost a year later he still has trouble sleeping but it is no where near as bad as when he first came home.  On the other hand his jumpiness has gotten worse.  Like the post from the other night when he jumped up and scared the kids.  The fact is that he suffers from chronic PTSD and these symptoms will never go away.  They could be better with proper medication but this is something he will have to deal with the rest of his life. In order to help him I have learned about PTSD and took the time to learn his moods so that I can help make things easier for him.  If I know he is having a day where he is irritable or can't sleep I don't choose those days to have in-depth conversations with him.  As a spouse of a soldier with PTSD you have to learn their moods, their symptoms, and their triggers so that you can avoid making it worse for them.

If your spouse or someone you know suffers from any of the above symptoms please encourage them to seek medical attention as soon as possible.  In the meantime please check out the following sites.  

As I stated before some of the information above is taken from these sites: 

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/post_traumatic_stress_disorder_symptoms_treatment.htm

http://ptsdsupport.net/ptsd_symptoms.html