PTSD and Moving Forward

[GuitarMia05]

Hello Everyone!! I'm in need of some prayer/advice/postivie vibes/happy thoughts/virtual hugs/etc.... (I really like hugs... they are nice lol)

This is my second marriage. My first one was a disaster. I suffered my own PTSD from all the mental/emotional abuse my ex decided to dish out. It still affects me daily, yet I am slowly learning to break away from that. To make a story short, My ex-husband decided to leave me when I was 4 months pregnant with our second child (my first born was 10 months old), and then came back into our lives when our second child was born for only a year, then decided to proclaim atheism and leave again. The short time we were together he was very verbally and mentally abusive to me. It was a daily walking on egg shells feeling when we were married, and I barley remember being happy. I remember all the pain and very little joy. Since our divorce back in early 2014, he is no longer in my children's lives by any means and I remarried a wonderful Godly man and we moved over a thousand miles away from where I was from.

My second husband is my college sweetheart, we have been friends since I was 16 years old and briefly dated in college. We rekindled our friendship back in 2013 when his now ex-wife cheated on him while he was deployed overseas (military). He has done 2 tours overseas, and is currently home now with a very stressful job (still military). We happily have been married for over a year now, and I fall more and more in love with him everyday.

He has openly admitted that he does suffer combat PTSD and that it does sometimes affect his day to day life. There are certain triggers or situations that can make it worse than others. We have been married over a year and I see and know most of these triggers and try my best to make sure that neither the kids or myself do them. Neither of us want to trigger each other's PTSD but with is being still fairly new in our marriage we can easily make mistakes. Luckily we both have never gotten into any sort of dispute where it could fire up emotions.

How does anyone with the same issues deal with not walking on egg shells. I don't wan't my husband to have to relive anything that reminds him of combat, and I know he feels the same way about my past. We both love each other dearly and would do anything to make sure we can make each other happy. Does anyone out there have a PTSD spouse?? Just Currious

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

I'm not in your situation, though I know people and couples with PTSD. Its not easy. Even with the right help being married to someone with it takes ALOT of patience, understanding and love. Best you can do is take it step by step, day by day. I believe, as my name says, nothing is impossible with God. So I will pray the PTSD goes away or at the least becomes a minor thing. But in the mean time its great to hear how hopeful and in love you two sound despite both having PTSD issues. Actually its probably good you have both dealt with it because it means to some extent you can relate to the other person. My wife and I have major health issues, to the point of being near death. And obviously both having very bad points in our life where depression/suicide came up (in the past), we both understand each other very well as opposed to if either of us had married someone who couldn't understand what its like in our shoes.

God bless the two of you.