The disorder related to anxiety known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) brings upon many severe symptoms and side effects that can be vexing towards the individual and overwhelming towards their family and friends. The effects of PTSD include avoidance symptoms such as feeling emotionally numb, guilty, depressed, or worried or avoiding people, places, and objects that remind them of the traumatic event, re-experiencing symptoms such as flashbacks, night terrors, and frightening thoughts, and hyper-arousal symptoms such as insomnia, tension, or anger. Symptoms of avoidance can be damaging to close relationships with children and spouses because it may lead to the individual avoiding many family and social affairs in fear of flashbacks or becoming indifferent or depressed in situations where individual once found interest and happiness. The re-experiencing symptoms make it difficult for the individual to perform daily tasks and can lead to difficulty in maintaining intimate relationships. Symptoms of hyper-arousal can negatively effect family relationships by causing frequent conflicts between the individual and their spouse or children that are often provoked by the individuals bursts of anger and constant feeling of tension. Domestic violence is another way that PTSD can be detrimental to family relationships, since the likelihood of such family violence increases threefold with spouses who have PTSD in comparison with those who do not.
Studies are recently being performed to help the relationships of those with PTSD by sending randomly chosen couples to domestic-violence prevention programs or to a supportive-therapy condition. Other studies are being done using intervention or wait-list control. Many psychologists have agreed that in addition to these treatments, it in crucial for families to be psycho-educated in the condition and how to cope with its affects.
By Kellie McClain
SOURCE: http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan08/helping.aspx
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