Helping Your Family Through Ptsd

Post-traumatic stress disorder is everywhere. It is increasing in regards to those who are being diagnosed with PTSD and those whom are ministering to ones with PTSD. The good news is that God speaks into the complexities of PTSD through Scripture and helps us orient ourselves and our families towards his purposes in PTSD. As you will see, God offers us perspective on how we should view PTSD and the trauma that started it all.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is everywhere. It is increasing in regards to those who are being diagnosed with PTSD and those whom are ministering to ones with PTSD. The good news is that God speaks into the complexities of PTSD through Scripture and helps us orient ourselves and our families towards his purposes in PTSD. As you will see, God offers us perspective on how we should view PTSD and the trauma that started it all.

"TRAUMA IN THE FAMILY" is written as a self-help book to assist Families and close relatives to try and understand how their family member or close loved one can be affected by being exposed to a traumatic event, which can change their lives and future behavior and normal reactions. A couple of second's exposure can change your life forever. As a personal sufferer of Twenty years before help from this disorder called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or P.T.S.D. for short, this book represented what I required to be available to help my own family learn about the disorder in a simple way and understand my problems better.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can present with a number of symptoms, including anxiety, depression, flashbacks, and trouble sleeping. If your partner has PTSD, you may want to help, but find yourself at a loss. The simple truth is that PTSD can be extremely debilitating—not just for the person who has experienced trauma first-hand, but for their partners as well. And while there are many books written for those suffering from PTSD, there are few written for the people who love them. In Loving Someone with PTSD, renowned trauma expert and author of I Can’t Get Over It!, Aphrodite Matsakis, presents concrete skills and strategies for the partners of those with PTSD. With this informative and practical book, you will increase your understanding of the signs and symptoms of PTSD, improve your communication skills with your loved one, set realistic expectations, and work to create a healthy environment for the both of you. In addition, you will learn to manage your own grief, helplessness, and fear regarding your partner’s condition. PTSD is a manageable disability. While it isn’t your responsibility to rescue your partner or act as his or her therapist, this book will help you be supportive and implement strategies for lessening the negative impact of PTSD—not just for your partner, but for your relationship, and, importantly, for yourself.

The new edition of the classic Helping Traumatized Families not only offers clinicians a unified, evidence-based theory of the systemic impact of traumatic stress—it also details a systematic approach to helping families heal by promoting their natural healing resources. Though the impact of trauma on a family can be growth producing, some families either struggle or fail to adapt successfully. Helping Traumatized Families guides practitioners around common pitfalls and toward a series of evidence-based strategies that they can use to help families feel empowered and ultimately to thrive by developing tools for enhancing resilience and self-regulation.

When a parent has PTSD, children can often feel confused, scared, or helpless. Why Are You So Scared? explains PTSD and its symptoms in nonthreatening, kid-friendly language, and is full of questions and exercises that kids and parents can work through together. The interactive layout encourages kids to express their thoughts and feelings about PTSD through writing, drawing, and designing. This book can serve as a practical tool for kids to cope with and eventually feel better about their parent's PTSD. A comprehensive note to parents offers advice for using this book to help children communicate the emotions that may accompany their parent's PTSD recovery. From the Note to Parents: PTSD can negatively affect the children of parents or caregivers who experience it. In addition to being confused and worried about their parent or caregiver, children may experience fear and sadness of their own. A negatively affected child may suffer poor performance at school, act out at daycare, or withdrawal from family and friends. PTSD is not just a condition of the adult, but a condition of the family and others close to the child. There are several important aspects of their parent or caregiver’s PTSD that children should understand. Although your child’s age and maturity level, and your own comfort level, should dictate how much emphasis you give any particular issue, it’s important that each of the following be acknowledged, at least to plant a seed for future discussion. This book, and the discussions it is meant to facilitate, should help your child: understand what PTSD is and what it is not; recognize and cope with his or her feelings; and realize that things will get better and that help is available. This book is meant to be read by or to your child with guidance from a parent, teacher, counselor, or other adult that he or she trusts. Although you can accomplish this in several ways, it may be best to read it in sections. This way, several discussions can take place over an extended period, allowing time for your child to form questions and discover his or her own solutions to some of the concerns covered in the book. Regardless of how you decide to use this book, remember to watch for cues from your child. He is the best measure for how much information is too much and when it’s OK to keep reading and talking.

This document provides information on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and war-related stress for veterans & their families. It begins with background on PTSD and traumatic events, then describes common symptoms of PTSD and why they develop. The next section reviews problems associated with PTSD, such as depression, anxiety, and impacts on work & family. The final sections provide suggestions on coping with the disorder and describe treatment methods.