Secondhand trauma: Workshop looks at effects of PTSD on loved ones
By Cindy Sutter
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
When Beth Grant moved to Boulder a year ago to live with her boyfriend, Ryan Nieto, she began to see a side of him she had never seen before.
"I started to notice that something was affecting him, something was wrong," she says. "There were times where he was withdrawn, times where he kind of shut himself off and pulled back. (I'd think) 'he's mad at me. What did I do wrong?'"
Grant knew her boyfriend was a veteran of the Iraq war. A Marine, he went in with the first wave of troops in 2003 and served six months there. But Grant got to know him after his deployment as a fellow college student in Ventura, Calif. They both got interested in rock climbing, and as the relationship got more serious, decided to move to Boulder and live together. Last year, Nieto began to have trouble sleeping and realized he was depressed, He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Not surprisingly, Nieto's struggles in coming to terms with his war experience began to affect Grant. Many loved ones who are close to veterans have symptoms of what local psychotherapist Trish Dittrick calls Secondary PTSD. It's a phenomenon, sometimes termed empathy fatigue, that has been studied among medical and mental health professionals in the aftermath of traumatic events such as Sept. 11 or Hurricane Katrina. Dittrick will participate in a workshop July 29 on Secondary PTSD, sponsored by Veterans Helping Veterans Now, a local nonprofit in which veterans help other veterans find the services they need. The group also runs a support group for female family members, which gave rise to the workshop.
"There's such a need for families of veterans to get support," Dittrick says. "The talk is meant for veterans and their families."
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Workshop looks at effects of PTSD on loved ones
I need a support group in the Miami area for Viet Nam era PTSD families. I can't find any. Can you point me in a direction I can follow?
ReplyDeleteFor a support group, there are several things to try. Contact the DAV, the VFW and the American Legion in the area. They have info on what is going on locally. If he is being treated by the VA, the VA social worker usually has information on support groups as well. Some VA facilities are setting up support groups for families. Another option is with the mental health community.
ReplyDeleteIn Seminole County (Orlando area) community mental health facilities are getting more and more involved with helping veterans not in the VA and their families. A lot of veterans do not want to go to the VA.
You can also have her email me so that I can help her understand what this is and give her some tools to cope with it. namguardianangel@aol.com