Vets with PTSD Require Family Education and Patience

Vets with PTSD Require Family Education and Patience

Posted Tue, Aug 23, 2011
By Bobbie O'Brien
TAMPA (2011-9-23) -

Forsythe said the hardest part of dealing with his PTSD is trying to get his family to understand his behavior.

Army mental health specialist Cheyenne Forsythe was trained to help combat troops in Iraq deal with the onset of Post Traumatic Stress. Yet, he didn't notice his own signs of PTSD after surviving an IED blast and returning home from Iraq.

His erratic behavior due to the PTSD helped to break up his first marriage something he's working hard to avoid with his fiancé Joy Finley.

“My lowest point was when I was sitting in a cell in Killeen, Texas after I had been arrested for domestic violence,” Forsythe said, “From there, I had to change, I had to do something, I had to address the issue.”

He was arrested for hitting his former wife with a flip-flop. “I had lost control,” Forsythe said. “It was like I was watching myself and I couldn’t stop myself and I wasn’t there, I was on autopilot.”

Forsythe did not tell police that he had just returned from Iraq, instead Forsythe chose to “admit my guilt and get on with it.”
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