Divorce and PTSD

Question

In marriages where one person gets PTSD that is not really responsive to treatment and is essentially an ongoing and never ending condition, what would you say the divorce rate is? This is my situation with my husband who is a retired police officer. We are in year 5 of quite severe symptoms and I am coming to realize that is it. It is never going to be different and I need to decide if I can accept this now that there is no hope of our old life returning.

Rebecca Ashton · Accepted Answer

Thank you for your question.

I'm afraid that there are no clear cut answers because everyone is different. A symptom or condition may not respond to one type of therapy, but it may respond to another; we can only discover what works for us as individuals by trying different things to see what is most effective for our personal situation.

I feel that PTSD can be treated and that things can be different for you both, but it depends on how much you want things to change and how much effort you are both prepared to put in to make this happen.

It sounds as though you might benefit from some couples counselling-you need not commit to anything right away, but it might be useful to go for an informal chat to see what your options are at this stage and where you would like to go from there.

I wish you both the best of luck

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