PTSD and Relationships: How PTSD Can Affect the Health of Your Relationships

Relationships are both beautiful and complex. If you or a loved one has PTSD, it’s important to understand how the symptoms of PTSD affect not only your well-being, but your relationships as well.

PTSD and Its Signs

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an acute anxiety disorder that can occur after someone experiences a traumatic event. These traumatic events may include (but are not limited to) exposure to war or a combat zone, kidnapping, trafficking, sexual, psychological, and physical abuse, terrorism or torture, domestic violence or rape, natural disasters, terrifying medical events, or the sudden or violent loss of a loved one.

When a person experiences a traumatic event, they may feel vulnerable, numb, or disconnected. Trauma may leave a person in shock or denial about what happened. The person may experience distressing emotions, memories, somatic symptoms, panic, and nightmares.

Over time, many people are able to regain a semblance of normalcy. However, some people may experience symptoms of PTSD in the weeks, months, or years following the traumatic event. These might include:

• Avoiding things or places that remind them of the traumatic event.
• Reexperiencing the traumatic event through nightmares, flashbacks, or intrusive thoughts.
• Being easily startled by sounds, like a car backfiring or door slamming.
• Having unusual outbursts of anger.
• Having a distorted sense of reality about the trauma.
• Feeling guilty or ashamed.
• Being anxious or depressed.
• Struggling to remember parts of the traumatic event.
• Having intense negative thoughts, low self-esteem, or a sense of hopelessness.
• Losing interest in activities or hobbies they once enjoyed.

If you or a loved one are experiencing these symptoms, it’s important to seek help from a healthcare professional for proper diagnosis and treatment.

The Impact of PTSD on Relationships

PTSD affects a person’s well-being in profound ways, including their relationships. Many of the effects of PTSD are unhelpful and unhealthy – affecting how the survivor perceives themselves and others, and how they act.

A trauma survivor with PTSD may find themselves struggling to regulate their emotions, withdrawing from others or responding with intense anger.
It may feel easier to push away loved ones than to let them into your pain. A survivor with PTSD may also attempt to cope through substance use.

Other ways that PTSD might affect relationships include:

Emotional distance

A survivor with PTSD might feel emotionally numb and distant from their loved ones. They may find little-to-no interest in activities with family or friends. They may even avoid the people and places that are connected with the trauma, which could limit the places, relationships, and activities once enjoyed.

Reduced intimacy

Feelings of irritability, anxiety, and unpredictability may make it hard to relax and open up to others. The survivor might come across as distant or critical, which may impact intimacy. They may also experience less interest in sexual activity or even experience re-traumatization during sexual activity.

Poor rest

PTSD is often accompanied by trouble sleeping or with nightmares. This may result in both the survivor and their partner not being able to get enough rest if they sleep together. Poor sleep affects one’s overall health, including emotional well-being, weight control, and cardiovascular health, to name a few.

Increased dependence

PTSD can lead to a reduced ability to care for oneself, as well as an inability to effectively solve problems or feeling overwhelmed more easily. PTSD may make one feel undeserving and unlovable, increasing the need for reassurance. This increased dependence and need for reassurance may put a partner in the position to become a caregiver for emotions.

Experiencing PTSD may lead to loved ones feeling or being cut off, hurt, pressured, or controlled. It can also lead them to have similar feelings of having experienced trauma. PTSD can damage relationships, but there is hope and help available.

Help for Those with PTSD

PTSD does not mean that one cannot maintain healthy relationships with others. Healthy relationships can be maintained by sharing your feelings and experiences honestly and openly. Nurturing a personal support network to help cope with PTSD, building problem-solving skills, and connecting with others while working on relationships may make a difference.

Healthy relationships are essential in helping a trauma survivor to offset feelings of isolation, to boost self-esteem, to cope with stress, as well as reduce feelings of shame, guilt, and depression. Finding ways to relax, play, be creative, and enjoy others helps to nurture these important relationships.

Other sources of support include seeking help from a mental health professional with specialized training in treating PTSD, as well as working with families and support systems. Treatments such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, Brainspotting, EMDR, Narrative Therapy, and Art Therapy may address symptoms of PTSD.

Anti-anxiety medication or antidepressants can also help manage symptoms of PTSD. Additionally, joining a support group, meditating, exercising, and talking with loved ones about the experience of PTSD may also make a positive impact in handling PTSD and its symptoms.

For couples, counseling may address and heal relationship problems rooted in PTSD. Counseling can nurture the couple’s bond, and it can also be part of the process of educating both partners about PTSD, how it may affect the relationship, and effective strategies to manage the symptoms of PTSD.

In your relationship, PTSD may have an impact, but not every problem will be the result of it. Some issues may have their source elsewhere, and it’s important to address these issues accordingly.

If your partner or loved one has PTSD, you may come alongside them in several ways, including taking care of yourself, attending counseling together, and encouraging them to seek the support they need. You might also go for individual counseling to help you process your own experience with your loved one.

As you engage with your loved one, it’s helpful to avoid minimizing symptoms or extending blame. You might encourage your loved one to seek the help they need because PTSD isn’t something a person can get over without professional help. You might work with your loved one and counselor to better empathize with their experience and struggle, and to identify their trauma triggers so that you might limit exposure to them.

Call for Help

PTSD is an acute anxiety disorder that affects people from every walk of life. It can have serious negative effects on a person’s well-being as well as their relationships. If you or your loved one are experiencing PTSD, it’s important to take steps to seek help and relieve the symptoms of PTSD. Reach out to our offices today. We are able to support you in better managing PTSD, lessening symptoms, restoring quality of life, and nurturing your relationships.