SecondSkin,

Honestly, I think both you and your husband should meet with his mother and be honest about your challenge and tell her you really need her help. You need to have a face to face meeting with her and lay it out honestly and then ask her if she can give you some time while you work through this with therapy.

People will not "know" how to help unless they are "educated" and told how they can be helpful when it comes to supporting someone who struggles with PTSD.

I find myself "wishing" that professionals would access a patient and learn about their family dynamics and agree to meet with the family and have video that shows a family how someone with PTSD struggles, that they seriously need support and they are not crazy and their condition is not their fault either. I know that would have helped me had my family been instructed in how to be more supportive to me.

Everyone that I have come across who struggles with PTSD consistently talks about the lack of support from their family and friends, and that should be something that should not have to take place. People who struggle with PTSD do NOT deserve to feel so alone with it or feel guilty that they need "help" either.

When I was at my "worst" my family was "angry" with me for having the "stress breakdown" that I had and NONE OF THEM just sat with me and comforted me which is what I needed and deserved them to do for me. I spent 9 days in a psych ward and even ate Thanksgiving dinner with strangers that were all very mentally ill and NONE of my family came to see me, that was CRUEL.

It took about 4 years for me to finally have a therapist who demanded to meet with my husband and explain to him that I was genuinely struggling and needed "support". That should have taken place "right away".

Your husband should be meeting with your therapist and discuss "how he can help you" instead of you being so alone with this and feeling like some kind of burden. Your husband should learn how to help you, and also sit with his mother and explain to her that he needs her help too.

I think that you should talk about this with your therapist SecondSkin and see if your therapist can meet with your husband, even agree to meet with your husband and his mother too.

It does make a difference when family members are not only educated but also given directions on how they can be more "supportive" to the patient struggling.

(((Caring Hugs)))
OE