So I have been in a relationship with my boyfriend for nearly a year. This is my first real experience closely interacting with someone who has PTSD. He was a combat OIF vet who served several years in the army (infantry) and was injured by an IED so he was medically released, given full retirement and received a purple heart. He has since undergone a lot of treatment and rehabilitation to get himself back on track. If you looked at him you'd never be able to guess that his back was once really messed up, etc. He is truly an amazing human being. He is selfless, caring, intelligent, romantic, fun, the list goes on and on. We have a mostly wonderful relationship.
But the PTSD is what gets us. He is extremely easy to set off, sometimes it feels like I have to walk on eggshells around him and go along with a lot of what he says just so I don't to deal with him flipping out. He is highly suspicious and doesn't like being questioned. He's gotten physical with me twice, though that was after I'd been instigating and starting crap with him when we were both drunk and being stupid. He's terrible at admitting that he's wrong and apologizing, though he will do it if he knows that I'm really upset about something.
Basically, the PTSD causes a huge strain on our relationship and obviously that's not his fault nor am I Implying that. I love him and I want to be as supportive as I possibly can. He's told me countless times that I've helped him a lot. Does anyone have any tips or advice or even stories of your own that you could share? I just want to know how I can better deal with this and communicate more effectively with him, etc. I'm sorry this was so long, btw.