Combat PTSD and the Affect on the Family

Anxiety, depression, isolation, and compensation. Although this list could be attached to any number of illnesses or disabilities, it is just a small list of problems that arise in people with Second Hand PTSD. Suffering from PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be debilitating but what about the children and spouses who suffer from Second hand PTSD? PTSD can actually be "transferred" from the person suffering from it to another person who is either closely related to or living with them.

Little, if anything is known about second hand PTSD and more often than not, the symptoms mimic so many other illnesses that a person is treated for the wrong malady, or not treated at all.

My only experience in second hand PTSD is from personal experience of what occurred in our family. If you are the child of a Combat Vietnam Vet, chances are you have some level of second hand PTSD. My brother and I have been on a 35+ year "adventure" as children of a combat Vietnam Vet. It has only been in the last 9 years that I have even remotely begun to understand what the impact of my father's service in Vietnam had on our lives as children and now as adults.

The drastic differences between siblings with second hand PTSD should be studied; but in our case, it is more than evident. I took on, for the most part, the role of the rescuer: compensating for the lack of parenting by our father. My brother showed classic signs of the emotionally uninvolved child: he was angry and always had a very high anxiety about everything.