Veterans

service. I'm skip over details like that sometimes.

I hope that you and your family are able to find peace and reach a decent steady state.

Not to scare you, but when I was in the Army my wife used to work as a special education aid. She spent almost her whole day working with this one boy who was in kindergarten at the time who was VERY messed up as a result of his father's PTSD. As an adult you can take a step back and realize what is happening to you, but I doubt most young children can be that introspective. If this is a problem or a concern, really please stay on top of it.

I personally have been though several cycles of ups and downs. At least with my PTSD, it gets intense for periods of time and then it melts away and I can resume a mostly normal life. I think the trick for me was getting out of a high stress job and finding something that was more ideal for me. Stress really really really aggravated my PTSD symptoms.

Not to get your hopes up, but PTSD can become manageable. I went through a couple of really rough and low periods. Other than just hanging in there and living it one day at a time, I don't know what I did but the bad times went away and I eventually found myself being able to deal with things again. I still avoid certain situations and many things set me off, but I've come to recognize when the feelings I get before things spiral out of my control and I can disconnect myself and hide out for a bit and get some space and get my head back together.

I'm mostly functional when I'm out and about and I've even been able to hold down a job for the last three years. I still have periods where I can't focus on anything and stress really does a number on me, but I'm mostly able to take care of myself and be a pretty decent father to my daughters. I even find myself feeling a true sense of happiness from time to time.

Having family support and understanding really makes a big difference.