http://www.familyofavet.com/secondary_ptsd.html Quote from this website…
When the S*** Rolls Down Hill…“Secondary PTSD is not a disorder which is recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (as of the fourth edition). However, if you lived with someone
who suffers from PTSD, you may notice yourself beginning to “mirror” some of their
behaviors. This transformation is called Secondary Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
If you want to learn about the reality of Secondary PTSD, go to the above website. If you want to learn about my own family’s lifelong experience with Post WWII Secondary PTSD and Moral Injury, read my book. My story is a non-fiction case study of what happens when a parent is affected by extended combat duty and the symptoms of PTSD or better stated, “Moral Injury.”http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/pages/moral_injury_at_war.asp
Decades following WWII family members suffer from the symptoms of PTSD. My mother at age 94 still has flashbacks of the the emotional and physical abuse connected with being a military spouse and mother, who spent decades as the sole care giver for Dad. He spent 66 months in continuous combat duty before and during all of WWII, surviving Pearl Harbor and the Asiatic Pacific Theater as a US Navy veteran. If this wasn’t enough, Dad was sent into combat duty again during the Korean War.
I describe our family experience in my book as an evolving and painful tragedy that destroyed our family over 7 decades, and still lingers as we continue our lifelong journey of healing. In my view, not enough attention is given to the exponential effects of Secondary PTSD on the family of a parent who struggles in life after war. The above quote is appropriate, and I could have not said it better, “when the S*** Rolls Down Hill…” The legacy of war has an enormous cost on the families who “serve too!”
Steve Sparks
Author
Reconciliation: A Son’s Story
