Transcript
You don't have to involve your family in PTSD treatment,
but it might be a lot more effective if you do.
But I want to be clear about this.
We're not interested in sharing the vivid, graphic,
gory details of combat trauma with your family.
We don't want to bring the war home to your living rooms.
I'm guessing that's a lot of the reason why you went to war
in the first place, was to sort of keep our country
and keep your family safe from that sort of stuff.
But we do want to integrate your family into the solution
of you re-engaging with your life.
For example, a lot of times families have learned
over the years not to ask Veterans to do things.
So maybe you used to be invited to go to the movies
with your grandson or your granddaughter,
but now they don't even bother inviting you anymore
because they know you're going to make up an excuse.
Or maybe your husband has just stopped asking you
to go to the store because he knows
that you're just going to say no.
And so what we'd like to do is we'd like to
get your idea about what you think would be helpful
for your family, and maybe we'll start there.
We'll start with the easier things.
We want to kind of pull your family into this idea
that our goal is that you don't have symptoms anymore
or that your symptoms are significantly reduced.
For that to happen, they're going to have to start
changing what they expect of you, and you're going to have to
kind of prove to them that you're different.
You're not going to be the grumpy guy in the corner
pushing people away.
That is, you're not going to be that guy for long
if you go through Prolonged Exposure therapy
because the whole essence of the treatment is to get you
re-engaged, and out living life, and a lot happier.