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It can put a big wedge between you and those you care most about.

Stacy L. Pearsall, US Air Force 1998 - 2008, talks about how her PTSD affected her loved ones.

Transcript

PTSD stands for posttraumatic "stress" disorder,

and that stress and anxiety can bleed over into other parts

of your life if you're not knowing how to cope with it.

And it can affect your relationships, it can put a big wedge

between you and those you care most about.

I know that my way of coping, initially, was to actually

distance myself from those I cared most about because

down the range I lost friends that were close to me,

and I felt like that was my way

of guarding myself from any more pain.

But what I didn't realize was that by distancing myself from

those who cared most about me, I was distancing myself

from the only help or hope that I had.

And I think once that I started to realize that,

that cohesion between myself and my husband

and my family and my friends really brought me back

to Earth, and to reality, and to this moment, and this time

and gave me hope for the future.

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