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Prolonged Exposure helped him...

Melissa Hansen (Wife of a Veteran with PTSD) talks about how PTSD treatment changed things.

Transcript

Prolonged Exposure helped him.

It helped him to be able to drive around town and know,

"OK, yes, there's a garbage bag at the side of the road,

but it's not going to hurt me.

In Iraq it might have hurt me, but here in the States

that bag is not going to hurt me."

So the Prolonged Exposure helped him to

overcome that kind of fear.

They asked him, for some of his homework during the therapy,

is he had to try new restaurants and go to a new place,

or to try sitting with his back to a crowd

instead of his face to a crowd.

So it's really helped him to be able to take our family

and our kids and go to places and sit down

and be able to relax and not be so keyed up.

Because before the therapy, he would have to drive separate

if we went to a restaurant.

He would drive separate because he didn't know for how long

he would be able to handle being in that restaurant,

and he would often leave halfway through a meal

and just drive himself home.

And so after the therapy, working through some of the fears,

he is able to go to a restaurant with our family

and sit through the meal.

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