Coping with PTSD and TBI as a family

Bobby:

I mean the changes in me and my family were really slow. I think comparing to an alcoholic it's probably a lot slower for us only because we're taught to usually deal with everything head-on and with the PTSD and you know, TBI, we couldn't deal with everything you know right head-on because it wouldn't work. Every time we dealt with something head-on it would set us back and cause more problems. So, and that would be for me and for my family. You know, just trying to avoid it and using avoidance wasn't working and hoping it would go away wasn't working either.

So, you know you had to just, we had to make an effort to keep on you know trying to get better. When I was going through the individual therapy my wife was kind of getting educated on what to expect. You know, what they thought to expect. So, while she was getting education, she would educate my son and my daughter and you know, they had certain things that they would expect. Okay, this is why dad's doing this or this is why dad's doing that even though I couldn't still get the concept of the whole thing.

So, there were certain triggers. I mean, there's still triggers now after 5 years that I find myself getting caught up on sometimes you know. It gets better, but it never goes away. So, it's one of those things you have to work at every day.

It's only been 5 years, but you know my son’s getting older and my daughter’s getting older. So, them reminding me when I get, you know when I snap or something like that to remind me of you know, what's going on and what the surrounding situation is helps and you know helps them to because at least they can get to a point where they can understand the reasons that I'm going through it and the reason I had to ask for help in the whole thing.