Invisible Injury.

Do you guys watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? I like to watch it on hulu the day after it airs. In last Sunday's episode they were building a house for an Army vet with a severe case of PTSD. I saw our life in the life of that family, we share the same hardships. If you've been around my blog awhile or have read my about me page, you know that Jake also has a severe case of PTSD. Post traumatic stress is an anxiety disorder that affects our everyday life. When we were deciding where to move to last March, we had two criteria, that it was about an hour's drive or less to a VA hospital, and that it was a quiet town.

I'm really thankful for this episode because it really highlights some of the struggles that people with PTSD face and really gets the message out there about this invisible injury and how it's affecting hundreds of thousands of American families. Not only are loud and sudden noises a huge issue, but just the amount of people and the pace of a town can be difficult. Jake has done really well since we moved here and I'm so thankful for that. He still doesn't venture out a lot, but he is a lot more independent here than he was back in Utah. I think a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that this town is kind of sleepy, and quiet.

I'm glad there is more awareness about PTSD. I still get asked regularly what PTSD is and a lot of people just don't grasp it's effects. If Jake doesn't have his meds, he cannot leave the house. If it's the 4th of July, he can't go outside because of the noise. We can't attend the local football games because they shoot off a cannon every time the home team scores. We can't go to any community spaghetti feeds or street fairs or carnivals because of all the the people. If Jake forgets to take his sleeping pills and nightmare pills he'll have nightmares and wake up thinking he's back in Iraq. If he does any of those things, it's very likely that he will begin to become very anxious and react in one of several ways. He'll either shut down completely, freak out, or relive a moment from Iraq, which can be scary. It's hard to make plans because Jake has anywhere from 4 to 12 doctor appointments every single month, sometimes a lot more. It's just like any other disease or injury someone might have, but people don't realize that this is our life, because he isn't physically injured and they can't see with their eyes that he is ill.

I'm not going to lie, living with and loving someone with PTSD can be really hard, not to mention exhausting, but it will always be a lot more difficult for him. I can't imagine thinking everything is fine when you get back and then the symptoms start to pop up much later, as they often do. Your mind plays tricks on you and there is nothing you can do about it. I can only imagine how frustrating that must be.

So I'm thankful to Extreme Makeover for getting the word out there and explaining what PTSD is and how awful it can be for the people living with it. They can't control it, and a lot of them are going to be dealing with it for the rest of their lives. If you have some time and you like watching heartwarming shows or decorating/building shows, go watch this episode and learn a little more about PTSD.