PTSD and divorce?
My 15 year marriage ended traumatically after discovery of a protracted affair between my husband and another married man. Recently, through counseling and therapy, I've accepted that I have been the recipient of psychological and emotional abuse, gas lighting, and blame shifting. I protected him even into divorce proceedings like the loyal, faithful man I've always been.
In the past six months, I'm been having night terrors, panic and terror when I hear the phone ring/get a text/receive an email, avoid certain social situations or specific places like some sort of phobia, and having flashbacks. Divorce-related communications with my attorney often put me into what I can only describe as crisis mode. Being a health care provider, it sounds disturbingly similar to PTSD, which has also been brought up by the professional help I'm receiving. I've gone from being a strong, confident man, to a cowering, insecure, fearful shadow of what I once was.
I know I deserve better. I know time heals. Meanwhile, the here and now is an agonizing tight rope walk to avoid triggers or crises. I get no peace while awake. I get no peace when I sleep.