Living with PTSD significantly lowers quality of life (QoL) due to constant symptoms like flashbacks, anxiety, and emotional numbness, disrupting work, relationships, and daily activities, often leading to social withdrawal, depression, substance use, and a feeling of being stuck, though effective treatment can improve participation in hobbies, social life, and overall joy.
People with PTSD have intense and intrusive thoughts and feelings related to the experience that last long after the event. PTSD involves stress responses like: Anxiety, depressed mood, or feelings of guilt or shame.
Some of the responses to avoid saying to someone with PTSD include:
Post-traumatic stress disorder can disrupt your whole life — your education, job, how well you get along with others, physical health and enjoyment of everyday activities. Having PTSD also may raise your risk of other mental health problems, such as: Depression and anxiety disorders. Issues with drugs or alcohol use.
One very helpful thing to do would be to learn their triggers and ask the best way to support them. Asking questions like “what can I do to make you feel safe?” can go a long way. It may also be helpful to create a crisis response plan together.
But it does provide some rough guidelines as to how soon may be too soon to make long-term commitments and how long may be too long to stick with a relationship. Each of the three numbers—three, six, and nine—stands for the month that a different common stage of a relationship tends to end.
PTSD makes it difcult to have close relationships. It can also make it hard to have an active sex life or enjoy intimacy. Sexual problems are common in people with PTSD, regardless of the type of trauma experienced.
Living with someone who has PTSD
You may be hurt by your loved one's distance and moodiness or struggling to understand their behavior—why they are less affectionate and more volatile. You may feel like you're walking on eggshells or living with a stranger.
Given the global ubiquity of trauma exposure, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common mental disorders, with a prevalence of 3.9%, and is among the most debilitating in terms of overall functioning (Brewin et al., 2025; Koenen et al., 2017).
The main treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are talking therapies and medicine. Traumatic events can be very difficult to come to terms with, but confronting your feelings and getting professional help is often the only way of effectively treating PTSD.
Yelling can serve as a powerful trigger for individuals with PTSD, reigniting their traumatic memories and plunging them into a state of overwhelming distress. The aggressive and forceful nature of yelling can mimic the threatening and dangerous situations that caused their PTSD in the first place.
Avoiding reminders—like places, people, sounds or smells—of a trauma is called behavioral avoidance. For example: A combat Veteran may stop watching the news or using social media because of stories or posts about war or current military events.
10 Things Not To Say To Someone With CPTSD
These triggers can be external, such as sights, sounds, smells, or locations that are associated with the trauma. They can also be internal, such as certain thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations that are similar to those experienced during the traumatic event.
Difficulty controlling emotions.
It's common for someone suffering from C-PTSD to lose control over their emotions, which can manifest as explosive anger, persistent sadness, depression, and suicidal thoughts. They may feel like they're living in a dream or have trouble feeling happy.
As you go through this time with a loved one with PTSD or C-PTSD, some of the most important things to remember are:
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (complex PTSD, sometimes abbreviated to c-PTSD or CPTSD) is a condition where you experience some symptoms of PTSD along with some additional symptoms, such as: difficulty controlling your emotions. feeling very angry or distrustful towards the world.
Hyperarousal (feeling "on edge") Someone with PTSD may be very anxious and find it difficult to relax. They may be constantly aware of threats and easily startled. This state of mind is known as hyperarousal.
Impact of PTSD on relationships and day-to-day life
PTSD can affect a person's ability to work, perform day-to-day activities or relate to their family and friends. A person with PTSD can often seem uninterested or distant as they try not to think or feel in order to block out painful memories.
Some things not to do include:
PTSD And Divorce Rates: Facts And Figures
A study conducted by the National Center for PTSD found that 60% of male veterans with PTSD reported being divorced, compared to 35% of male veterans without PTSD. Similarly, women with PTSD also reported higher rates of divorce.
Sexual violence, rape, hostage situations, domestic violence, and any other trauma where escape felt impossible can cause a 'simple' hug from someone else to trigger a reminder of that feeling of being trapped – despite the person sometimes desperately wanting a hug, it's just too much for them.
When someone experiences something that triggers them, or reminds them of a trauma, the body produces a cascade of mental and physical symptoms, like racing thoughts and a fast heart rate. The person doesn't like the way these distressing symptoms feel, so they naturally find themselves trying to avoid them.
Trauma survivors with PTSD may have trouble with their close family relationships or friendships. The symptoms of PTSD can cause problems with trust, closeness, communication, and problem solving. These problems may affect the way the survivor acts with others.