Female Partners of Vietnam Veterans: Stress by Proximity

A retrospective, descriptive study attempts to explore and document the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the female partner of the Vietnam veteran, the presence of any interrelated issues of PTSD and identified women’s issues, and the relationship between the veteran's symptoms and the woman's coping skills.

Abstract

Utzr has always had a profound and far-reaching impact on mankind. fie effects of combat upon the veteran continue to be explored and interventions designed. rite male veteran’s symptoms that perpetuate his life also affect his female partner and family. A retrospective, descriptive study attempts to explore and document I) the efects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the female partner of the Vietnam veteran, 2) the presence of any interrelated issues of PTSD and identified women’s issues, and 3) the relationship between the veteran’s symptoms and the woman’s coping skills. All explored variables resulted in a significant relatioh ship between PiTD symptoms and the woman ’s poor sevesteem, her limited coping skills, and the inefective use of overcompensation to deal with problems. Perpetuation of the dysfunctional family system is therefore enhanced both by the presence of PTSD in the veteran and the concurrent behavioral repertoire of the female partner. The Vietnam War officially ended in 1975. Eleven years later, ramifications from that conflict continue. With the 1982 dedication of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., people of the United States started addressing this country’s involvement in the war. Only now are we engaging in open, frequently painful dialogue with politicians, families, and Vietnam veterans themselves. There is a search for meaning in the individual as well as the societal struggles that perpetuated the Vietnam era. Involvement in war is one of life’s most traumatic and potentially influential experiences. Figley (1) believed that the moral, physical, and emotional turmoil resulting from war sometimes finds expression long