Suffering in the Shadows: Interviews with Wives of Combat Veterans Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and/or Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

The body of research examining issues confronting combat veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars continues to grow. However, this research focuses primarily upon veterans with very less attention given to the challenges confronting their spouses. Using a semi-structured interview methodology and a feminist perspective, this study examines what it means to be a wife of a combat veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Our findings indicate these women—who experience tremendous emotional, financial, and social challenges that arise from being the caregiver for their husbands—feel isolated from and abandoned by both the military community and the civilian community. Furthermore, the social and emotional disconnection of these women experience amplify the stresses they confront in daily life—stresses that are unique to their relationship to being with a combat veteran spouse who has PTSD and/or TBI. We argue future research should build upon this exploratory study to better understand how both the military community and the civilian community impact the subjectivity of these women and their efforts to reintegrate themselves and their families into civilian life.

Keywords:

• community
• military
• military spouse
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• veteran
• veteran spouse