ABSTRACT
Individuals living with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) experience a range of symptoms, including intrusion, avoidance, negative changes in cognition and mood, and changes in arousal and reactivity, that can have significant impacts on daily life. If the individual is living within a family unit, these types of symptoms can create barriers to enacting familial roles and challenges to effective communication and sustaining interpersonal relationships. While research on the impact of mental health disorders on military veterans has grown in recent years, there has been much less attention paid to the impact of PTSD on family members. This research gap is a significant omission, given that veteran families, while experiencing the effects of PTSD, can also play an instrumental role in supporting the recovery of the military veteran. As the research examining the impacts of PTSD on military and veteran families grows, the instrumental role that families play in supporting the military veteran living with PTSD needs to also be acknowledged. This chapter reviews literature focused on PTSD and military veteran families, with recommendations for research, theory, and practice.
