Section 12
By this point, you might be wondering, and possibly feeling guilty about wondering, why Brannan doesn’t just get divorced. And she would tell you openly that she’s thought about it. “Everyone has thought about it,” she says
- She is assuming that we all should be thinking that they should be divorced
- This is a common thought for anyone who has to deal with someone who has PTSD
And a lot of Kateri’s eight-year-old son now counts the exits in new spaces he enters, and points them out to his loved ones until war or fire fails to break out, and everyone is safely back home.
- Perhaps this is normal to find a way to get out if someone has a PTSD breakdown.
in the wake of Vietnam, 38 percent of marriages failed within the first six months of a veteran’s return stateside; the divorce rate was twice as high for vets with PTSD as for those without. Vietnam vets with severe PTSD are 69 percent more likely to have their marriages fail than other vets. Army records also show that 65 percent of active-duty suicides, which now outpace combat deaths, are precipitated by broken relationships. And veterans, well, one of them dies by suicide every 80 minutes.
- Claims: 38 percent of marriages fail within few months of their return
- Claims: Divorce rate is 2x higher for vets with PTSD.
- Claims: Broken relationship cause 65% of suicides while active duty
- Claims: PTSD vets commit suicide every 80 minutes
But even ignoring that though vets make up 7 percent of the United States, they account for 20 percent of its suicides —or that children and teenagers of a parent who’s committed suicide are three times more likely to kill themselves, too—or a whole bunch of equally grim statistics, Brannan’s got her reasons for sticking it out with Caleb.
- Claims: kids are likely to commit suicide as well if their parents have done so as well.
- She has her reasons for staying with Caleb
“I love him,” she says.
Brannan fully supports any wife—who feels that she or her children are in danger, or in an untenable mental-health environment, or for whatever reason—who decides to leave. She’s here, through Family of a Vet, to help those people.
- Claims: She loves him
- They are not in a dangerous mental zone for the kids to be effected.
But she’s also there for those FOV users who, like her, have decided to stay. “I have enormous respect for Caleb,” she explains if you ask her why. “He has never stopped fighting for this family. Now, we’ve had little breaks from therapy, but he never stopped going to therapy. I love him,” she repeats, defensively at times.
- Others have stayed with people with PTSD like her
- She respects and loves Caleb
- Therapy is helpful and they go to it continuously, even if they take short breaks
He is her friend, and her first love, and her rock, and her lifeline, her blossoming young daughter’s father, her ally, and her hero, she tells Caleb when he asks. Because the person who most often asks Brannan why she stays with her husband is her husband.
- Caleb is very important to her
- She stays with him because of who he is
Rowan Counterintuitive 