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Submitted by: Anna

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My husband spent 21 years in the Air Force. Seven of those years were spent in England. He had retired the year that I met him. I wasn't with him during the time that he was in the military, but later I would feel as if I had been. He woke up almost every night screaming "We're all going to die". His PTSD was very severe and he spent years re-living his military traumas. I watched him as he curled up in a fetal position in a corner of the room. I felt helpless to know how to help him. I had never been in the military, but I also suffered from severe PTSD because of my traumatic childhood and past. This helped me to feel compassion for what he was going through. My husband and I both started reading Bill DeFoore's book and doing the anger releasing exercises. We punched pillows every night for a very long time. The more unresolved memories and feelings my husband got out, the better he got. He was no longer frozen in most of the traumas. He said that up to that point, he had never had the courage to face the anger, fear and sadness that he felt. We are now currently getting phone counseling with Dr. DeFoore and facing even more unresolved memories and feelings. The anger releasing exercises such as punching pillows brought us through so much and I was amazed at how much it helped, but we still have some issues that we need help with. We're not totally healed from our PTSD yet, but it's amazing how far we've come. I can't say enough about how good it eventually feels to punch a pillow and get all of that anguish out.

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