Dating a marine is hard as f@#$%

[velkoria]

Hi! So I come here looking for words of encouragement and stuff. I post mostly on the international bit of the forum but my guy is also a marine... or he was until he had cancer. He was giving hsi leave (is that the word?) and now is no longer and active member but trust me... when they say there is no such thing as an 'ex-marine' they mean it. I'm the daughter of a reluctant Venezuelan Marine turned pastor and the stepdaughter of a Venezuelan Army-man turned cop turned bodyguard so part of me feels I should have known these 'issues' with my boyfriend would come up. Well, color me shocked. Dating a military man is hard as balls. Don't get me wrong, I love him to death and all but truly he is... different from any man I have ever dated. He was deployed twice and he has some PTSD from that but other than that he also does these things where he just doesn't seem to know how to react like a civilian. He solves everything like if he was back with other marines and sometimes that gets to me. He'll do things like the other day I was in pain and didn't want to deal with shit and his answe was: then don't be around people. I commented this to another (former) Navy officer and his answer was "well that is the logical thing" and he went on to explain how this is 'logic' to them and that they're used to shoving their feelings in a nice little bag and ignoring them. Which he does... a lot. He also has trust issue because he's one of those "lucky" guys who was cheated on byhis gf during deployment (and after deployment too) so soemtimes he will throw that out there. I've never cheated and I'm not the cheating kind and he knows this but when he is angry and jealous he will throw the "cheating" card out. I am patient with him... I know he has gone through a lot but of course I sometimes get frustrated. Oh and one last thing... Because we were friends for so long (over 10 years) before dating he still throws out his 'drill sargeant' bs. When he gets angry? He will let go of inhibitions (he's working on it with a therapist) and will just RAGE. Thankfully I'm the daughter of two former officers so I know the drill... "ride the wave and wait for the apologies" is what I call it. I don't so much mind this bit... I let him rage and tantrum and he alone realizes he was a jerk so he quickly apologizes but just... ugh it's hard.

Anyone else on this boat *winkwinknudgenudge*

Thanks for reading!

[Unconditional]

I may not be on the same exact boat, but I kind of am. My SO has PTSD as well, though his biggest problems are the nightmares. Being a soldier is so much more different than being a marine though, so that's why I say I'm in a different boat..
However, you're not alone don't worry =)