I remember when we first started the process of getting my husband into the VA, my husband’s case worker gave an analogy to describe PTSD.  PTSD is like a pickle.  You can take a cucumber and turn it into a pickle, but you cant take a pickle and turn it back in to a cucumber.  There are several types of pickles; dill, sweet, bread and butter, “wickles,” etc.  It is up to the person to decide what “type of pickle” they want to be.  You then learn to love the taste of the pickle, but it will never be a cucumber again.  That analogy has stayed with me.  I know that my husband is forever changed, and the person who I knew is gone.  He still has parts of him remaining, but he is forever changed. Learning to accept and love the “new pickled” him has it’s challenging moments, but I still love this man with all my heart, who he was, and who he is now, “pickled” and all.