This is the final article in our June PTSD Awareness Month series. All month we have named things that do not get named often enough. Secondary traumatic stress in military spouses. PTSD in parents of autistic children. The trauma that military kids carry without anyone calling it trauma. Caregiver fatigue that goes so deep it
Published by Mindmental | PTSD Awareness Month | June 2026 You have probably heard of fight or flight. You may have even heard of freeze. But if you are parenting a military child – especially one who is neurodivergent – there is a fourth response you need to know, and a fifth that science is
You Can’t Pour From an Empty Cup: PTSD Caregiver Fatigue Is Real This one is for you. Not your child. Not your service member. Not the household, the schedule, or the next PCS. For you. The one holding all of it. No performance required here. Just an honest conversation about what it costs to be
You Can’t Pour From an Empty Cup: PTSD Caregiver Fatigue Is Real Read More »
Trauma Responses in Military Children: It Doesn’t Require Combat Exposure What Military Kids Carry That Nobody Names Your child was never deployed. They were never in a combat zone. They were never in danger. By every conventional measure, they were safe – at home, with a parent, living a childhood that looked nothing like war.
What Military Kids Carry That Nobody Names Read More »
There is a version of this story that gets told often. The service member comes home changed. The family adjusts. Time passes. Things get better – or they do not. Either way, the story centers the veteran, the diagnosis, the individual who served. What that story leaves out is everyone else in the house. The
When Service Follows You Home: Understanding Secondary Trauma in Military Families Read More »
May gave us language. It gave us permission slips, awareness ribbons, and 31 days of conversation about mental health. For military families and neurodivergent households, it gave us something rarer: a cultural moment where the invisible weight you carry every day was at least being named in the broader conversation. And now it’s June. The
The Mental Load Doesn’t Change When the Calendar Flips to June Read More »
As we move deeper into May and move from Autism Awareness & Acceptance Month and into Mental Health Awareness Month, the transition feels different this year for families like ours. Especially for military families and neurodivergent households where the emotional load never really gets the opportunity to reset. April asked us to see autistic people
When Awareness Ends, Capacity Begins Read More »
When I returned to an office role this spring, we reached out to the daycare our youngest had attended for a full year before the pandemic disruptions, before essential academics became our rhythm. We hadn’t re-enrolled back then because he was aging out of the pull-up-friendly classrooms and wasn’t yet fully potty trained. But now,
The Childcare Exclusion Crisis No One Is Talking About Read More »
As Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month comes to a close, many communities proudly highlight their “sensory-friendly” events – spaces meant to welcome autistic children, neurodivergent families, and anyone who benefits from reduced sensory load. But too often, what’s advertised as sensory-friendly ends up looking like the scene so many families know too well: booming speakers,
When Sensory-friendly Isn’t Sensory-friendly: A Call for Better Community Planning Read More »
There’s a moment that almost every military family knows. The orders come in. The timeline collapses. And before you’ve had a single quiet moment to process what’s happening, the lists begin. Schools to research. Utilities to transfer. A house to pack. A child to prepare. A community to leave behind – again. And somewhere in
The Hidden Load: What Military Families Carry during PCS Read More »