Veteran, theologian, and survivor of PTSD: "God gave me my identity back"

Veteran, theologian, and survivor of PTSD: "God gave me my identity back"
We hear a lot about returning war veterans broken in body, but less about those who are broken in mind and spirit. But here's the story of one veteran -- who is also a theologian and teacher -- who is working to see that those wounded warriors aren't forgotten:
John Zemler had nightmares. For 23 years, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, he awoke every night from the “screamers.”Then one morning in January 2007, he realized, the screamers were gone.
“A lot of my anger and fear, God just took it away from me,” Zemler said. “He gave me my identity back.” Zemler’s mission is to provide that same gift to other sufferers of PTSD.As an assistant professor of theology at Marquette University, with his wife Wanda Zemler-Cizewski, an associate professor, Zemler is in a unique position to provide outreach to those with PTSD — as a veteran, theologian, and victim.“I’m born into this job — theologian and as a veteran with PTSD,” Zemler said. “I’m called to it. You can get through this. A relationship with God will get you through it. It won’t defeat you.”A former artillery captain in the army, Zemler served in Desert Storm from the United States, training soldiers. The PTSD stems from the special weapons work he did in the 1980s in Turkey. From teaching others to fight, he now educates others about the dangers of PTSD.


Again put the spiritual and the psychological together to move the mountain of pain out of the way. This works best.