Soap Operas and PTSD

Soap Operas and PTSD
by Chaplain Kathie

Women across the nation watch their soap operas everyday. When they can't watch them, they tape them. They end up being so enthralled with the characters, they know everything about them as if they were friends. These are made up people with made up problems! The shows are filed with issues, sex, marriages in trouble, love gone bad and tragedy. What soap opera fans do not understand is that there are real life stories of real people happening all over the country on a daily basis and they can be even more tragic, heart tugging, tear evoking and infuriating than any script a writer could ever dream up. What makes these stories even more compelling is the fact they are occurring in right in the same neighborhoods as the soap opera fans live in but they don't even know these people exist in real life, real time so they don't have to wait for the next days episode or to find out what happened when they get home from work.

All My Children? Well I have to tell you that if every Mom across the country felt as if all the men and women serving in the military, National Guards and Reserves were their children, the DOD and the VA wouldn't be anywhere near the mess they are in right now. We talk a great deal about how freedom is not free, but we ignore the people doing the serving, the people we depend on as if they weren't even there.

Take a look at this

What remains the strory of the year is how low CBS' "Guiding Light" can fall as it fights to survive and retain its title as broadcasting's longest running program. With numbers so low (a 1.4 HH rating on Thursday), it would make "Port Charles" look like a ratings winner. Sadly, "Port Charles" was cancelled in 2003 with higher ratings than this despite airing in the wee-hours of the night. While NBC's "Days of our Lives" loses 40% of its budget in the upcoming year and a loss of its two stars (Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn), three out of its five weekly episodes (Friday, Tuesday, and Monday) outranked every episode of ABC's "All My Children" and "One Life to Live." The highest episode was its Friday broadcast with 2.9 million viewers. For the week, "DAYS" averaged 2.7 million viewers. "DAYS" is also the only soap to increase viewers year-over-year, gaining 120,000 viewers from the same point last year. "The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beautiful" remain daytime's most watched programs as they hold the 1-5 and 6-10 positions. "Restless," however has lost the most audience year-over-year with a decline of 630,000 viewers. It's Women 18-49 ranking, however, remains on par with its year-ago and up a point week-to-week.
http://soapoperanetwork.com/news/ratings/586-daytimes-40-most-popular-shows.html

Days of Our Life? I bet they would love the complications of living with PTSD in the house and all that comes with it. PTSD veterans households have these twists and turns:
Sexual problems, cheating spouses, unrequited passion
Drugs and alcohol problems because they are self-medicating
Tension because of financial problems, emotional problems, kids under stress, wives under stress, anger, forgiveness and anger again.
We also have nightmares and flashbacks that can compete with any horror movie.
We have love stories and revenge stories
We even have deep dark secrets we try to keep as we find excuses for why our spouse is not at the party or didn't go to work or why we have a black eye because we decided to wake them up from a nightmare while in striking distance. We hold back when others talk about a wild sex night because we can't remember when the last time was we even slept in the same bed.
Oh and then there are also the stories about them being tortured by the VA when claims are denied when they should have been approved had it not been for the fact they didn't think to take down names and phone numbers of the people they served with in case they needed it later.

Millions of people watch the soap operas but they don't pay attention to sites like this or news reports coming out of their own communities. There was a time when I would wonder why anyone would want to read a blog like this unless they were living with it and then it dawned on me one day when I was having my car serviced and I saw daytime TV. All the talk shows and soap operas can't compete with what we have going on. Salacious? Yep, we got that too. Crimes and innocent people being charged with crimes? Got that too. Heck, we even have stories of faith and redemption. As a matter of fact, households across the nation have all these TV dramas topped!

Bold and Beautiful? Ever see the young men and women in the military after they've been trained and every muscle in their body has been conditioned to carry the loads they have to in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Young and Restless? Got that too!

What really gets me is that if people would read this type of blog, they could not only end up helping veterans and the troops, they could very well save their own marriages and their kids lives since millions of households across the country live with this all everyday but even more don't know they are. They know something is wrong with their family but they don't have a clue what it is. As a matter of fact, two thirds of the American public don't have the slightest clue what PTSD is. It's not just military families and veterans' families living with this. Oh no. We also have police officers, firefighters, emergency responders and survivors of other traumatic events. Not only do we have the issues of the soap operas topped, we have the demographics to wipe them into the dust. I'd like to see advertisers trying to capture this un-served audience!