Give An Hour giving more to wounded warriors fighting PTSD

Time to take advantage of all the help they can get
By Jane Clifford (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. April 5, 2009
Fighting a war, like the one in Iraq, can't be easy. But equally difficult is coming home from that war, Charlie Hoar says.
Charlie is a licensed clinical psychologist in North County who is involved with a program called Give An Hour. Started in 2005, the project's goal is to recruit therapists to donate an hour of counseling time to men and women returning from war zones and their extended families.
That's been no problem, Hoar says. There are thousands signed up around the country, including the San Diego area, ready to help. What is a problem is getting people to take advantage of the free sessions.
“In the past, there's been some concern on the part of active-duty service members that (seeking help) may affect their career,” Hoar says. “They worry they may be seen as not able to handle the challenges, that they're not strong enough, can't hack it.”
That leads, she says, to avoiding the very real consequences these veterans face.
“Anybody who's been in combat is affected,” she says. “They may not be physically injured, something that's observable but often, psychologically, they've been impacted.”
Internalizing what they've been through is common, Hoar says, and not a good idea. It will come out – maybe it'll be nightmares or drinking excessively or gambling. For others, it might be withdrawing from a spouse or children, unexplained anger, overreaction to things.
“These are normal reactions to having been in horrendous situations. You don't usually see people losing limbs every day.”
As she spoke, I remembered my first husband, a veteran of three tours in Vietnam. On the outside, he seemed fine. But on the inside, there was obvious turmoil. He didn't talk much about what he'd seen, what he'd done, but what we all knew of that conflict told me he must have had a lot of pain, physical and emotional. No counseling for him, though. That would show exactly what Hoar said many think: weakness.
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Time to take advantage of all the help they can get