Veterans find help and hope

When a veteran, especially a Marine, hears the words, Traumatic Brain Injury, it seems a lot easier to deal with, cope with and heal, but when they hear Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, they assume they are being told there is something mentally wrong with them, they are somehow "soft" in the head, just not tough enough, not prepared and it is their fault. Yes, they are still getting this message from others. Why?

TBI comes from an outside force. The force of a bomb blast or head injury, just as the term states clearly. It is an injury so it is easier for the veteran to make peace with it, talk about it and do what they can to help themselves return to "normal" as closely as possible.

PTSD which actually means "after wound" and in other words, injury, yet they assume that it's their fault they have it. Why?

It is still the same part of the body that is injured. It is injured and not "defective" but they think of it that way. It is because they have been told it is their fault with the training they have received as the military tells them they can prevent it by becoming "resilient" and toughen their minds.

While they stand in uniform with weapons, face danger, risk their lives, go through the gates of hell in combat, they have the idea they are trained to be tough. They assume they should be able to take anything and still stay the same. They assume they are also trained to stop being human. They think all the compassion they had inside of themselves all their lives is suddenly gone but it isn't. The military tries to freeze it out of them but it is still there and that's perhaps the biggest problem of all.

Had the military taught them how to understand every part of them can go into making them a better soldier or Marine, or sailor or airman or National Guardsman, then they would put it all into use without considering even a fraction of who they are inside as an enemy. They would be able to make peace with what they see as weakness while using the other "parts" of themselves to support what is not as strong, what is wounded, what is injured.

So much the military could be doing if they finally came to terms with what makes the men and women in their command as valuable as they are.

Veterans find help and hope

By Pamela Dozois/Lifestyle Editor pdozois@syvnews.com
John Stephens, a Marine serving near Fallujah, Iraq, was exercising in camp when a mortar landed about 125 feet from him. The blast threw him to the ground but he immediately got back up, thinking he was fine.

But he wasn’t.

He remained on active duty for two more years, even though he began to notice symptoms of fatigue, memory and concentration problems and other emotional and psychological changes just a few weeks after the mortar blast.

Eventually he was told he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, was given counseling and some anti-depressants, and was told to “get over it.”

But he didn’t.

He returned home a changed man; someone who had been social and active in his church was now someone who isolated himself, spoke very little and flew into fits of uncontrollable rage.
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Veterans find help and hope