PTSD sufferers often slow to seek help

First comes the shock of the traumatic event itself. Then comes the shock of discovering that it has taken hold and won't let go. It won't weaken. It gets stronger and stronger until you no longer recognize the person you used to be. Your thoughts change. Your control over your own thoughts and emotions vanish. Then comes the denial. You don't want to admit this is beyond your control. You don't want to admit you need help, because if you do, that means you have to admit you are weaker than PTSD. You have to admit that you have a mental illness.

For some it seems tougher to be a drunk or a drug user than it does to admit something has defeated you. It's all a matter of perception. A bomb blast is stronger than your body. A bullet is stronger than any armor and targets unprotected areas. That is what you are fighting against. That is what caused PTSD to attack you. You survived all of it. How can that mean you are weak in any way?

Then comes fighting with the people you love, care about, are a part of your life, because the last thing you want them to see is that you are no longer yourself. You don't want them to see the guy/girl who was always there to help needing help. You don't want them to see that you are falling apart when you were the one with all the answers before. So you do whatever you can to cover up your pain just as long as they don't end up feeling sorry for you. Anger from them is better to face than anyone feeling sorry for the soldier they were so proud of.

The point is, they are still proud of you no matter if you need their help or not simply because you have not really changed and they have not stopped loving you, or at least the you that is buried beneath all the pain. Trying to get over it is wasting time when you could be healing and getting your life back.

Yes, you can get your life back. You can heal the pain you feel and you can defeat this but just as with combat, you need ammunition. Instead of bullets, your ammunition now is knowledge. As with combat, you had your buddies watching your back just as you watched their's. Now you need someone to trust and talk to so that you have help fighting this enemy inside of you.

Your friends and your family are depending on you to win this last battle of war so that you will live again.

There are more seeking help than surrendering. Don't let PTSD defeat you.

Full disclosure: This news report is about the DAV. I am the Chaplain of the DAV Chapter 16 Auxiliary and a Senior Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains.

PTSD sufferers often slow to seek help

By Julian March
jmarchnews@gmail.com

Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.


An Army veteran who served in Iraq sits in Ron Holtberg's office. His biceps are larger than his infant, but he holds her softly and pats her back. His wife sits with a folder of documents. They've come to Holtberg, the executive committeeman for Wilmington's chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, to help straighten out their child's medical coverage.

Holtberg tells the couple which form to file, then focuses his eyes on the father. How is he sleeping? Does he insist on facing the door when he sits in a restaurant? How often does he check the locks on the house?

The veteran clenches his left hand.

He checks every room in the house whenever the family returns home, his wife says.

He's quiet when Holtberg tells him he has post-traumatic stress disorder and needs treatment.

After the family leaves, Holtberg says it is common for veterans to try to live with PTSD symptoms without seeking treatment.

"If they don't get help, what will happen is it festers," he said.

He said the local DAV served 547 claims in the first four months of this year. About 40 percent of those are soldiers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"Nobody counsels them," he said. "Hopefully, they come here."
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PTSD sufferers often slow to seek help