"PTSD, acts like Velcro"

What is important to point out in this article is that this is one of the more complicated types of PTSD to treat. There is Combat PTSD, hardest because of the number of times they are exposed to traumatic events, then law enforcement, and then firefighters. They all put their lives on the line to do their jobs but the civilian world seems to do response for them better than the military.

Walking veterans "back" is the best way to help them heal.

Years later, Aurora firefighter battles PTSD
By Denise Crosby
June 9, 2012

It was Aug. 27, 2004, when the fire — and the controversy — ignited in the basement of a home in the 600 block of Palace Street on Aurora’s West Side.

Lt. Joseph Bartholomew, a 26-year veteran firefighter who had spent two decades with the Aurora Fire Department, was the first responder in Engine 1. When he and his two-man crew arrived, heavy smoke was already billowing out of the first and second floors of the home, with flames licking hungrily from the basement windows.

Engine 1’s job was search and rescue — they had no idea if people were in the house — and, in firefighter lingo, to “put the wet stuff on the red stuff” and get the damn fire out.

The flames did not look particularly menacing. But Bartholomew had been around long enough to know there’s no such thing as a routine fire. The beast can grow quickly ... doubling in size every minute.

After he healed from neck surgery for the blown disc, Joe Bartholomew returned to light duty while going through treatments. One of the things about PTSD is that it acts like Velcro, with other traumatic events from your past attaching to it, says Rooney. Therefore, in treating it, “you have to walk through everything in your past to deal with the present.”

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