Yes, civilians can understand combat PTSD

Yes, civilians can understand combat PTSD
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
September 1, 2012

How can a civilian understand what it is like going into combat?
It is not as hard as you think it is. While we may not know what it is like to watch friends die, bombs blow up, or what it is like to pull the trigger of a machine gun, we can understand what it is like to experience trauma. That is part of the way we learn what it is like for them. Thirty years ago, I didn't think I'd ever be able to understand.

For me, when I speak to civilians, like me, I usually point out to when I was young. I start with as a four year old always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, I got away from my older brothers at a drive-in movie playground. I went up the high slide they usually took me too but this time, all by myself, I got scared. My hands grabbed hold of the railing and the kid behind me got tired of waiting. He tried to push me down it but ended up pushing me over the side. I fell onto concrete headfirst. My oldest brother came looking for me and saw me hit the ground. He thought I was dead.

The part I try to leave out is that before that I was introduced to trauma by my father. He was a violent alcoholic until I was 13. I hate talking about those days because once he stopped drinking he never touched another drop. Two different traumas, both caused by other humans but two totally different circumstances. One was not personal but the other was because of my Dad.

Then there was a car accident, health crisis, an ex-husband tried to kill me and then stalked me for a year, and far too many deaths.

I make the people I talk to think of their own times of trauma and remind them of how they felt. Once they begin to remember those terrible feelings they had, then I tell them combat trauma is like that only instead of once time in their lives, it is a constant threat during the whole time they are deployed and when they come home, they think about being redeployed. This gets them to open up to understanding the rest of what I have to tell them about Combat and PTSD.

This video will help you once you are able to put yourself in their place even just a little bit.


I've been doing this for 30 years and there is no way I will ever totally know what they went through any more than they will ever understand what I've gone through. That's the point. It is about being human and having experiences that changed us. Changed the way we think, feel, look at life and how we can help each other heal.

Once trauma came into our lives, we changed. It is human nature to change but do we become better people or do we let it finally claim our lives. PTSD doesn't have to win and if we put up a united front, join forces and find strength from each other, it can't win.

Just try to think of an event in your life when you wondered if you would survive it and then take that dark day, multiply it, then you'll come closer to understanding them.

Women at War, Sisters After War
September 10, 2009
About the Video: Part of a series of videos on women at war. This one is a tribute to my friend Capt. Agnes "Irish" Breneahan, a Vietnam era veteran from Fort McClellan. She suffered from PTSD and Agent Orange, but never stopped fighting for all veterans. A true unsung hero. She passed away after a hearing on her claim in Washington on March 11, 2009 without ever seeing justice for herself. This is a tribute to her and all the female veterans she fought so hard for.

For more of my videos on PTSD, go hereMy videos on Great Americans