Combat PTSD should not end life's mission

Combat PTSD should not end life's mission
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
January 22, 2013

I wonder if the reported understood how close this comes to Combat PTSD. "He doesn't want to be out of the suit." is a stunning choice of words. That is the way most veterans feel. Ask most of them and you hear they would go back into combat if they were asked. The problem is when they have spent their lives wanting nothing more than to put the uniform on and serve, telling them they can't anymore is like a the death of their dream.

It is a hard thing to face.

Iron Man 3 Films In Hollywood; Tony Stark Suffering "Post-Traumatic Stress" (Videos)
Explosions, rain, people running about screaming and cars crashing into each other; that’s what promises to be in store for anyone planning on watching Iron Man 3 when it comes out, if these Youtube clips of the filming are anything to go by.

Elsewhere – and in something that perhaps reveals more of the plot than these videos – producer Kevin Feige has told MTV that the film will find Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark character in a state of “post-traumatic stress”. The film is set post The Avengers and sees Stark trying to cope with a new-found feeling of weakness. "It's almost like post-traumatic stress [disorder]” Feige said. “He has retreated after the events of The Avengers into his workshop, where he's building advanced versions of his suits. He has [designed] a version of the suit that can latch onto him in individual pieces, any time, anywhere. He starts to realize [that] he doesn't want to be out of the suit."
read more here

Some should have never join the military. They did it for the wrong reasons. If they just joined for a paycheck or to go to college, it is very hard for them to accept everything else that goes with the "job" they wanted. Yet if they joined because they thought of nothing else they wanted to do, they have been invested enough to learn what is expected out of them and they are willing to face all the challenges. This is about them.

They were "built" to serve.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

When souls come to this earth, each one has a job to do, some great and some small. When we follow where our "hearts" are tugged to do, that is where we are supposed to be doing what we are supposed to do within the boundaries of our bodies. If you can think of nothing else you want to do, be nowhere else, learn nothing else, that is what you are supposed to do and where you are supposed to do it. Ever wonder why some chooses the field they go into? For some they cannot find what they want to do because they do not listen to the voice inside their own heads or watch where they are guided to go. For others, they listen and they know. When they do what they always wanted to do, they find bliss and overcome the obstacles getting in the way. Chaplains say that this is when Satan is busy trying to get God's children to quit, give up and not do what they were sent to do.

Too many forget that Christ Himself had the option of doing or not doing. In the garden, He pleaded with God to "let this cup pass from me" because He had the choice to surrender His life or go His own way. There is another lesson in that. Just because we are doing what God wants us to do, that does not mean He makes it easy for us to do it. It does not mean that we will win or even be seen as a success in the eyes of man. Christ did what He was supposed to do and to many when He was hung on the cross, He was seen as a failure. The people had forgotten what the Scripture said about the birth, life, death and resurrection.

Every good work we are supposed to do has been planned and we have been equipped with everything we need to do it, including healing.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The way to heal is already inside of the men and women in the military just as it is with all of us. For them they need help finding those factors. Psychologists do that everyday. They listen, ask questions and often give advice, but all the healing comes from the seeker and they do not wave a magic wand over their heads. The psychologist is just getting them to see things in a different way and make peace with what has been.

A good psychologist for the troops would have to be a trauma specialist, specifically trained to know the difference between trauma and other mental illnesses. Combat PTSD requires that ability but demands the best are also combat veterans as well. This is not happening and leaders are wondering why there are so many failures. They do not know what makes these men and women so different from civilians. The other factor is healing and staying in is in the hands of the commanding officers and some have no clue what PTSD is, what these war fighters can still do or how much they still want to serve. After all these years of tracking reports, there have been too many reports of soldiers getting help for PTSD, healing and being outstanding soldiers. Case after case of generals admitting they had to get help for PTSD has supported what a difference proper response from superiors offers.

They don't want to take off their uniforms. They don't want to give up what they were supposed to do. If they have PTSD because of combat it is not a sign they shouldn't be in. It just means it is a sign their commanders need to their duty to help them heal and do what they were intended to do upon this earth. If they take that away from them, force them out when they want to stay in, they have overruled what God intended. Don't decide if their suit should come off if they want to leave it on.