UK PTSD veteran says "the only thing that changed was me"

UK PTSD veteran says "the only thing that changed was me"
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 24, 2013

I was sent this video from the UK and very glad the producer did. It is really good.

There is not much that was missed in this video. Listening to Jake Wood talk about what war was like and how different things were back home was probably the most powerful part of all of this.

He served two tours in Iraq and then went to Afghanistan. It was after that third tour he knew "things weren't right upstairs" and he knew it was PTSD. Pretty much if you look at our National Guardsmen and Reservist returning to their civilian jobs in between tours of duty, you'll understand what it is like for them as well.

"After the first tour I realized the only thing that changed was me."

"It may sound strange but for me it was a very moral existence. If you take away the reasons the soldiers are there,,,,,,once they're on the ground they're not thinking about politics,,,,,,they are concentrating on the job they are doing and looking out for the man next to them."

"You have to be very unselfish as a soldier, as equal to the buddy buddy system." Then he went on to explain that he did not see that in banking, his other job. When mistakes are made in the office, no one is going to die but in war, mistakes costs lives.

Jake talks about going back into combat. "It made a lot more sense.

There, everyone is watching out for everyone else and they knew what they needed to do. Back home everyone is looking out for themselves. That is perhaps one of the biggest reasons you see so many joining groups when they come home. They know everyone else is "likeminded" and not out for themselves.

Jake talked about treatment and cognitive therapy, but I was saddened to hear that the way they are doing it is not walking them back through the whole thing. If they do not see everything, what they were thinking and what their intent was, then they will not be able to make peace with it. That is how they heal. It is not by medication, that only numb, but by telling themselves the truth about what they had forgotten about.

The worst memories are frozen and block out everything else that happened so if that memory is of "evil" nature, they cannot see past it to whatever good was happening around them or by them.

This is a really good video to watch if you want to try to make some sense out of the way so many think and what they are dealing with.

Jake Wood - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
London Real
Episodes
FEBRUARY 24, 2013
Posted by BRIAN in EPISODES

Territorial Army soldier Jake Wood describes his distinct and brutally taxing tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, how he is haunted by his part in the killing of a Taliban, his suicidal tendencies that ultimately led him to seek treatment for PTSD, why he released his “helmet-cam” footage to dispute one of his critics, and how after his military service he just cherishes the simple things in life.