Combat PTSD healing discovered in ancient writing

Combat PTSD healing discovered in ancient writing
Wounded Times Blog
Kathie Costos
July 5, 2013

Yesterday people all over the country celebrated the birth of this nation. All of us were taught about the Founding Fathers and the Patriots vision of what this nation could become. They were all willing to risk everything to obtain it.

Throughout the years others were also willing to risk everything to retain it. A noble cause never comes without risks. Dreaming of what could be is the easy part yet there is a price to pay to turn those dreams into reality. For the men and women called into military service the obvious price they were willing to pay was their lives but there is another price paid that is not easy to see. It is the injury to their souls.

Our nation was established the same way all others were, through war. A ruler of one land had been willing to spend any amount of money to conquer while another was willing to do the same to protect their land. As hard as the English fought to keep these lands under their control, the Patriots fought even harder because they believed in what they were fighting for. To be free was worth any price they had to pay.

After war what they longed for instead of savoring the victory, they wanted to be free from the wars they fought. How could they go back to being farmers and tradesmen after what they witnessed? They experience hardships beyond measure until the battle was declared done but for them, it was never really finished. They just had a different enemy to fight against. That enemy was inside of them. It has been called by many names until after the Vietnam War when the term used became Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The way to heal from Combat PTSD has been discovered in ancient writings. The way to heal the "moral injury" of war has been known for thousands of years.

So why have researchers been so reluctant to use what was known all along? Simple. It involves God and Christ.

It is a struggle to obtain faith just as much as it is to retain it. When the smallest percentage of the population are responsible for the rest, it is very hard to understand them but not impossible when we explore our own lives, hardships and what we are willing to do for the sake of those we love. They are no different in that aspect. They love their families and friends but they also love this country enough to die for it. Can't understand that? Why do police officers risk their lives? Why do firefighters risk theirs? Why do emergency responders do it? Beyond that the bigger question is, why do volunteer firefighters be ready at any moment to drop what they are doing to rush toward danger and risk their lives for free? It is because they love.

The members of the military are not much different. They forget why they wanted to do it when what was asked of them was so horrible. They begin to believe since they were a part of all of it, they have become horrible as well. The battle begins within their minds and memories.

In their mind their soul lives. It is all they came into this world with. It holds all of their emotions yet it often goes into a contest with the rest of the logical part of their brain. When this happens nothing is in balance. It ends up causing the rest of their body to react to what is happening inside their head.

When they believe they have committed wrong things, wrong things were done agains them and they witnessed wrongdoings to others, it causes anger as much as it causes doubt in the reasons they had to do any of it.

The answer is a simple one and an ancient one. Forgiveness. Forgiveness for others as much as knowing they are forgiven for whatever they believe they need to be forgiven for. Yet the hardest thing for them to do is to be able to forgive themselves. When they are able to do that, they begin to truly heal, the war in their mind ends and balance returns. Their body learns how to calm down again and peace within is restored.

Some researchers claim all kinds of things that make absolutely no sense at all and we see the results of their ridiculous assumptions. 57% of veterans taking their own lives had sought help for PTSD. The number of military suicides have gone up every year since all the "efforts" began. The way to heal has been ignored because it involves something science cannot prove but they ignore the fact they cannot prove they have a clue since what they have tried has failed.

Point Man International Ministries began in 1984 and has proven this approach has worked, not just for the veterans but for their families as well. This has been done without a huge public relations firm or commercials on TV. It has been done the best way possible. In small groups by word of mouth much like the way Christianity itself began. It does not require millions of dollars. It is simple, basic understanding of what has been available for thousands of years. To heal those who fight we must fight against the enemy we cannot see.