Firefighters with PTSD report lesson for veterans

Firefighters with PTSD report lesson for veterans
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 12, 2013

Researchers have been doing PTSD studies on rats. They have found PTSD in dogs and other animals but they still fail to see the difference between what originates automatically and what takes hold spiritually. The flight or fight response to traumatic situations is something that living things to automatically. A wildfire will cause animals to run away.

They go with their survival instinct. Most humans do the same thing.

Some humans do the opposite.

The difference comes from the spiritual part of a person. Some may try to pass this off as "it is their jobs to risk their lives" but no one seems to be looking at what "it" is that has them putting others first, choosing the jobs they do when they know that job could get them killed.

Yesterday was the 12th remembrance day of the worst events the US had experienced. It was a great example of the evil people are capable of at the same time it caused the inspirational. Most people ran away but others ran to help. If you want to pass that off as "it was their job" then try to explain what happened when average citizens stayed behind to help others escape. Try to explain what caused the police and firefighters to remain behind day after day until they had recovered as many of their brothers as possible. That was not just their jobs. It was personal to them.

If a woman is faced with a criminal coming after her, she will run. If she is faced with a criminal while her child is with her, she will fight for the sake of her child even if it costs her life to provide a chance for her child to live.

Traumatic events are traumatic events no matter what species have their lives on the line. Not all events are the same for everyone in the same group and what comes afterward depends on the situation. To limit the studies into just trying to figure out how to address the scientific response to the event limits the ability to heal naturally from them.

Everything needed to heal from events is within all of us. We learn from the events and adapt with scars. No one is ever the same after trauma because they are all life altering events but surviving them does not have to almost as dangerous as the event itself was.

"Studies agree that firefighters with a support system are less likely to show signs of PTSD."

When someone dies, extended family members and friends show up to offer support and share grieving. They do it because they understand what loss feels like. When a group of people grieve together, they also support together. That comes from the spirit.

Whenever you read about another study leaving out the spiritual, understand that is part of the problem in what they are looking for. They say that the spirit cannot be scientifically proven but there is evidence with what people do that proves the existence of what they want to dismiss claiming they cannot see it. It is there whenever people put others first even if it means they may die for someone else.

Va. Firefighters Seek Mental Health Help After 'Bad Call'
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, VA.
LAURA KEBEDE
CREATED: SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Henrico County firefighters no longer 'suck it up' after a bad call and seek help in the form of '911 for 911' and participate in debriefings.

Sept. 11--It took a "bad call" -- when a 13-year-old on a bicycle was fatally struck by a car on a winding road in Sandston -- for Henrico County firefighter and EMT Troy Cummings to realize the importance of mental health services available to fire department personnel.

Cummings and several other first responders on the scene had children about that age. Amid the rush of emotions, it took him 20 minutes longer than usual to fill out the report at the hospital.

When the unit returned to the station, licensed clinical social worker Steve Bard was waiting for their debriefing. Anytime there's a death involving children on a Henrico Division of Fire call, a mental health liaison or chaplain becomes the "911 for 911," chaplain Mike Woods said.

"Initially, you don't have any emotions," Cummings said of responding to a scene. During the debriefing, "it's not about what went right or what we could've done better. We talk about us."

Formal training and public awareness on mental health within fire departments across the nation increased after the Sept. 11 attacks. A culture shift from "suck it up" to firefighters encouraging one another to tap mental health services was already happening in Henrico, but the national conversation was just beginning.

Post-traumatic stress among firefighters and other rescue workers who responded to the World Trade Center attack has increased. About 12 percent reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in 2003 and 2004, compared with 19 percent a few years later, according to The World Trade Center Health Registry, which tracks more than 71,000 people affected, including residents and rescue workers.

Rates of PTSD among firefighters nationwide range from 7 to 37 percent in various studies. Studies agree that firefighters with a support system are less likely to show signs of PTSD.
read more here

If you can understand what professional rescuers go thru then you are able to understand why they need so much more to heal than just taking a pill to numb them.

They need help to find what is inside of them to heal because what makes them different from the others running away also comes with what they need to recover from what they do for the sake of others. If you are able to understand this, then you are able to understand why veterans suffer as much as they do. Consider how long they put their lives on the line for the sake of others. They cannot be treated on the spot by crisis intervention teams but they can be as soon as possible. Much like the firefighters did not receive the emotional debrief at the scene, there was someone there waiting for them as soon as they got back. Think about it.

PTSD I Grieve from Kathleen "Costos" DiCesare on Vimeo.