Combat PTSD Translation

Combat PTSD Translation
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 23, 2013

They say the eyes are the window to the soul but they are wrong. The eyes are the gateway to the soul.

"The eyes really are a window to the soul, according to scientists.

Patterns in the iris can give an indication of whether we are warm and trusting or neurotic and impulsive, research has found."

"Their findings showed those with denselypacked crypts are more warmhearted, tender, trusting, and likely to sympathise with others.

In comparison, those with more contraction furrows were more neurotic, impulsive and likely to give way to cravings."
(Scientists discover that eyes really are "the window to the soul, Daily Mail UK, February 7, 2007)

The first group are more like the people deciding they are willing to enter into the military. They know the risks to their lives just as much as they know the hardships that come with the jobs they are willing to do.

Some people want to think they simply do it for their country but the truth is, it goes even deeper than that. They are willing to die for the others they are with.

After I wrote The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War, I struggled to explain the title. Simply put, it about what they see in combat topped off by how they see themselves afterwards. All the other attempts referenced in the book are useless and we've seen the deadly results. As the military did more to prevent PTSD and suicides, they increased instead.

There are over 900 suicide prevention attempts that have been tried and failed for reasons. They forgot the soul at the heart of PTSD.

These men and women are among a rare group of unselfish people in their core. Everything that comes afterwards, comes because they had the ability to care so much they were willing to die for someone else. That ability also comes with the ability to feel pain more deeply.

If researchers are ever going to come up with something that works, they must develop the road map for them to be able to overcome it. Prevention attempts have proven useless because they would first have to prevent them from caring and if they did, then they would end up with no one being willing to do anything for anyone else.