Combat PTSD:You can't take out a tube of Krazy glue and fill the cracks

Combat PTSD:You can't take out a tube of Krazy glue and fill the cracks
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 8, 2013

This is a good example of being careful about what you say.

This was a good thing to say,

Dr Nash says post-traumatic stress disorder is not a sign of weakness, it's a psychological injury.

Followed by a bad thing to say,

BILL NASH: Of all of the ways I've talked about post-traumatic stress with especially marines and other warriors, the thing that gives them the most relief is to explain to them - and not in a way that's untrue, but based on science - this isn't you, it's your brain; you blew a fuse.

Followed by a good thing,

BILL NASH: They're the same kind of neurones that are in the inner ear that can be damaged by too much sound; the same kind of neurones in the retina of the eye that can be damaged by too much light. So these parts of the brain can be damaged by exposure to overwhelming experiences, but you can't turn away from, you can't close your eyes to these things.

Followed by yet another bad thing,

So it's not you, it's not a weakness of you - you're a fragile being, you're breakable, and you were broken.

This is from a report on Combat and PTSD.

As the UN commander in Kigali in 1994, Romeo Dallaire was left powerless to intervene as between half a million and a million people were slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide.

He returned home from the horrific deployment with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

General Dallaire is now a senator in the Canadian Parliament. He says politicians, bureaucrats and military brass have failed veterans with PTSD and their families.

This article is about three nations trying to come to terms with Combat and PTSD. A good place for them to start would be to actually understand there is a huge difference between Combat PTSD and the other types. The only one that comes close is the type of PTSD members of law enforcement are hit by.

This is a good thing for me to say,

They are not broken.

This is sort of a bad thing to say,

You can't take out a tube of Krazy glue and fill the cracks.

They just don't understand that it is the fact their emotions are so strong, they feel pain more strongly than others do. We need to face the fact that civilians end up with PTSD from natural disasters. In other words, nothing they did other than picking the place they lived in. Then there are veterans that decided they were willing to risk their lives to save a bunch of strangers, go away from family and friends they had in civilian life, push their bodies and their minds past where anyone else would bother with to enter into the one of the tiniest minority groups this country has. Veterans are only 7% of the population. Ignoring the fact they are that rare forces people to find words like they are "broken" instead of grieving.

They are not victims. They are survivors.