Combat PTSD Acronyms To Heal By

Combat PTSD Acronyms To Heal By
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 14, 2013

PTSD does not mean FUBAR (short for "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair" or "Recognition." To describe impossible situations, equipment, or persons as in, "It is (or they are) totally Fubar!") even though most of what the DOD has been doing has been.

If it worked then suicides wouldn't have gone up. If it worked then we wouldn't be talking about so much suffering back home. (Hell, this blog would be pretty happy and light on posts so I could get back to working for a paycheck all the time again instead of taking temp jobs.)

What we talk about all the time isn't what everyone else sees on the news so we'll keep cutting thru the BS (bull shit) living back here in the WORLD (USA)

Start with the acronym of PTSD itself "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" meaning "after trauma" which is actually "after wound" since trauma is Greek for "wound" and it was something that was done to you or you were exposed to. There should be no issue with this term if it was understood correctly. Replacing "disorder" as some want to do would put PTSD into something temporary instead of a lifetime disability. Changing it to I for injury would imply it will heal and go away but while you can heal PTSD, it never really goes away. With the right help you can actually come out on the other side better than the way you went into the military. What you can't heal you can learn how to adapt with.

So for them, CPTC would be the best acronym to use.

COMBAT POST TRAUMATIC CHANGE is a term I've been trying to come up with for over 30 years. (Plain and simple so if you see that term used from now on, you know where it came from.) Trauma changes everyone no matter what the cause was but hacks want to lump everyone in together as if there is no difference between a survivor of a car accident and a veteran surviving combat. A true PTSD guru not only points out the differences but the different levels as well. All PTSD are not the same! Veterans need the distinction to appropriately address what they survived and the fact they knowingly put themselves in danger for the sake of someone else. (Cops are the closest to veterans because they also deal with trauma and weapons used to do what they do but we're not talking about them on this one.)

If you have issues with PTSD then start to use CPTC if it helps. Consider it this way. Combat changed you but that doesn't mean you cannot change again. There is nothing to be ashamed of and as a matter of fact, you are supposed to talk about it and not try to forget that part of your life.

Vietnam War Medal of Honor Hero Sammy Davis has been talking about this for years. He nailed it in this video from last year when I sat down with him and his wife Dixie. While I've known him for years, it was the first time we talked so much.

MOH Sammy Davis and Kathie Costos

Vietnam Medal of Honor Sammy Davis has a message to all the troops coming home. Talk about it! Don't try to forget it but you can make peace with it. Dixie Davis has a message for the spouses too. Help them to talk about it with you or with someone else.

Now that you got the idea out of your head that you are supposed to just get over it, we can move onto the next part. MBS, mind-body-spirit.

Mind means talking to a shrink to be figured out. They test to see what is happening but if they are a hack and not trained for trauma, you can get a list of different diagnosis to explain what is going on. You need them for medications and they do have to play around with the meds to find what works for you. You need to talk to them and tell them if the meds are not working. The stuff hits your stomach and the chemicals shoot to your brain and your brain shoots the stuff out to the rest of your body. Meds are not the same as self-medicating and that is why drinking your 12th beer didn't work to get your adrenalin to adapt back to your civvies again.

This is only part of healing. The next part is taking care of your body. You have to train your body to become a veteran as much as you had to train it to become a flyboy, Sailor, Soldier or Marine. Well, as for Marines, they never really learn to walk right again. They keep the way they walk for the rest of their lives.

If you are physically able, martial arts, yoga, walking, swimming and a long list help teach your body to live more calmly. Make sure you do it at the same time everyday no matter how long you do it. Your body has an internal clock and will get used to what it does one day to the next and basically relearns. Just makes sure you can shut your head off when you are doing any of these. If your thoughts tend to run away, put in a pair of earbuds (unless you are swimming) and listen to calming music. It is fine to listen to whatever kind of music you like any other time of the day but this time has to be set aside for calming. Same with computer games. Don't play Call of Duty and think it is calming you down.

The spirit part is the most important of all since that is where CPTC hit you.

CSF (Comprehensive Soldier Fitness) is a bunch of BS and has done more harm than it has helped. We know that but the military has lacked the intel to figure that one out. So whatever you took from that training, forget about it. It is FUBAR to the max. Expecting you to train to become mentally stronger than what you already were is moronic. It has filled more body bags than the enemy. When suicides go up after they start something should have been a clue but there is no telling when or if they will ever figure that one out. When it comes to their ability to recon, they are pretty much Dinky Dau.

They trained you to be combat ready. Mentally and physically. What they had no part in was what you went into the military with. You courage and your compassion. It takes both to be willing to risk your life for the sake of someone else so whatever BS they fed you a steady diet of has to be flushed. That strength inside of you also opened the door for you to feel the bad stuff stronger than others did. It is not weakness of anything so telling you that you can train to be what you already were caused the emotional train wreck afterwards. This is a really good video on what is really going on with this crap.

POINT MAN: lead soldier in a unit cutting a path through dense vegetation if needed and constantly exposed to the danger of tripping booby traps or being the first in contact with the enemy.

Point Man leaders figured this out a long time ago. As a matter of fact before most of the new veterans were even born, way back in 1984. They also figured out that the families need to be educated and supported so they can help their veterans. It isn't whack-over-head-you're-going-to-hell type of spiritual healing. It is you are loved and you need to stop thinking you are evil because you are suffering. You don't deserve to suffer no matter what you try to tell yourself or anyone else does. There was no evil in you if you put your life on the line and there is no evil in you if you're grieving.

STAND-DOWN (period of rest and refitting in which all operational activity, except for security, is stopped.)

Time to learn, heal and then do what you do best. Take care of the others in need of help too. You know it all too well and you know what if feels like to be alone. Tomorrow can be better if you keep looking until you find what it is YOU need to heal.

UPDATE Can't help myself and have to say this.

FNG's in the DOD like to pretend PTSD is new but since they learned nothing from the past, nothing has improved but the bank accounts of morticians.