Not stuck fighting Combat PTSD alone

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 7, 2014

Combat PTSD is such a huge problem that it deserves even more attention than it has been getting but more reports of suffering is not the end of their story. Honestly, there are more stories of healing than there are of succumbing but few notice.

The truth is in the numbers. We are a nation of over 300 million people but less than 1% serve today and as for veterans, they are only about 7% of the population. So few serving so many.

Misunderstanding them has been easy to do since most of the served have no attachment to them. No one asked them to do anything with two wars in over a decade. No one asked them to actually pay attention to what was happening in Afghanistan or Iraq. No one asked them to stop watching reality TV shows long enough to see what was really happening to the men and women putting their lives on the line.

For military/veterans' families it can feel as if we live in a different world than the rest of the people in our towns and cities. Frankly, we do. When I go to events it is obvious that our lives are very different from theirs. Sure we have the same problems they do. We have the same needs and wants to a point but we seem to go far beyond where they take it easy and relax.

Everyday we know that more than 22 of our families have had to face planning funerals after suicide. Doesn't seem fair that the veterans surviving serving this country in war would not be able to survive being home. It is even more hard to accept when all of these suicides happened after the leaders of this nation told us they were paying attention. The problem is they never seem able to figure out that doing "something" isn't the same as doing the right thing.

Doing the right thing would mean ending what does not work and doing something else until they finally get it right.

Here is what we can do right.

Teach what PTSD actually is, why it is and what it does, not just to the veterans but to their families as well.

Tell veterans to take care of their mind, body and spirit. If they find what they are being treated with does not work, then encourage them to try something else because there is no one size fits all treatment for PTSD.

Encourage them to join groups of veterans because in them they will find support as well as understanding. Being a minority in this country, they cannot expect civilians to understand them any more than they can "fit back in" with them. Frankly, they are much different than civilians because civilians are not willing to put their lives on the line for strangers. When they do, we call them heroes, give them awards and put their pictures on the front pages of newspapers. When they are members of the military, it is just expected out of them.

There is much more that works but it all begins with letting them know that PTSD is a change caused by trauma and what was asked of them. They changed when they enlisted. Changed again when they trained. Changed again when they deployed. Changed again when they added the word "veteran" to their history. They can change again and heal so the rest of their lives are better. Life is all about changing, growing and learning. No one is stuck where they are, as they are.