All Generations Find Healing PTSD at The Wall

How does The Wall hit all generations? After all, it is just about lives lost during the Vietnam War. It all depends on what is behind your eyes. Vietnam veterans look at the names on The Wall and remember friends they lost but they remember far more than the names there. They remember the men they were with and the experiences they had with them. They remember lives lost because of Vietnam whose names will never be added to it. Lives lost to Agent Orange as well as they remember those lost to suicide. When asked "When were you in Vietnam" many veterans respond with "last night" because it came home with them.

Other generations look at The Wall and remember their own battles as well as those they served with.
They also remember that Vietnam veterans set everything in motion from the way veterans have been treated since they returned with respect because they promised no generation would ever have to experience the indignity they endured coming home.

They look at The Wall and know that generation overcame the worst this country was capable of doing to veterans and got them to start doing things for all veterans who put their lives on the line. They educated the public to separate the war they may not have approved of from those we sent to go.

It is amazing how life goes full circle when folks are not willing to just sit back and let it all happen.

If you are not a member of a military/veteran family, next time you look at the names, remember, the power of The Wall is a lot more than you can imagine.

Coping with PTSD at the 'Wall'
The Spectrum
Kevin Jenkins
March 14, 2015

Bridget Cantrell (Photo: Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum and Daily News)

WASHINGTON CITY – When Hurricane resident Shari McTiver returned from military service, she found herself struggling to cope with the consequences of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I thought I could get by with just the medication," McTiver said. "I was reluctant to do the counseling because, as a veteran, you think you can handle anything. Also there's a stigma, because it's associated with illness. … They say, 'Never let them see you sweat.' Well, there are some of us who have been sweating."

McTiver was among several PTSD patients and their family members attending a workshop sponsored by Bellingham, Washington author and clinical psychologist Bridget Cantrell, a PTSD expert who visited the Vietnam Memorial replica known as "The Wall That Heals" in Coral Canyon this week to speak with veterans struggling to overcome their stress.

Cantrell has devoted the past 25 years to working with veterans experiencing the effects of PTSD after her own experiences with her father, a World War II and Korean War combat veteran, led her to try to understand what caused his occasional fits of temper and emotional meltdowns.

"Right now, she's one of the best in the world there is at PTSD and its effects," said Bruce Solomon, a readjustment counselor at the St. George Vet Center who spent the week at a booth near the wall greeting veterans and their family members.
read more here

Bridget Cantrell PH.D. PTSD
VeteransForumNetwork

Cantrell wrote Down Range with Chuck Dean

Among the many books Chuck Dean wrote, this one is close to my heart. I am with Point Man International Ministries because it addresses the hardly ever talked about spiritual part of healing, the very core of the Combat PTSD.

Point Man in Your Pocket: A Forty-Day March with Jesus Paperback – June 22, 2009

Chuck Dean was one of the first leaders of Point Man International Ministries.

Chuck Dean, publisher of a Veterans self help newspaper, Reveille, had a vision for the ministry and developed it into a system of small groups across the USA for the purpose of mutual support and fellowship. These groups are known as Outposts. Worldwide there are hundreds of Outposts and Homefront groups serving the families of veterans.

PMIM is run by veterans from all conflicts, nationalities and backgrounds. Although, the primary focus of Point Man has always been to offer spiritual healing from PTSD, Point Man today is involved in group meetings, publishing, hospital visits, conferences, supplying speakers for churches and veteran groups, welcome home projects and community support. Just about anywhere there are Vets there is a Point Man presence. All services offered by Point Man are free of charge.