Afghanistan Veteran Dad Wrote Book to Explain PTSD to His Daughters

THIS WAR VETERAN WROTE A CHILDREN’S BOOK TO EXPLAIN HIS PTSD TO HIS DAUGHTERS
BABBLE
SARAH COTTRELL

There has been an ongoing national movement to break the taboo of mental illness, particularly Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 11-20% of veterans who have served in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have experienced PTSD. But it’s a tough subject for many people to talk about. That’s why one Kansas father and veteran, Seth Kastle, decided to write a children’s book about his experience with PTSD, as a creative way to explain the condition to his daughters.

Kastle was deployed in 2002 and spent time in Afghanistan and Iraq before returning home to Kansas in 2004. He tells Babble, “When I returned home and began the reintegration process, it was difficult, but I didn’t understand why.” He began to struggle with PTSD, but didn’t know it at the time. It would take several years of struggling in the dark before he realized he needed help, Kastle explains, “The resources that are in place for returning service members didn’t exist then, I didn’t even know what PTSD was.”
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