Point Man Ministries, PTSD Moral Code Talkers
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 26, 2013
Last night during our weekly conference call on Skype, leaders of
Point Man International Ministries had a discussion about the latest news centered on the "moral injury" and some "
experts" acting as if it was not part of Combat PTSD. What stuns most of us is the fact that these same experts fail to comprehend the fact that Combat PTSD is different than other types of PTSD. Why? Because war fighters are not just survivors of the trauma, they participate in the event itself. Members of law enforcement are hit almost as hard by this type of PTSD simply because of the fact they also participate in the events with weapons. While there is always a spiritual connection between trauma and faith, experts have failed to notice.
Humans walk away after surviving a traumatic event either believing they were saved for a reason or God did it to them. When we're talking about the traumatic events of combat, it is the same process but when they are looking around at the carnage left behind, it is very hard to think that God is real when all of it was allowed to happen. How could a loving God let all that happen? Why did they survive but others did not? Their moral code is broken. Before PTSD hit, they knew what they were doing but above that, they knew why they were doing it. It wasn't about what people talked about, the need to send them into combat or the need to keep them there. The number one job of a war fighter is to end it. That's right. It is not to kill as many opponents as possible but it is to get them to stop fighting. It is not to take lives but to save the lives of the men they are with. It is not to take over another country but to preserve their own country.
Those are the reasons they are willing to die. Those are the reasons they are prepared to risk their lives for. Those are the reasons they keep going until as many as possible return home.
Jake Wood, a PTSD soldier from the UK said that "war made sense" because everyone was watching out for each other. They knew what they had to do and didn't think about the politics behind it. They were trying to do what they were sent to do. He talked about how it was a matter of being unselfish.
This "moral injury" or wound, has been known for generations. Lately it has been in the news, recorded by reporters with no knowledge of the history behind it.
Veterans' 'moral injuries' are wounds of the soul
Wars leave troops haunted by guilt, shame
Written by
PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press
Feb 23, 2013
WASHINGTON — A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former Marine Capt. Timothy Kudo thinks of himself as a killer — and he carries the guilt every day.
“I can’t forgive myself,” he said. “And the people who can forgive me are dead.”
With American troops at war for more than a decade, there’s been an unprecedented number of studies into war zone psychology and an evolving understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder. Clinicians suspect some troops are suffering from what they call “moral injuries” — wounds from having done something, or failed to stop something, that violates their moral code.
read more here
Frankly after almost 30 years of taking care of the spiritual aspect of PTSD, this "news" has left us stunned. How is it possible that "experts" are now paying attention to this as if it is new? How much else have they gotten wrong on Combat PTSD? We knew it hit the emotional part of the brain where most believe the soul lives but "experts" never think about what goes into being "human" anymore than they think about what makes them "who" they are inside.
Members of Point Man International Ministries have been "moral code talkers" all this time and finally now, mental health "professionals" are looking at what we've known all along.
Moral
adjective
1.of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes.
2.expressing or conveying truths or counsel as to right conduct, as a speaker or a literary work.
3.founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations.
4.capable of conforming to the rules of right conduct: a moral being.
5.conforming to the rules of right conduct ( opposed to immoral ): a moral man.
Code
noun
1.a system for communication by telegraph, heliograph, etc., in which long and short sounds, light flashes, etc., are used to symbolize the content of a message: Morse code.
2.a system used for brevity or secrecy of communication, in which arbitrarily chosen words, letters, or symbols are assigned definite meanings.
3.any set of standards set forth and enforced by a local government agency for the protection of public safety, health, etc., as in the structural safety of buildings (building code) health requirements for plumbing, ventilation, etc. (sanitary or health code) and the specifications for fire escapes or exits (fire code)
4.a systematically arranged collection or compendium of laws, rules, or regulations.
5.any authoritative, general, systematic, and written statement of the legal rules and principles applicable in a given legal order to one or more broad areas of life.
It is as if this is all a foreign language to the "experts" much like the Navajo language was so foreign that no one could break their code.
Navajo Code talkers
They were a small band of warriors who created an unbreakable code from the ancient language of their people and changed the course of modern history.
KNOWN AS NAVAJO CODE TALKERS, they were young Navajo men who transmitted secret communications on the battlefields of WWII. At a time when America's best cryptographers were falling short, these modest sheepherders and farmers were able to fashion the most ingenious and successful code in military history. They drew upon their proud warrior tradition to brave the dense jungles of Guadalcanal and the exposed beachheads of Iwo Jima. Serving with distinction in every major engagement of the Pacific theater from 1942-1945, their unbreakable code played a pivotal role in saving countless lives and hastening the war's end.
They understood each other but no one else could. We understand the code of the soul but few others do. Until more understand, the troops and veterans are doomed to treatments and medications that numb them instead of heal them like the latest from the
Navy "The procedure is meant to numb nerves in the neck that can cause physical arousal and therefore allow patients to feel more calm and decrease the symptoms of PTSD."
We will keep seeing a rise in military suicides and attempted suicides until the "experts" actually learn what has been know all these years.
There are many things that keep getting missed when we talk about Combat and PTSD. This is to clear up the biggest one of all. What is courage and how does it link to being "mentally tough" so that you can push past what you were told about "resiliency" training. Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare of Wounded Times Blog tries to explain this in interview done by Union Squared Studios. woundedtimes.blogspot.com
