The more and more I learn about our returning Troops, the more and more I resonate with how they’re feeling. They are coming home from the battlefield, the front line if you will, where they confront, see and hear tragedy day in and day out. Witnessing their fellow comrads being maimed or killed. Witnessing death and destruction as if it were just part of normal life.
They are immediately rushed back into society or the normal life as we call it. How are they suppose to transition from a KILL zone to the supposely NORMAL zone? Are they being properly prepared for their arrival back home? Is their brain being re-wired/re-trained for the normal world? Is there protocol on re-inventing these young men and woman so they can enter society as a civilian?
The latest article I read was about a tragic murder of a 19 year old Southern California girl by one of our Troops. In the article it said, ” I was trained to kill. I come home. I can’t adjust to regular civilian lifestyle.” “I spun out of control. I needed help.” Unfortunately with the way I was trained, you know to react to threats is to neutralize threats. …Even with someone I love.”
The tragedy of it all is that not only did an innocent yound woman lose her life, a young man lost his as well.
Why isn’t PTSD on the dashboard of the minds of the men and women in charge of our returning troops? Why isn’t there more of an impactful debriefing process? This MUST change! If it doesn’t, we are going to hear more tragic stories of suicides and homicides by our protectors, our heros.
In my estimation, I would venture to guess that the suffers of PTSD are soothing their emotions by drugs and alcohol as opposed to other more positive outlets.
My mission is to change this. Suffering PTSD myself, undiagnosed and diagnosed for more than 10yrs, I too experienced the horrible thoughts, nightmares, anger, depression, anxiety, heightened alertness, physical and emotional torment that our HEROS are experiencing today.
It was a battle everyday to stay on course. However, I refused to allow this to take hold of me. To allow this to destroy my life. To allow me from achieving the great things that this world so desperately needs.
I took it upon myself to re-wire/re-train my brain to block out the the negative thoughts and everything else I was experiencing. There are so many things that I have done to overcome PTSD but what we are experiencing with our returning troops is an epidemic. This MUST change and if I have anything to do with it, it WILL!
