Understanding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

As a former United States Marine my heart goes out to my fellow marine and his family as profiled in this article by Kimberly Hefling of the Associated Press titled Veterans advocate kills self after war tours.  I can not claim to feel exactly what his family feels right now but I can say that any military member or uniformed person who loses their life through any means, especially a fellow marine, makes me feel empty because even though we may not share the same blood we do share something greater.

The article read “Clay Hunt so epitomized a vibrant Iraq veteran that he was chosen for a public service announcement reminding veterans that they aren't alone.  Hunt found an outlet to help improve the system by doing work with IAVA. He helped build bikes for Ride 2 Recovery and participated in long rides.  Using his military training, he went to Haiti several times and Chile once to help with the countries' earthquake relief efforts. He proudly told his parents of splinting an infant's leg.  "If I had one thing to say to my fellow veterans, it would be this: Continue to serve, even though we have taken off our uniforms," Hunt wrote in an online testimonial for Team Rubicon. "No matter how great or small your service is, it is desired and needed by the world we live in today."  There is no better way to eulogize this marine than his own words.

What is left for us to do now is to try and better understand Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because only by true understanding will we ever figure out how we can combat this disease.  The most important thing that people must understand is that PTSD may be curbed with drugs but no drug will ever be able to reach the source of this disease.  PTSD comes from deep within and no drug will ever reach it.  Do not think that small conversations and a few pills will ever answer the unquenchable question which powers PTSD.  Examples of what I speak can be found in the article previously mentioned.  Statements like “Friends and family say he was wracked with survivor's guilt, depression and other emotional struggles after combat.  "He was very despondent about why he was alive and so many people he served with directly were not alive," said John Wordin, 48, the founder of Ride 2 Recovery, a program that uses bicycling to help veterans heal physically and mentally.  In 2007, while in Iraq with the Marine's 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, Hunt heard over the radio that his 20-year-old bunkmate had died in a roadside bombing. Hunt later wrote online about sleeping in his bunkmate's bed. "I just wanted to be closer to him, I guess. But I couldn't — he was gone."  Hunt wrote that seeing his friend placed in a helicopter, where he died, is "a scene that plays on repeat in my head nearly every day, and most nights as well."  This is a much deeper pain than anyone could ever imagine, its resides in your very soul and unless you are souless, it has now become a part of who you have come to be.

To combat this problem look no further than another statement found in this article which states “but with his boundless energy and countless friends, he came across as an example of how to live life after combat.”  Now it must be said that I am no expert in this field and the only experience that I have is seeing and hearing friends making the ultimate sacrifice for this nation while I remain.  For veterans returning from war, I believe they could be better helped with something similar to a half-way house filled with nothing but veterans.  Like some abandoned base with barracks and similar to the base life we are used to before returning home.  They need to have a place where they are surrounded by fellow military members who carry the same scar.  They have the freedom to visit family and friends like on “leave” but they must return and spend a few months or years on this transit base.  They have jobs to do each day to give them a reason to get up in the morning but it’s an 8 to 5 thing.  They have counselors to guide them assigned to each group with plenty of counselors to go around.  The base company office processes their VA benefit papers and does nothing but insure that they get every single benefit they deserve.  There is college campuses located on this base so that they can complete or get a secondary degree.  There are medical and dental facilities on this base for them to receive their healthcare.  For someone like Clay Hunt, he would have been perfect for working in the office that insures veterans get what this country promised and what they have earned.  Why would this work?  Because it is not what I think, it’s what I know.

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