Overcoming Military and Combat PTS(D)

This site was created by two Veterans to help other Veterans end their inner wars. Everything here is provided at no cost.

Coming home from the military is not easy.

As Soldiers we wake up knowing exactly where we need to be, what we need to do, and who's coming with us. There's a closeness with the moment, we're alert to everything – because our lives depend on each other.

This level of shared mission and support is almost impossible to find back in the Civilian world.

I left the service with an iceberg of buried rage, grief, and other complex emotions. I didn't know how to handle the losses I experienced.

The biggest mistake I made was thinking I was supposed to handle things on my own. It took me finding the right community, of other Veterans, to fully come back home.

I found out that there's a part of me that knows I'm only as secure as the strength of my community. My main challenge wasn't "trauma", it was that I was carrying too much alone.

When we went through bootcamp we started an initiation into a life of purpose and belonging that for almost all of us was never completed. One that the Civilian world doesn't know how to complete.

When we come home as Veterans we now exist as a person stuck between two worlds. The Civilian world we’ve returned to and the Soldiers world we left behind.

We can end up with a variety of challenges that fall under the label of post-traumatic stress or PTS(D). The (D) is in parentheses because these challenges are not "disorders", they’re healthy adaptations to an unhealthy environment. 

Being hyper-vigilant and going numb to our emotions kept us alive. It kept us alert to new threats, and able to do our job even when our bodies were screaming in fear.

In many ways, it’s the society we’ve returned to that is disordered.

Only a disordered society could treat the Afghani and Iraqi translators the way many of them are being treated. Left behind. They worked beside us, in some cases for decades, joining a brotherhood that wasn’t recognized by the standard system.

To leave our allies, when so many could be easily saved, is not tolerable in the Soldiers world.

The misuse, wounding, and death of some of the most courageous youth in our Nation on a 20-year “War on Terror”, is not tolerable.

The medicating of Veterans into numbness in cases where what’s most needed is deep listening and empathy, is not tolerable.

Only a disordered society could continue these kinds of actions, for decades.

It’s also important to point out that the VA recognizes post-traumatic stress as a “disorder”. That’s because of how the medical profession uses the term disorder:

Disorder: an illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions.

And because working with systems like the VA is critical for many Veterans, it's sometimes useful to speak their language.

We're straddling two worlds here.

This Series is about Overcoming Military and Combat PTS(D), and how to create bridges between these two worlds. 

***What to expect  in this Series***

I served as an infantryman and deployed to Iraq during the initial invasion in 2003-2004. My world got rocked. In the 20 years since then I’ve experimented with every post-traumatic stress treatment I could get my hands on.

I’m going to be sharing the best resources I’m aware of. The ones that helped me wake up to a life worth showing up for again. Although I often use examples from being deployed, what I share will be helpful for many different kinds of military related trauma.

We're gonna cover ways to put our intense military experiences into words.

We’ll also look at reasons why PTS(D) symptoms can continue to remain in our system, such as:

Our unprocessed shock experiences need to be shared with others, with full transparency. (We’ve kept too much inside in order to keep protecting the ones we love).

Our restless nervous system needs to feel certain we’re safe now, at this moment.

Every angry emotion deserves to be listened to with respect.

True Belonging needs to be restored by knowing again our lifelong inalienable home in the natural world.

And, the transformation that started in the military needs to be completed.

The mature warriors journey that roots us in something deeper than culture and re-integrates us into the fractured families and communities that need us in order to become whole again.

As they always have.

And will.

Am I moving too fast?

There isn’t enough quality time left to keep hesitating on taking care of this.

Let's get to it. 

 Click below where it says Part 2: The War Before the War