PTSD – Fragmenting the psyche and souls of our military

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/09/25/homeless.veterans/index.html

 

When Iraq war veteran Angela Peacock is in the shower, she sometimes closes her eyes and cannot help reliving the day in Baghdad in 2003 that pushed her closer to the edge.

"It's like spiritual psychology," Peacock explained. "You explore your place in the world and your place in life."

 

PTSD – Fragmenting the psyche and souls of our military

PTSD seems to be largely a new term of this decade effecting the enlisted and retired of our military stretching back through time to all survivors of war. Leaving men/women and those connected to and loving them also affected. Taking a drive through Leavenworth, Kansas years ago, I noticed average people who looked like they were in their 50's. I asked why they were on the street in a small town of Leavenworth, and was told they were veterans who have trouble finding their way back in civilian life, and presumed to be from the Vietnam War. As the conflicts drag on and incinerate throughout this world, faces from that day have been seen repeatedly in my mind.

Finding their way back, as if warped in a space of time of disconnect and nightmares, yet not feeling a connection any longer to the military or civilian life. What really is the cause and effect of trauma, which becomes an ongoing life without release from a space in time? My uncle spent over half his life in almost a solitary seclusion from life, after being a Ghost Walker in Korea. Disappearing from family and friends without a word, until after his death over 40 years later. Drawing so far within himself to a point of self-imprisonment for the remainder of his life. Possibly PTSD without a name. Veterans whose psyche falls into crumbled pieces and explanations are few, in times past they wandered streets in many cities and towns of our country, or spent many years confined in VA hospitals, without answers, only and imprisoned space far distant than the day they were given to appreciate in the future.

Angela Peacock, who this column was written about, along with more numbers than have yet to be counted found self exploration a step forward in learning to live again, or step out of the space of Iraq. All programming falling into a million pieces of memory, evaluating and finding the courage to step out from fear. Fear is the unknown of her future being just as valid as her fear through memories. She has seen the worst, which creates a relative point of being only those with PTSD can really understand and comprehend. I was told a very long time ago, you could walk 1000 miles outside of yourself, only to walk back in to find the truth. My prayers for Angela today and all traumatized veterans, is that as she walks back into herself, she will again unfold the peace of life before war. A soul journey as the fragments of who was becomes the hopes of who she is.

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