Here's a great quote from American free thinker Rob Brezsny. I like it because it goes to the heart of what we're trying to do on this site. It's not the "same 'ol, same 'ol" -- it's an attempt to get people thinking differently about a topic that ruins many people's lives, yet within which there is still to be found a certain amount of hope.
This website has been going on for almost five years now. Tens of thousands of hours worth of researching, reading, interviewing experts, thinking and composing the almost 800 articles on the site, 200 recommended books, and dozens of experts. We when started, back in very early 2006, there really wasn't anything out there about PTSD and veterans on the Web, for troops coming back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. I Googled it plenty to make sure I wasn't intruding on someone else's "space." In fact, Ilona Meagher was starting her work at about the same time, but Google hadn't picked up either of us yet. A few months later, when I found her site, I made a point not to read it, so that we could each keep to our original point of view, and not be accused of overlap.
I even chose the name, "Healing Combat Trauma," in a fit of inspiration -- because it was expressly intended to give people HOPE, who might be lacking it, or beaten down by the sheer overwhelming nature of what they had, that they could still get better. Something to cling to, that might help move them out of a state of despair, discouragement and demoralization into a sense that there was something still worth looking for, not to mention living for. "Without hope, the people perish" -- the Bible says. It's a very true statement. And there's nothing like illness to make people give up hope, because of feeling poorly in body, mind and spirit.
Today, almost five years later, the "landscape" surrounding this topic has changed quite a bit, but it's also heartening that people are beginning to find that we're out there and like what they see. The need is greater than it ever was. At least 18 veterans a day kill themselves because they've frankly given up, or feel too miserable to carry on, with the "best" of what they've been offered from the status quo (which fortunately is also improving, but maybe not fast enough, or in enough flexible directions to satisfy the need.) I made a decision early on that I didn't want to "just" report the news -- "misery everywhere! report at 11" -- because that was too easy to do, and didn't require any original thought. We're not cutting and pasting here; we're reading, analyzing, thinking, and talking to people who know -- and then sharing that information with you.
And there's a certain amount of resistance. On Facebook, where there's a fan page for this site, linked here, with approximately 2,500 members, people occasionally recoil in horror when they read the title. "Healing" Combat Trauma? Why, they sputter, you can't HEAL combat trauma -- my doctor said so! And I just saw him. Of course, we've covered that topic, ad infinitum, but the basic interpretation is, there's a difference between "healing" and "curing" -- and healing is a nice continuum of improvement from bad to better that anyone can jump right on, at any given time -- especially when they're ready to, and not a moment before. "Healing" isn't something you want to drag unwilling people into; but it's also something that is available for those who want it, at whatever degree they can access it. (Even the VA, at least at the level of the National Center for PTSD, and their clinical training which I got to attend in May, is talking about switching the emphasis from a focus on "symptomology" to "functionality" with PTSD -- a needed improvement.)
I had the "healing versus curing" conversation many times with the subject of "Eyewitness to Combat," whose own story of great improvement is highlighted here, in his own words. After going to one treatment or another that appeared to improve him, he would be excited about thinking that he was now "cured" -- despite 40 years of chronic, severe PTSD, and having tried most of what VA had to offer, including a stint in an inpatient, residential treatment program for PTSD that was cutting edge at the time. I tried to explain to him, patiently and not always successfully, that healing wasn't a toggle switch between "ill" and "well," but a path from one to the other, which he was now on, and which he'd continue to be on, through the various things that we'd try and the progress that he'd make. It's also something that doesn't always need a practitioner to facilitate. Practitioners are important, but there are also things that a person can do for him or herself, to improve their overall health and well-being. And sometimes it's important to wedge people's minds open just a little tiny bit...in order that they can encounter something new, that might change their world view, which might (ultimately) help change their lives. Worth it.
Which brings us to the quote of the hour. It's an interesting one, because Rob Brezsny hones in on how something people aren't used to -- the idea that you can "heal" PTSD, for instance -- ruffles some feathers, and shakes some people up. But if they already knew it, what would be the point of hearing it again? Sometimes we have to step away from our preconceived ideas about what "can" and "can't" happen to enter the realm of the possible. In sickness, which is so laden with discouragement and guilt -- as well as hype and manipulation, sometimes -- that's no different from any other area. So let's see what Brezsny has to say about what qualifies as "information" on a topic:
"Let's define information as data and ideas that are new to you. If it's something you already know, then it's trivia or propoganda or dogma, not information. In fact, let's be tempted to use the terms "information" and "novelty" interchangeably. If you're not surprised, if your curiousity isn't piqued, then the message streaming your way may not qualify as information." -- Rob Brezsny.
