Healing Combat Trauma

Rob Honzell's First Person Account, as a Vietnam Vet, of Combat PTSD

An update on an earlier blog post, from February of this year.  Rob Honzell, Sr., M.S.'s book, First Person: Combat PTSD, is now available at Amazon.com.  It's Honzell's account, in his own words, of what his Vietnam experience was like, and how they've affected the ensuing years since.  Not sure how much of it relates specifically to PTSD, despite the title -- I've just started leafing through it -- but to the extent that it's written by a Vietnam veteran who's been coming to terms with what he experienced ever since, it's worth knowing it's out there, and maybe seeing if your local library will buy a copy, to keep the Vietnam experience alive so we can keep learning from it.

It's also fair to say, not many people are able to write about their own experiences with PTSD - it's just too devastating.  We mentioned the other day a book that's just come out by an Army Ranger, Nate Self, about his Two Wars: with insurgents and with his own PTSD -- from the current OIF/OEF conflict.  With hundreds of books about the wars in our collective lifetimes, the just aren't many that address this topic directly, by people who've experienced PTSD.  Let's hope these are the start of many more contributions to the first person narrative literature on the subject.

Military Chaplains Carry, and Comfort in, Grief

Yahoo News has a good story today about the role of military chaplains in honoring the sacrifices of servicemen and women who have died in combat.  It profiles the experiences of four military chaplains, who've served in Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq.  The article is called, "Chaplains Salute Each of the Fallen," and it's linked here.  As the article points out, "Military chaplains don't carry weapons, don't engage in combat, and yet they know as well as any the human cost of war," and this "human cost" very much takes its toll, even on those most qualified by their faith, so to speak, to offer comfort and support.  Said one chaplain, quoted in the article, with each subsequent death, "you lose part of yourself that you're never going to get back."

Those of us who were raised on M*A*S*H have a probably very skewed view of what chaplains do in wartime, but there's no question that they're a special breed -- needing to be there to offer words of comfort and support to the troops, in the midst of struggling with their own very real grieving over loss.

In related news, congratulations are in order to fellow PTSD blogger, Kathie Costos, for just last week passing the test to become one.  With her extensive, 25 years of personal experience caring about combat trauma and its effects on the troops, as well as her personally offering comfort to those who suffer, she should really be one sensational chaplain.  Kudos to her for a wonderful accomplishment.

Religious-Centered Approach to Combat Trauma

(I feel like I'm just posting this under duress.  Religion has a tendency to muddy the waters, at the very least, and sometimes do quite a bit more harm that good.  Regardless...)

Just became aware of a book that talks about healing combat trauma from a Christian perspective, called The Combat Trauma Healing Manual: Christ-centered Solutions for Combat Trauma.  I've added it to the book list on left.  Approach with a degree of caution, though.  For one thing, it's self-published. (Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it can mean it wouldn't have been published otherwise.)  For another thing, and it's hard to say this without seeing it first, but just in case, puhlease do not take a book like this and use it INSTEAD of getting help.  In addition to, perhaps, if it meshes well with your personal belief system, but please pretty please, not in place of getting actual help.  The number of people in the world who go off their medications, or throw them away, believing that they no longer need them because a little talk with [insert name of any spiritual or motivational leader] has made them all better, is probably pretty darn shocking.  Please, consider spiritual healing as an adjunct to, not a replacement for, actual therapeutic healing.  And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

(Someone once joked that all healing is fundamentally spiritual, anyway.  Doesn't come any other way.  Or at least feels that way, when it does.  Enough said.)