Stressors
By Ellen Kozel
BANG went the door. Did you hear Mary was killed by an IUD yesterday and their bringing her home. Stop Yelling at me? What’s the matter with you?
Stressors can bottle you up inside and trigger some reactions you normally wouldn’t expect yourself to do. They can lead to flashbacks, total depression, thoughts of no longer belonging and much more.
For small occurrences sometimes just taking in some deep breaths and releasing them slowly can help or going for a walk. Lying down and playing some soft soothing music in a quiet place can help.
For the more serious forms you need to talk to a specialist. The VA has a PTSD clinic that specializes in these cases. They can help you understand yourself. When you go into the service they brief you on combat, the mission, the team, and how to protect yourself against the enemy. Once that’s over they just say so long and hand you a discharge.
What they don’t do is debrief on the enemy inside you. You go home and think everything is ok and suddenly you find yourself with a new enemy. This new enemy is stronger and more dangerous than the one you faced on the battlefield. It breaks up marriages, leads vets to do drugs and drink, and in some cases to loose their lives.
The VA PTSD program is there to help you work through those bad times when this enemy tries to destroy you. It’s silent and it kills. It knows you and knows everywhere you can hide. You can’t escape it even with drinking and drugs it still finds you.
PTSD can be taught to live with. It takes time and patience. The VA has produced a PTSD program to help you learn how to deal with this enemy so it doesn’t take over your life.
It takes the courage of a soldier to ask for help. So go to your local VA facility and ask for the PTSD program. They are there to help you. In extreme cases you can always dial 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1 for Veterans.