How have you dealt with PTSD?

I take meds, use a psychotherapy called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and avoid trigger situations, I am also involved with helping others with PTSD/TBI.

I use many different ways to deal. I went to an inpatient program to really understand what was going on and learned many coping skills to live a "normal" life. One of the best things I could have ever done was get job at the VA. I have found that talking to veterans that want to share this issues helps me deal with mine. As a Peer Support in a combat PTSD program I get my therapy everyday by helping veterans deal with their issues.

I deal with it through exercise, meditation, prescribed medication (which I have cut back to one prescription now) and bi-monthly counseling (which helps immensely). It was the counseling which enabled me to reduce the prescriptions I was taking. Through the VA I have a counselor that I meet with on a bi-monthly basis and I noticed, by dumping everything on the counselor, I find myself with less pent up anger and frustration. I used to be very tight lipped about it all, but now I encourage the practice. I look at it as four legs of a stool. My mental foundation is exceptionally strong and I have been able to do more personally and professionally than I used to. I am a better person for it. I believe by eliminating the perceived need to be stoic and manly, I have become a better father, husband, co-worker and leader. If you are reading this and having problems, I would say the first step (not the way I went) would be to find a counselor you are comfortable with. Then together, map out a way to a better, healthier and productive lifestyle. We put ourselves in bad places out of fear, pride and/or ignorance.

I do not believe "it" will ever go away, but effects can be managed and minimized. Time seems to help a lot as well. Every single one of us is different. We all experience and react to physical or mental trauma differently. I thank god every day that I did not have to go through the experiences my dad and my son went through. By comparison, mine were somewhat miniscule, but it still has had a very lasting impact on my life. The old adage every Marine is a basic rifleman is the truth. When my job wasn't deemed necessary, I quickly found out that I was a rifleman first.

For me the first ten years were the hardest, I could not talk about it, I could not share the feelings, and most of all I wanted to forget it. However the more I tried all of that the more it control my life, causing me my first marriage, many friends and even a few jobs. I have learned over these 20+ years to share my story, embrace it, and understand that that time in my life I took the risk, yet the cost was known, at the same time did not known it would be a life long affects. I live today still with the nightmares, the night sweats, looking over my shoulder checking my "6", looking for the exits or where I could hold up. People just don't understand that during the so called "Peace-time" there was more death, injuries, and damaged to personal then they ever reported on or even knew about by the public.

While I was still in, I lived in denial for about the first four years after I came back. I remember listening to all the post-deployment briefings, and like pretty much everyone else, I was bored to tears, thought "There's nothing wrong with me", and I just wanted to get home. Without going into detail, it was my severe issues with insomnia that prompted the COL I worked for to strongly recommend I at least go and talk to someone at the VA. I think counseling is a wonderful thing, and it worked very well for me. The VA in Boise, Idaho, is one of the best I have ever dealt with. I also deliberately avoid alcohol for the most part, and while I will have a drink once in a great while, I avoid getting intoxicated anymore. I also stay very active, competing in both obstacle racing (i.e. Spartan Race), as well as triathlons. This is as much about my overall health as it is about being a form of therapy.

By far the most substantial thing I did, which I think a lot of veterans find confusing or even disconcerting, was slowly disconnecting from the military. I came home from Iraq in December 2005, and I retired in July 2014. During that time, I became less and less involved with anything dealing with the Army, outside of my official duties; the exception being I continued to serve on the Honor Guard, performing military funeral honors, right up to my retirement. I don't wear "the hat", or anything else that identifies me as a veteran, I recently removed my veteran's plates from my vehicle, though this was more about a transition from my past life as a Soldier to where I am now. The vast majority of my friends are non-veterans. A couple of my closest friends are people I served with, yet we very rarely talk about it, simply because we have lives outside of the military. I do have my shadow box, though that stays in my home office.

I also deliberately avoid political discussions on sites like RP, simply because I find it inappropriate on a professional site, especially since so much of comes across as nothing more than "Obama hate". As one who is more of a liberal-centrist, who proudly framed my retirement letter from the Commander-in-Chief, I find that political discussions with a lot of other veterans often turn into nothing more than hateful arguments. In fact, I have often been left feeling ostracized from a lot of veterans' groups, because I am politically liberal. Many veterans feel like they don't fit in society after they come back, yet to be honest, I have often felt as if I do not fit in with the veterans' society (though not just because of political reasons). I have been invited to a number of groups and functions, yet I always feel like an outsider, even when some of the members of said groups are Soldiers that I once served with. So I simply let it all go, and to be honest, that has been the best thing for my physical and mental health. Again, this is what worked for me, and is probably very different than most.

Of course, there is no universal treatment for everyone, and we each have to find specifically what works for us. For me, it was distancing myself from the military. This is not out of any sense of shame or embarrassment. It is putting those events from my past where they belong. The memories never go away, but I simply do not need the constant reminders.

I spoke up. I asked for help. I went to counseling. The first step, though, was to loosen the grips on my pride. Just because you wear a uniform doesn't make you a superhero. If you need help, get it.

I'm so thankful that an O6 in our headquarters stood in front of a bunch of us and said "I wasn't sleeping at night. I was waking up with nightmares. I was taking it out on my friends and loved ones. But I went and got help. You should too!" I will always remember that leader.

I came back from my Iraq deployment with extreme anger which was uncontrollable on the anniversary of the trigger event. After goingg to the VA, a Vet Center, being in groups, and visiting mental health professionals using cognative therapy techniques I found the answer. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a non-invasive, self applied energy medicine treatment method based on Asian medicine and how energy flows through the body. It works and now I am PTSD free. The VA evaluated me before and after treatment and documented both having PTSD, and now it's absense from my personality. Check out GuidedHealing.com to see a short video of EFT in action and judge for yourself. You deserve to be healed and to return to a whole, healthy life.

Although I have never suffered from PTSD, as a chaplain I have helped many with one aspect of Combat Stress Injury which I think is a better title for what vets suffer.

There are different dimension which the vet needs to deal with. The purely physical injury like TBI or shell shock needs medical attention. The psychological injury like hyper vigilance seems to be help very effectively by horsemanship training, or dog companionship. But please do not neglect to seek help for the moral injury.

War has a way of shattering simplistic world views, making life chaotic and meaningless. War is filled with unholiness, making us feel unclean. Survivor guilt, and the assault on our sense of justice can be very dramatic. This moral injury very often leads to the worst consequence; suicide.

Despair, is best served by a shift in the way you look at the world, correcting and replacing it with one that rings true and give meaning and hope even after experiencing the truths and realities of war.

The vet needs a relief from guilt, and a return to purity of soul that only great religion can bring. Unfortunately not all religion is great, nor do all give satisfactory answers. Most people have very little understanding of the depth of meaning given by religion because the depth of knowledge is very simplistic, and shallow.

Through the years I have served many congregations, and large numbers of vets have found peace in them. Vietnam, Korea, and World War vets are there in the pews, and tell me how healing it is for them to be there. I have lots of stories I could tell about these souls.

After coming back from Iraq in 2003, I was fortunate enough not to have any complex stress or PTSD issues. However, I also found myself in a position to be able to assist my fellow military members by working with the Chaplains on a program they called Unit Cohesion Training. This program was aimed at helping those of us coming back from theater to cope with complex stress and PTSD, as well as help us to reintegrate into our civilian lives.

Approximately four months ago those same Chaplains reached out to me and asked me to be the webmaster for a site called vetconnectinternational.org. They informed me the program we had been working on was implemented and became standard training, while also explaining that this website was the next phase in attempting to assist veterans from the civilian side as well.

As of this last week, I believe they have secured the funding to complete the video production and roll out of their program. Despite the fact that my webmaster position is unpaid, I do believe that the program, once finished, will certainly be worth while, and my time working as part of this team well spent. Hopefully, some of you are able to find value in it.

Semper Fi

Meds and flyfishing have helped me deal with with my PTSD.