PTSD

I finally finished reading the 37 book series on WWII by Time/Life Books.  There are so many things I can write about but a prayer request by a friend sparked this one.

Our work with emotionally broken people exposed us to so much.  I'm sure we heard of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome) along the way.  I know I worked with a woman once who had been shot in the head by her mate in an effort to kill her.  He then committed suicide right before her eyes.  We wept with her as she told her tragic story.  I can't imagine the images that she deals with as she remembers that experience.

A friend asked us to pray for her son-in-law recently as he was off to Afghanistan.  She also included her daughter and grandchildren because of the impact on them.  I can relate to that.

I was the child of a man who experienced WWII...a member of a whole generation of fathers who experienced things in the war that no human should have to face.  That's why many of them never talked about their experiences with anyone but their fellow GI's.  The things they saw and endured were not for dinner table discussions.  They also shut down emotionally.  It was the only way they could cope with what they had experienced.

When Saving Private Ryan hit the movie theaters a few years ago many WWII vets went to see the movie.  The first five minutes or so of the film depict the horrors many troops experienced when they landed on Normandy on DDay.  I remember reading accounts of men who finally wept when they saw that depiction.  It was the first time they had faced something that triggered the deeply held emotional pain.  Some of them talked for the first time since they returned from the war about what they had experienced.

"War is hell" as someone has said.  And we have men in my generation who have experienced the horrors of Vietnam, living on the streets, trying to have a life with families while carrying the devastation of that war around in their hearts. 

Now we have a whole other generation who are returning home from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan with the emotional baggage of what they experienced knowing their life was on the line every moment they walked around.  Not sure if they could trust a local or even a child not to be carrying a weapon to kill them.

I have also read that we are saving more soldiers from their battlefield wounds because of improved medical treatment on the battlefield.  Some of those saved are facing a lifetime of coping with the debilitating injuries that they were saved from dying of.  Emotional scars for sure.  Head injuries.  Loss of mobility.  Loss of multiple limbs.

Something needs to be done to avoid having another generation of children raised with detached mothers and fathers (yes, some women have suffered battlefield wounds as well).  What can we do?  How do we need to pray?  How can we support those who have returned from those experiences and give them the opportunity to receive the healing touch from a loving heavenly Father?

I may soon have the opportunity to be in Washington DC.  One of the thoughts I have had is to spend some time at Walter Reed Hospital where many of those veterans are being treated.  Do you know anyone in your circle of friends or acquaintances who may be suffering from PTSD?  Can you give them the opportunity to have you listen to the pain of their hearts?   How would the Father have you pray for them as you relate to them?  I hope to soon find out.