PTSD Patrol Sunday Morning Drive

Time to change gears
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
June 17, 2018

This morning on Combat PTSD Wounded Times, I wrote about how some people want to change the term of PTSD by eliminating the "D" as if that would make all the difference. While I do agree that the conversation needs to change, they are in the wrong lane!

You changed after as a survivor from the disruption of what was "normal" for you. 

This is the definition of "disorder."

Definition of disorder transitive verb 

1 : to disturb the order of 

2 : to disturb the regular or normal functions of

Basically it means things were changed. That means you can change them again. Just like you change gears in your vehicle depending on where you want to go, the only way to go forward is to put it into D.

There was nothing "normal" about what almost killed you. There is nothing normal for humans about war, or any other traumatic event. If it was part of "normal" life, then we'd all be in trouble.

Humans need help in life all the time, but after traumatic events, they need even more help to survive. They need people trained to come and help them do that.

For those who do the responding, you need even more help to do that because the assumption is, you are trained to "deal with it" no matter how many times you respond, no matter what you have to respond to, and, no matter how much your hearts get broken. 

Think about what made you want to risk your life as a living, or even a deeper love of volunteering to do it.

That took a great deal of compassion mixed with a supercharged courage. If people think that one little letter is keeping you from asking for help, then they are not thinking at all.