If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
What's it like to come back to the U.S. when you're not only a soldier but a wife and mother? Return stars Linda Cardellini assuch a woman who faces the daunting challenge of coming home.
Emotional and spiritual care is just about celebration as much is it is about mourning loss and change.
The Vietnam War, however, was not only a defining moment in baby boomers' coming-of-age process. Forty years later, the war is still part of many boomers' psyches as they face older age.
Media and official reports on prevalence rates of military war stress injury have focused almost exclusively on escalating rates of well-known war stress injuries such as PTSD, depression, generalized anxiety, substance abuse, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the true impact from war trauma cannot be reduced to a handful of psychiatric diagnoses, as some may want.
Many veterans never dreamed of needing help coping with life following combat deployments. While the impact of surviving in a combat zone has left many veterans seeking help in overcoming posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there have been significant advances in treatment.
U.S. infantrymen have been given the idea that poetry isn't for tough guys. It's also our loss as soldiers because it has robbed many of us of the chance to grasp what it means to be so fiercely human that we are willing to kill each other and to die.
There is no doubt in my mind that EMDR therapy can significantly reduce and/or relieve a lot of pain and suffering for many military members and veterans, and doing so would prevent an untold number of misconduct stress behaviors and chronic war stress injuries such as PTSD and depression.
Now, a new generation comes home from wars that have gone on for a decade, often with no clear sense of victory. For those who have managed to return physically unscathed, how many carry memories of pain that also leave them feeling alienated and unable to communicate?
There is a desperate need to maintain hope that the veteran can win in the final battle -- coming home. So, where does a veteran turn for help? Know there are health care providers who are committed to making a difference both to the veteran and family members. Together we all can make a difference.
It's now 10 years after the indefinite detention prison of Guantanamo was created. With the recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act broadening, the U.S. government seems to have given up on ever righting itself.
Of all the statistics that describe the devastation wreaked upon Iraq by the illegal war, I find the figures describing the plight of Iraqi children the most troubling and heart-wrenching.
Cherie Blair and I recently hosted a special event in Israel to announce a collaborative effort, "Women talking Women."
David Lynch, the film director, is a long-time meditator and speaks about transcendental meditation (TM) with veracity and authenticity. His message is clear: TM practice reduces negativity. Who doesn't want that?
What do I have in common with Ellen DeGeneres, Russell Brand, Oprah, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, and Russell Simmons? Probably not all that much, but... we all practice TM, Transcendental Meditation.
I stopped being the woman who whines about her childhood, but now that I understand at the core of my being the sort of attachment you feel for your own baby, I am incredulous all over again at all the slights I had put behind me.
Realizing that they were many resources for men who had served -- but not for women -- StJohn had an epiphany. She asked herself, "Why aren't I doing this?" That was the beginning of F7 Group.
