By Sara Benincasa, TakePart At 21, Jacinda considered her male coworkers in the Navy to be her brothers. That was before she awoke in a drunken haz...
We are 12 adults preparing for a play. We are veterans and family members of veterans. The audience will be civilians. Just as children learn through play, so is our play teaching us, transforming us.
We civilians need to do a better job understanding and supporting our service members who have given all to protect our country. We can shift our thinking from problematic to positive when we think about hiring, counseling or dealing with our service members.
It is important for practitioners working with veterans to recognize the various conflicts or wars in which our veterans have served, to comprehend the historical, social, political, and cultural implications of military service, as veterans are not "a one size fits all."
The emotional wounds of war don't heal with drugs. Isn't it time we tried something else? And if so, what's out there for us to use to heal our warriors? The simplest answer might surprise you.
For too many troops, physical combat on the battlefield turns into a psychological battle as they struggle to transition back into a turbulent American society.
It's important for people who suffer with trauma to get the treatment that's appropriate to their unique experiences and that is sensitive to the specific symptoms they are struggling with at the moment.
"As a military spouse for 20 years, we hear that we are the backbone of the military. Now it's time to care for those who proudly serve in the shadow...
Let us celebrate and support the invaluable writing programs for veterans within our communities. And then let us listen to the stories our veterans speak.
Obama should use the bully pulpit to urge troops and veterans to seek help if they are depressed, suffering from PTSD or suicidal. He should also trumpet legislation to fund more mental-health counselors for the armed forces and for veterans.
By the end of 2013, Sullivan anticipates that the number of vets with potential longterm PTSD will be 1.1 million, as opposed to the 211,819 that exist now.
There are several studies claiming a 70-percent improvement rate for returning warriors who are treated for combat stress with various cognitive behavioral therapies and/or prolonged exposure strategies. But this is a misleading number.
Si does not believe that his art has diminished his trauma. He believes it has sustained him, helped to keep him alive.
The veterans know on a gut level that the remedy to their intolerable memories and nightmares -- both waking and asleep -- will not come through a pill.
Service personnel need time to recover emotionally and physically from their battlefield scars.
Those of us who have never gone to war -- and today that means about 90 percent of us -- how able are we to imagine it?
Our service people are over-medicated downrange, mostly with legal drugs. This creates problems -- from slower reaction times to possibly an increased vulnerability to suicide later on.
