It’s funny how things come to us from unexpected times and people. While I was relaxing at home I saw a message from a buddy on social media. He said he was dedicating a month of awareness to recognizing the 22. If you have never heard of this, it’s a rough number of nationwide veterans who commit suicide a day. This isn’t an outlier, that number has been maintained for a long time. It isn’t strictly young guys from the War on Terrorism it includes all veterans. Some try to play down the number, some other countries facing the same issues even try comparing it to the national average of all Citizens. This logic is flawed as the Military in all countries medically disqualify people who me are included in the National statistics. The Military always looks for the most healthy, young, strong and intelligent individuals they can to fill their ranks even though people don’t realize that fact. So, any normal study would take these facts and render a decision that the Veteran community should be less effected and net smaller numbers. This is why there are many organizations and so many Veterans bring attention to the problem.
My buddy is dealing with PTSD and made an observation and statement which I have also observed. He roughly stated that while medical is a tool in helping people with PTSD, it’s just a bandage. I agree with his analysis completely. While some conditions require constant medicating, most doctors I believe would encourage people o fix the underlying issues. If your fat and it’s causing diabetes, loose weight. If you are allergic to a certain food, don’t eat it. Where there may be instances of a person needing to be medicated over a lengthy timeframe for PTSD in most cases I think people are better off finding a way to deal with or cope with their lifelong condition. To me, I have always looked at medicating an issue/condition as a tourniquet. To me it’s a immediate measure used to stabilize a problem giving the patient and the medical professional time to correct an issue allowing the person to survive and live their life. Again I am not a doctor and not telling people to follow my personal thoughts of treatment, I am only telling how I have made it through my own problems.
We can’t walk around life with a tourniquet on our leg! This is my personal view of dealing with problems. If we simply try to patch a problem and never take time to repair the damage the patch or “Bandage” as my buddy stated can always fall off. People can stop taking medication because it makes them feel bad or hazy a common thing I have heard people say. People can develop a resistance or a tolerance to a medication making less or no longer effective. These are reasons I have the view of treatment with anything that can be dreamed a crutch as a temporary solution.
Are tourniquets useless? Absolutely not, they save lives. I have seen the lifesaving use of such medication. I have friends that are still alive because the medication gave them a pause in the constant barrage of the condition, which allowed them a window of time they used to organize a plan and implement a way of coping and dealing with their trauma. We as a society need to realize life isn’t an easy thing. Life is a struggle. We need to plan and find ways of dealing with our own struggles in life to truly enjoy our time on this planet. That to me is how we find our own way out of the maze of darkness and into the light of a joyful existence.
Joy After Trauma 