PTSD Spirituality

By now it is no secret that at least 4000 Americans have been killed in Iraq. 

It should also be no secret, but is usually left off the table, that we also have at least 40,000 more people who are swamped by intense grief.  If one figures in families and friends and people who cared for each of these killed, then 40,000 is probably a low estimate.

Most of you who will read this blog have already experienced intense grief before.  It is a horribe darkness that can ravage one.  One of my closest calls with my own life since the current war began was when my nephew was killed.  The Pentagon won’t count him as a KIA, he was killed by his PTSD after three tours.  My grief for that young man nearly killed me.  It was combined with a grief for America, what it has become compared to what it used to be.  It helped to make my own PTSD even worse.  And, it almost killed me.

After the media and journalists are done gleaning all the life out of the grieving, the families will be left alone.  The media won’t care anymore, they’ve already scavenged those poor folks for every tick on the ratings chart.  But these families, these friends, will be set up for their own PTSD, from the trauma of losing someone for whom they deeply cared, and then less so from the emotional rape that the journalists will put them through.  After all that, they are left alone and suffering.  They will be at risk of suicide.  PTSD will try to kill them.  (A person does not have to be in combat or even in the military to acquire PTSD.  All they need to do is experience trauma.)

If you know these people, then it is time to buck-up and truly be their friends.  Proper grieving takes two or more years to go through.  Help them keep appointments.  Help with the kids.  Just be there.

 I say all the time, becuase I believe it and know it all the time, that prayer has kept me alive.  Deep prayer can touch us in the grounding of our souls and fend off the seduction of death.  If you don’t have or cannot find words, that is just fine, the deepest prayer is held in Silence.

We pray for the 4000, the 40,000, and all those killed in these wars. No sides, no good guys or bad guys, just human beinigs tormented and fractured by war. 

 We pray that we will all survive this grief and the seduction of Death.

Semper Pax, Dr. Z

The Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee is holding a series on “Moving Toward a Just and Peaceful World” from noon to 1:30 p.m. on three Tuesdays at the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, 1342 N. Astor St.

The speakers are: Tuesday, Father G. Simon Harak, director of Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking, on “Resisting Empire”; March 11, Athan Theoharis, retired Marquette history professor, on “Security, Morality and Realism: The Government’s Response to 9/11″; and March 18, John Zemler, visiting theology professor at Marquette, on “From Soldier to Healer: Transforming the PTSD Dragon From Death to Life.”

The series costs $28, or $10 a session, including lunch. Make reservations at (414) 276-9050. 

I apologize for the late notice of this speaking engagement.  Below is a synopsis of my talk.  

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Dr John Zemler, a former Army Captain, now a Disabled American Veteran and Disabled Catholic Theologian will speak on the topic: “From Soldier to Healer: Transforming the PTSD Dragon From Death to Life.”

In his talk he will briefly explain the horror of what is like to have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), how American Society generally blames you for your wound PTSD soul-wound, and how PTSD tries to kill all of those whom it afflicts. John identifies PTSD as a wounding of the human soul.

In the transition from Solider to Healer, From Dragon’s Prey to New Lamb, Dr. Zemler will discuss how American Soldiers are trained to kill the enemy and how their lives have no real meaning to decision makers. Their lives are used up by politicians and those other Americans who drive SUVs and Hummers. Soldiers are not allowed to choose where they will have their lives expended nor whom they are to kill. Even if they never kill or are deployed to combat, this conditioning damages their souls.

In his life as a healer, John, explains a portion of how he himself survives PTSD and has not killed himself; that is, how his own soul has received healing. Religious faith and ritual, primarily Catholic and Buddhist, and the crafts of art and music, provide important means for him to stay healed and help in the healing of others afflicted with PTSD.

John Zemler will describe how those who have survived PTSD, whether military or civilian, may become healers in their own right. The PTSD-Survivor can become a Bodhisattva to those who need healing. In early Christian terms of the first-century, the PTSD-Survivor learns how to bear one another’s burdens and how to fill out the suffering of Jesus Christ (See Letters of Paul). Where as before these human souls were being consumed by the Dragon of PTSD. They can now take on the death-burden of those people of whom PTSD is trying to kill and thus enable them to find the strength, ability, and means to stay alive.  That is, they can enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death for others and carve out some space to live.

All in all, it is about helping women and men with PTSD have their souls healed and not allow Death to consume them.

Semper Pax, Dr. Z

The New York Times on-line reported today that Adm. William J. Fallon, the commander of American forces in the Middle East is to retire.  Fallon will have completed at or near one year in that command position.

Recall that a previous Chair of the Joints Chief of Staffs predicted, in congressional testimony, before the wars the high level of manpower and money that would be required for the mission.  The White House balked at these experience-based estimates of the real cost of invading Iraq.  The General’s assessment disagreed with that of the civilians in the Admninistration who had no or very little experience military.  He was forced to retire.  The results are the current quagmire in Iraq and his predictions came true.

 While I usually focus my blog concerns on PTSD Spirituality, I am quite concerned that now that with Adm. Fallon gone, we will have an “event” to start a war with Iraq.  I am grateful that both Giuliani and Rommney are out of the presidential race as they both had affirmed that they would attack Iran based on what the Bush Administartion had asserted…having learned no lessons from the missing WMD in Iraq.

 Please pray that the Unites States of America will have the wisdom to not go to war with Iran.

Semper Pax, Dr. Z

PTSD seeks to kill those whom it afflicts.  It seeks to take formerly vibrant human beings and transform them into the Undead until it can kill them flat outright.  Whether a person suffers PTSD from combat, rape, a natural disaster such as Katrina, or some other trauma, they now live with a new threat that seeks to take their life.

It does this by wounding our souls.  Many of us with PTSD end up killing ourselves fast or slow.  The fast cases are pretty obvious.  Slow cases of PTSD suicide comes from drug abuse, alchoholism, and cumualitive neglect from the rest of the country.  As this blog and my professional writing grow I will mention more about these in detail.

Regardless of how any of us feel about the current wars, PTSD is a confirmed result.  It is not retreat, disloyalty, or cowardice to acknowledge that trauma affects human beings.  It is simply realism.  Regardless of where we stand, saving the lifes of trauma surviors and their families should be an easy priority.

Untreated severe PTSD kills its victim.  My goal is to help increase PTSD awareness and to offer some spiritual advice.  Just because someone has PTSD and has been neglelcted by self and/or others up till now is no cause for despair.  That life can be saved.  That life has value.  That life has too much value for us to allow PTSD to consume it.

Semper Pax, Dr. Z