Last year, over 6,000 American veterans took their own lives. That’s an average of 18 a day, right here, on American soil! That’s an annual toll that nearly equals the total number of American service men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, from 2001 to the present!  Are you shocked yet? Well, there’s more.

Mr. Bill Stubbs

Many of those suicides are the result of wounds these vets sustained in war-not the kind of wounds you can see, but the ones you can’t; the invisible wounds called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and depression.  How prevalent are they? A federal study found that one veteran in five suffers from some form of one or more of these. These injuries to the mind are NOT imaginary; they’re as real as a gunshot wound, and potentially as deadly as any bullet or roadside bomb. They can strike immediately or lie in wait, undiagnosed and untreated, for months or even years after the event that caused them; but when they do strike, they can devastate the lives of veterans and their families, leaving behind a trail of broken homes, broken dreams, domestic violence, substance abuse, and yes, suicide.

PTSD and TBI have become the two signature injuries of the War On Terror.  PTSD has been called “a sane reaction to an insane situation”. It’s an anxiety disorder that stems from exposure to an overwhelmingly traumatic event that’s outside the range of normal human experience. Combat is a classic example of such an experience.  Its symptoms can include sudden outbursts of anger, emotional numbing, feeling keyed up, and persistent re-experiencing of the event.  While often not totally curable, PTSD can be treated and managed through psychotherapy, and sometimes medication. With effective treatment, a veteran with PTSD can lead a happy, productive life. Left untreated, it can become a chronic debilitating illness that leaves its victims unable to function or interact normally with friends, coworkers and family. One veteran described PTSD as  “ like reliving the most terrifying, horrible experience in your life over and over, every day”. That’s an accurate description. (more…)