There are people who come home from war and want to talk about the pain, but no one wants to listen; there are others who want to keep silent and repress the memories, and all their family and friends want is to talk about it. I call this the war veteran reintegration paradox.

~ M.b. Dallocchio

M.b. Dallocchio Combat Ptsd Desert Iraq War Ptsd Trauma War Warrior

I was not descending in a plane, coming Home. I was watching an alien world as it ascended towards me - and one that I could never begin the process of readjusting to, because I knew that I would just as soon be returning to another world, whose normality was as alien to this home as I now was.

~ Jake Wood

Jake Wood Alien Alienated Combat Ptsd Coming Home Derealization Dissociated Dissociative Don T Belong Military Ptsd Not Fitting In Traumatized Troops War

My family says they are proud of me. Of course, I would rather hear this than the contrary, but I cannot say that I am proud of myself, so I find that I cannot 'talk about it'.

~ Jake Wood

Jake Wood Cannot Talk Combat Ptsd Hero Military Military Ptsd Soldier Traumatized Unspeakable War War Hero

The brave men and women, who serve their country and as a result, live constantly with the war inside them, exist in a world of chaos. But the turmoil they experience isn’t who they are; the PTSD invades their minds and bodies.

~ Robert Koger

Robert Koger Cia Combat Ptsd Dea Fbi Mental Illness Military Mystery Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Veterans Vietnam Vietnam War

Many veterans feel guilty because they lived while others died. Some feel ashamed because they didn’t bring all their men home and wonder what they could have done differently to save them. When they get home they wonder if there’s something wrong with them because they find war repugnant but also thrilling. They hate it and miss it.Many of their self-judgments go to extremes. A comrade died because he stepped on an improvised explosive device and his commander feels unrelenting guilt because he didn’t go down a different street. Insurgents used women and children as shields, and soldiers and Marines feel a totalistic black stain on themselves because of an innocent child’s face, killed in the firefight. The self-condemnation can be crippling.The Moral Injury, New York Times. Feb 17, 2015

~ David Brooks

David Brooks Ashamed Combat Ptsd Guilt Horror Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Shame Soldiers Survivor Guilt Veterans War War Trauma

The victims of PTSD often feel morally tainted by their experiences, unable to recover confidence in their own goodness, trapped in a sort of spiritual solitary confinement, looking back at the rest of the world from beyond the barrier of what happened. They find themselves unable to communicate their condition to those who remained at home, resenting civilians for their blind innocence.The Moral Injury, New York Times. Feb 17, 2015

~ David Brooks

David Brooks Alienated Alienation Combat Ptsd Guilt Military Moral Responsibility Morality Morals Outsider Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Shame Soldiers Tainted Trauma Traumatic Experiences Traumatized Veterans Veterans Survivor Guilt War

People generally don’t suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters. Instead, people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities. Soldiers who’ve endured the depraved world of combat experience their own symptoms. Trauma is an expulsive cataclysm of the soul.The Moral Injury, New York Times. Feb 17, 2015

~ David Brooks

David Brooks Cataclysm Child Abuse Combat Combat Ptsd Depraved Guilt Immoral Act Military Moral Atrocities Moral Responsibility Morality Morals Natural Disasters Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Rape Sexual Abuse Sexual Assailed Shame Soldiers Soul Survivor Guilt Trauma Veterans War War Trauma Warfare

Trauma destroys the fabric of time. In normal time you move from one moment to the next, sunrise to sunset, birth to death. After trauma, you may move in circles, find yourself being sucked backwards into an eddy or bouncing like a rubber ball from now to then to back again. ... In the traumatic universe the basic laws of matter are suspended: ceiling fans can be helicopters, car exhaust can be mustard gas.

~ David J. Morris

David J. Morris Combat Ptsd Flashbacks Mental Disorder Mental Distress Mental Illness Military Psychiatry Military Quote Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Time Trauma Survivors Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress Traumatized Veterans

There is clear evidence from internal investigations in the past that some raters actually see themselves as adversaries to veterans. If a claim can be minimized, then the government has saved money, regardless of the need of the veteran. Just recently, the press exposed an official e-mail from a high-level staff person who stated in essence that PTSD diagnosis was becoming too prevalent and offered ways to delay and deflect ratings in order to save the government money.

~ Taylor Armstrong

Taylor Armstrong Combat Ptsd Cost Cutting Denial Diagnosis Government Abuse Government Corruption Manipulation Mental Disorder Mental Disorder Bias Mental Illness Misuse Of Authority Misuse Of Power Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Va Veterans Veterans Affairs

According to Hoge and colleagues (2007), the key to reducing stigma is to present mental health care as a routine aspect of health care, similar to getting a check up or an X-ray. Soldiers need to understand that stress reactions-difficulty sleeping, reliving incidents in your mind, and emotional detachment-are common and expected after combat... The soldier should be told that wherever they go, they should remember that what they're feeling is normal and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

~ Joan Beder

Joan Beder Combat Ptsd Mental Disorder Mental Health Mental Illness Military Ptsd Self Stigma Stigma Veterans

You are no longer human, with all those depths and highs and nuances of emotion that define you as a person.There is no feeling any more, because to feel any emotion would also be to beckon the overwhelming blackness from you. My mind has now locked all this down. And without any control of this self-defence mechanism my subconscious has operated. I do not feel any more.

~ Jake Wood

Jake Wood Combat Ptsd Dehumanization Dehumanized Dissociated Dissociation Dissociative Dissociative Ptsd Mental Health Military Ptsd No Longer Human Traumatized

Much, much later. when I am back home and being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I will be enabled to see what was going on in my mind immediately after 11 August.I am still capable of operating mechanically as a soldier in these following days. But operating mechanically as a soldier is now all I am capable of.Martin says he is worried about me. He says I have the thousand-yard stare'.Of course, I cannot see this stare. But by now we both have more than an idea what it means.So, among all the soldiers here, this is nothing to be ashamed of. But as it really does just go with the territory we find ourselves in. it is just as equally not a badge of h

~ Jake Wood

Jake Wood Acute Stress Reaction Army Army In Afghanistan Army Quote Automaton Casualty Of War Combat Ptsd Crock Of Shit Dead Inside Depersonalised Depersonalization Depersonalized Detached Dissociated State Dissociative Dumb Emotionless Flashback Flashbacks Idolisation Idolized Mechanical Military Military Psychiatry Military Quote Naive Naive Soul No Longer Human Nothingness Numb Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Posttraumatic Stress Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Robotic Soldier Stare Thousand Yard Stare Traumatic Stress Traumatized True Warrior Unemotional Warrior Warrior Qoutes Wounded Warriors

My mother describes me as 'a real hero . . . just like your grandfather'. But I do not know what to do with this accolade for her son, other than let her have moment, or it helps her back here.

~ Jake Wood

Jake Wood Combat Ptsd Hero Military Ptsd Soldier War Hero