Think of the most terrified you've ever been. Heart pounding, mouth dry, sweat beading on your forehead, muscles locked rigid, violent or frightening images flooding your mind, screaming so loudly on the inside that you're barely aware of your surroundings. Now imagine being dropped randomly into that state a few times a day, every day, triggered by some innocuous thing or nothing at all.
|
|
Most people reading this blog are fortunate in that they have never experienced war beyond the tv set or cinema. I had the opportunity to work many years with a veteran of the Vietnam War and he like I was born on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, but he enlisted in the US Army.
My friend was a mess. He popped a lot of pills and it was seldom, if ever, he would talk about his experiences in Vietnam.
He was probably suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
To better understand my friend and the Canadian soldiers now serving overseas, I recommend you read Trauma is "Easy?" on the
Respectful of Otters website. Then for a closer-to-home perspective read
Post-traumatic stress is felling more troops than the enemy which appeared in Toronto's Globe and Mail.
