Page 423 - Total War on PTSD

“One small crack does not mean that you are broken, it means that you were put to the test and you didn't fall apart.” - Linda Poindexter
Courtenay: The question of my own personal faith, or rather of anyone's personal faith, I feel is something that each person must figure out on their own and not for the faith to be true, be forced upon them.
Recovering from the invisible wounds of combat is always difficult but, when you are able to follow clear steps towards that recovery with the support of religion, the journey can be at least a little easier.
For some Veterans, that support can make a significant difference. In my own case, faith helped me to better understand my new needs, as opposed to my former needs.
I learned that you can't go back. Finding the path to your own peace is the objective and it's forward, not back. You are a different person now and you need to understand that in order to make things, and yourself, better.
My own PTSD made me unable to recognize how war had changed me and what I needed to do to improve my quality of life.
My own religious faith helped me to accept those essential truths. Of course that may not be your experience. Some Veterans may have been abused by clergy, or other individuals, when they were children, as teens or even grownups. But many more Veterans had positive experiences with their pastors, priests and rabbis...and other individual’s.
Today there are many religion-based PTSD support organizations out there. In this chapter you're going to hear from John Dale as he describes his group. I have not personally witnessed REBOOT in operation. He describes it as a "healing course" that directly "tackles" the invisible wounds of war through faith in Christ.
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