Page 50 - Total War on PTSD

that their experiences in the war zone have opened their eyes to the true potential of humans. These beliefs are challenged and actions, including the Veteran’s actions in the combat zone must be viewed in the context they occurred. Reflecting to combat Veterans that they have not taken lives since returning home and that their actions, as well as the actions of their enemies, happened in specific and isolated environments can help with letting go of these generalizations.
No matter what form of trauma treatment the Veteran attends, it will involve elements of exposure to both environments/feared situations and their trauma memories. This exposure is essential to help the combat Veteran learn to sit with their anxiety and not be avoidant of it, as well as help them gain a sense of competency in handling feared situations. Through exposure, the Veteran learns that their memories cannot hurt them, as well as the negative events they were fearing when going out are not actually happening or occurring. Underlying their agitation and anxiety are primary emotions with which they are uncomfortable and that have remained unresolved. By processing their trauma, they learn to sit with these emotions, become tolerant to them, and eventually reintegrate them into their experience. The core to healing PTSD is to help the Veteran to reintegrate their emotions and learn to be comfortable with them. Over time, this helps breaks numbing, reduce dissociative symptoms, helps them feel more connected to their world and people, as well as reduces their anxiety and anger. Until combat Veterans reintegrate their emotions, they will convey that they feel like they are just “going through the motions” day-to-day and they do not actually enjoy their lives or feel connected to them.
It is human nature for a combat Veteran to harbor guilt over their peers being injured or killed, even if events were unpredictable or not within their control. Throughout their military career, the combat Veteran has been inculcated with the belief that if they follow their training, they can overcome any obstacle and defeat their enemy. Although this mentality and training certainly helps them persevere in aversive situations, no one can ever have complete control over events in a combat zone no matter how great of a warrior they may be. Inevitably, individuals will at times get hurt and be killed. This leaves the combat Veteran with the sense that in some way them must have failed or done something wrong. Consistently the combat Veteran will hold onto their belief they should have been able to change the situation to prevent the trauma from occurring. By carefully processing events as they actually occurred, the combat Veteran can gain
50 of 1042