Page 315 - Total War on PTSD

It’s almost like, two recovering people. In a program, like, of addiction. Only one addict can know another addict. Only one alcoholic can understand another alcoholic. That’s how the program actually works. Cause if a regular person came and talked to them about their problem, they probably wouldn’t even listen to him, cause they don’t feel you relate. This is the same thing with PTSD. For me, this is my opinion. That if I’m talking to someone who understands how I’m feeling, it’s. It’s lighter. The load. It feels... it’s, I’m recovering at that moment. That I’m talking to someone who understands.
Ultimately, however, since Veterans feel isolated and alienated from civilian society, it is society that must accommodate traumatized Veterans’ return and work to minimize their loneliness. In this respect I concur with Nancy Sherman that, “Recovery is a matter of shared moral engagement,” and, therefore, “the afterwar belongs to us all” (Sherman, 2015, p. 3). This may be accomplished both by engaging Veterans to tell their stories and share their experiences and by de-stigmatizing war-induced trauma. As Paula Caplan (2011, p. xvi) notes:
Simply sending frightened, angry soldiers off to therapists conveys disturbing messages: that we don’t want to listen, that we’re afraid we’re not qualified to listen, and that they should talk to someone who gets paid to listen. The implication is that their devastation is abnormal, that it is a mental illness, and this only adds to their burdens. Yet since there’s intense debate even among experts about the definition of mental illness, it’s all the more important for the rest of us to let returnees know that we don’t consider them weak or crazy for having problems.
To overcome the stigma of mental-illness, there have been attempts to change the terminology being used. Rather than speaking of mental disorder or illness, it is
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