Page 677 - Total War on PTSD

killing themselves is ‘hope’...[and] the fastest way to kill hope is to neutralize it with apathy, where process matters more than people.”
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Although, overall, the numerous conversations and forms of treatments regarding suicide prevention are a step in the right direction, it is also important to keep things in perspective. As with humans themselves, stakeholders in the Veterans community can benefit from the power of pause, and taking time to reflect on new treatments and alternative therapies as they emerge. “There are new ideas and new organizations popping up each week,” Rieman cautions, “although I applaud them for stretching the limits, we need to be careful about giving people false hope that sets that person up for failure.” Despite the challenges associated with so many new organizations and treatments — some of which will inevitably be more successful than others — most experts agree that progress is being made.
Nonetheless, as highlighted by Rieman, Gillums, and Toombs, we must make sure that, above all else, we maintain an environment that does not completely extinguish Veterans’ hope. Hope that they will make it through the darkest days; hope that they will work through their pain and suffering; hope that life will once again be enjoyable. The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once defined hope as “the passion for what is possible.” And for many of our nation’s Veterans, with the proper holistic emphasis on health and wellness, the possibilities are endless.
To reiterate my opening point, PTSD has a real impact on real people, and when real people are hurting, they may turn to suicide, believing it is their only way to stop their suffering. But, as evidenced by success stories like Rieman’s, this does not always have to be the case. We, as a society, still have a great deal of work to do to not only
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