“Although the world is a shit storm on some accounts, I like it that it’s becoming more open and progressive for guys to finally get some real help for all the mind fucking we are subject to in war. You bet we choose it, and for all the right reasons. I am going to protect this nation, every citizen, every constitutional right, every grain of sand, and I am going to fight for those beliefs. I will do my best to serve this country and go wherever I am required to go. But dammit, that is a brutal task on the mind, and so when I come home, can someone recognize what me and the thousands of soldiers and Marines do for this land, and wrap your arms around us and help us get our minds back to a safe place again? A place where we can actually process reasonable thoughts and ideas? Where it wouldn’t feel like a scent, or a bump in the road was going to trigger a horrific memory and the wrath of hell was swallowing us up whole and vomiting us back out over and over again like a rag doll?

I know guys so tough, strong and brave, that they have the courage to relentlessly storm bomb ridden buildings, face sniper fire 18 hours a day, carry off limbless brothers while rockets rip around them. They are beaten, bruised, shot, and have to kill others night after night after night. They go without food, without sleep, without decent weapons, and boots. We have marched until our backs blistered and the skin on our feet peeled off in layers. Yet, these same guys come home and can’t make it through a few months or a year trying to transition into society. They will eventually complete the act of suicide. Why does it have to be like that?

PTSD is real. It is so damn real and terrifying. It doesn’t just affect veterans and soldiers. It can affect anyone in a life threatening experience, or someone who feels their life is in extreme danger. Trauma and stress. I am a character in the book Orion One, yes, but I had to be based on something, someone real. I speak for the hundreds of veterans and soldiers who need a voice for recovery. What I do know, is that PTSD can be overcome, and you can take back your life, your thoughts, your health, your way of living. Americans, Australians, Brits, Canadians….no one is immune, and we can all help each other through research, programs, help centers, hotlines, community groups, and destigmatizing speaking about it.

Significant research and treatment has progressed in simply “Sitting with the trauma” with the help of trained professionals. The by nature response with PTSD is the “Flight” or (get the fuck away from it and burry it quick this sucks approach).  However, doctors and scientists are learning that actually sitting and recognizing the traumatic event for long periods of time, will let you gain a witness perspective, and eventually ( severely) lessens the degree the trauma physically and emotionally effects you.

My teammate Screech, I call him the Professor, because he is so smart. Well, he uses a similar technique for all of us. He dabbles in a little quantum physics, and throws in some of this woo woo universe Soul stuff in the mix, and some religion; however, I relate to his theory his theory because I am a pretty religious guy. Here goes: Screech said to picture my soul as being created by this great mass of energy, call it God if I want to (which I do), and its out there with countless billions of other souls of energy waiting for a vehicle. That vehicle is a body. When a lady is about  to give birth, the soul releases from this big mass, travels down, and enters a baby….sort of like climbing into the drivers seat of a car. Now the soul (me, my soul) will be born in a vehicle. The vehicle has an operating system: A windshield (eyes), wheels (legs and arms), a motor (brain), transmission (heart), carburetor (lungs) etc….but the soul is what is me and generating all the ideas, the initial power, the drive, the Intel chip for the computer. The soul (me) can choose, and then pass ideas to the brain to be filtered, stored , and managed. The brain is not only the motor that keeps the body operating, but it is a computer that stores and retrieves information.

          Screech believes dealing with the trauma becomes easier when you understand the separateness of the mind and brain, the soul and the body. Separating yourself from trauma becomes easier. Then you can actually sit with it more peacefully, and almost visualize this “Soul minion” finding the “documentary of the trauma” that has been wrecking havoc in your brain, capturing it, finding a file folder for it, labeling it something like “Movies to never watch”, or “Confidential do not open”.  Sometimes its even better to watch the trauma a few dozen times with the guys from Mystery Science 2000, and give commentary, until it becomes either ridiculous, or just ok that its there.

I have a lot of faith that the world is a progressive place, and that humankind IS kind. I believe that we don’t want veterans returning home after defending and serving our country, and then suffering and committing suicide.

If you are brave enough to rush the front lines, or clear a building, or sit through night after night of artillery rounds; then you are most assuredly strong enough to find the warrior within you and seek treatment. #SOULdiersSurvive #PTSDisreal