The Defense Department is finally figuring out what Greek warriors and their families already knew thousands of years ago -- if you're suffering from combat trauma, you can't heal alone. Good on DoD! But there's still room for improvement. I'll explain more about that, and introduce a creative new online resource for combat veterans and their families... but first, a little history.

For generations, when our modern American warfighters came home, the best they could hope for was a parade. If they were suffering from combat trauma, no one wanted to hear about it. They were expected to suck it up and suffer in silence, alone. The result was trauma that hardened into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), broken families, and a lot of unnecessary suffering.

The Athenian warriors of ancient Greece, who went to war every summer, did things differently. Maybe you had to read all those old Greek plays and epics in high school -- "Heracles", the "Illiad", the "Odyssey"... It turns out they were all written by combat veterans, performed by combat veterans, for audiences of combat veterans.

The Greeks understood that "the process of healing from trauma lies fundamentally in communalizing it," writes Robert Emmet Meagher in his insightful book "Herakles Gone Mad". In other words, they didn't have to struggle alone.

The following passage from the play about Heracles, a traumatized combat veteran, was written 2,500 years ago by Euripides, a veteran of the Peloponnesian War. But it could have been written yesterday by many veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq who have PTSD or traumatic brain injury (TBI).

In the play, Heracles says:
"Do I still live? It seems so. My eyes see what they should...
The sky, the earth, the sun's brilliance, warm on my face.
But this wild pounding, wave after wave, against my walls, my thin borders,
this seething, terrible turbulence in my heart, like a sea in a storm...
I am plunged into it and I go down... come up... go back down...
Is there anyone there? Anyone close? Friend... nearby?
Someone to wipe my face... my mind... wash away this confusion?"

VA psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Shay has been spreading the word about the wisdom of the Greeks for years in his groundbreaking books, "Achilles in Vietnam" and "Odysseus in America." Just a note of caution: Shay's books are eye-opening but harrowing. Veterans with PTSD should be cautious about reading them on their own because it  could trigger memories that they can't deal with alone. But for families who want to understand what's going on with their traumatized veteran, these books explain it all.

Back at the DoD, they're finally getting in on the act. The Defense Department Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, http://www.dcoe.health.mil, is sending out a casting call. They're looking for warfighters with PTSD and TBI who want to volunteer to tell how and why they got help. Their stories will be videotaped and distributed to motivate other wounded warriors to do the same. It's called the "Real Warriors" program and the goal is to reduce the stigma of getting help.

While the center's director says they were inspired by the example of Greek theater, the "Real Warriors" program is a little different. It seems to be focusing only on the positive. These wounded warriors aren't being asked to publicly dig down into their suffering the way the actors in Greek theater did. Instead, according to media reports, they'll just be sharing what helped them get back into the fight.

This is good. As Meagher warns in "Herakles Gone Mad," "We must never confuse the communalization of violence with the publicizing of it. Communalization, in a theater, or anywhere else, requires a live 'audience' and live 'actors', all able to feel each other's presence and see each other's pain, what Shay has described as 'a living community to whom his [the combat veteran's] experience matters.' This means mutual recognition and commitment, not the anonymity offered by the media."

So, good on the Defense Centers of Excellence for not trying to use a videotaped shortcut to do the hard work of healing. Healing only comes through contact with other caring human beings. But for outreach to combat veterans who need help, video is great.

The DCOE still has some work to do, though, when it comes to families. Families are mentioned in the mission and mission objectives... and that's pretty much it. Yet when a warrior is wounded, the whole family is wounded. Even the Greeks knew that.

The spouses of today's combat vets with PTSD will undoubtedly recognize this ancient description of life with a traumatized warfighter. In the play, Heracles wife says:
"Ever since I've been
with Heracles, sharing his bed, standing with him,
all I seem to have done is nurse terror for him.
One night is fear, the next drives that fear out
with new fear."

In Sophocles' play "Women of Trachis", she adds:
"You must have heard about my suffering.
That's why you're here. But without being me,
you'll never understand it,
and may you never have to."

The Defense Department Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and TBI is very new, and I hope that the future will bring much more direct outreach and help for the families. But the sooner the better. These families need help now.

In the meantime, that new online resource that I mentioned in the beginning focuses more fully on families as well as warfighters. At http://www.notalone.com, combat veterans AND their families can tell their stories and be heard. They can connect with others going through the same thing and find help. There's also a crisis hotline.

I told my story to Not Alone. And I've listened to the stories of many others on that site. The homepage sums it up: "Not Alone is a community of your peers sharing stories of reclaiming their lives after war. You'll find people that 'get you.' And you'll know that you are not alone."

For thousands of years, others have walked this same path. They're still walking it with you now. You're not alone.
 
Resources:
"Achilles in Vietnam" by Jonathan Shay
"Odysseus in America" by Jonathan Shay
"Herakles Gone Mad" by Robert Emmet Meagher
"Back From the Front: Combat Trauma, Love, and the Family" by Aphrodite Matsakis
 
"Accepting the Ashes: A Daughter's Look at Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" by Quynn Elizabeth, http://www.acceptingtheashes.net

"Finding My Way: A Teen's Guide to Living with a Parent Who Has Experienced Trauma" by Michelle Sherman and DeAnne Sherman, http://www.seedsofhopebooks.com

"Courage After Fire: Coping Strategies for Returning Soldiers and Their Families" by Keith Armstrong, Suzanne Best, and Paula Domenici
 
"Downrange: To Iraq and Back" by Bridget Cantrell and Chuck Dean

http://www.dcoe.health.mil
The Defense Department Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury
 
http://www.militarymentalhealth.org
If you're worried about your mental health, take an anonymous, online self-assessment test, then find out where to get help
 
http://www.militaryonesource.com
1-800-342-9647
Information hotline available 24/7 provides help for any problem, including free confidential counseling with a civilian therapist outside the military system
 
http://www.sofarusa.org
Free confidential counseling for military families, outside the military...