Catherine Lieb – Listening to Stories of War
Veterans Day this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Vietnam War Memorial. It’s the most visited memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC. For those who have lost a loved one, Veterans Day is a day of mourning and celebration of a life cut short. Veterans Day is also a day to remember joyful homecomings and …
Anniversaries of war events that made headlines back home or personal experiences like the day you were wounded or lost a buddy, can trigger post-traumatic stress reactions. The key to riding the waves of reexperiencing combat stress is seeking support from other veterans or loved ones. Locking yourself away is like trying to put a lid on an erupting volcano, eventually, it blows when you least expect it.
In 1974 a public defender tried to use a “traumatic war neurosis” defense for a Vietnam veteran who was facing prison time for a breaking and entering charge. The judge refused the war neurosis defense saying it was not an official diagnosis in DSM-II, the current edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. …
A recent headline in Stars and Stripes reads, “Senators express concern about veterans’ mental health in wake of Ukraine invasion.” Read Article Here The article describes a letter US senators sent to Veterans Affairs urging the VA to reach out to veterans who may be experiencing problems with PTSD. They fear images of the Russian …
It’s that time of year to reflect on what we are grateful for. Beyond my usual list of family, friends, etc., I am grateful for the end of US troops fighting in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, my gratitude is complicated by the shame of a chaotic withdrawal and the bitter reality of the ongoing suffering of the …
A nonveteran client of mine, I’ll call her Susan, did three courses of therapy over about fifteen years. Each time we focused on resolving her presenting problem, while we worked on healing her deeper wounds from childhood. In one particularly lively session Susan told me about a difficult conversation in which she told her sister, …
My plan was to launch this blog with posts about PTSD, its origins, the controversy over diagnostic labels, etc. It took weeks of struggle for me to hear the voice inside saying, an intellectual discussion about PTSD can wait. What do you really want to write about? Since late August heartbreaking images have been seeping into …