New Approach on Overcoming Combat Trauma

I’ve been doing a lot of speaking to Troops returning from combat about my own experiences of  effectively dealing with Combat Trauma which most Warriors, past and present, are challenged with.  I wrote a book about it… The Warriors Guide to Insanity.

The keys to my success results from changes in the current thinking about the treatment of Combat Trauma.  It’s shifting from a Disease or Illness modality (something that happens to Warriors caused by mental illness or disease resulting from combat stress) to a Cognitive-Perceptive perspective (something that is a latent part of everyone’s mental processes and awakened in the Warrior through training and further nurtured by combat experiences).  Solutions to the negative aspects of this phenomenon can be achieved from two perspectives:

  1. Proactively, using Prevention by Inoculation or enhanced understanding approaches.
  2. Recovery and Clinical Intervention solutions involving enhancing the Warriors understanding of the self and coaching on the approaches to achieve self-directed recovery.

Simply stated, the process involves:

1.  Enhancing understanding:

  • Of the self, at the cognitive level and the role awakening the primal self (the Monster or the Beast) during the training and combat experience is necessary to achieve Unit Cohesion and success in battle and which is further nurtured by combat experiences, drives the Warrior mind-set.
  • These feelings once initiated never go away; the lust for the adrenaline rush of battle will always exist.
  • These feeling are normal and reoccur in most Warriors long after their combat experiences.
  • Unresolved, these feeling can negatively impact the Warrior’s life in many ways, sometimes ending in suicide or the abuse or death of others.
  • It’s possible to control these feelings and Innovate, Adapt and Overcome to achieve a meaningful life.

2.  Solutions:

  • Confrontation & Reprogramming the self by enhanced understanding, obtaining help from professionals and other Warriors further down the path to recovery as well as self discovery with help from others.
  • Mastering techniques to Innovate, Adapt and Overcome.
  • Using achievements to make further progress by helping others who are at other points along their journey.

This is the foundational thesis of my book The Warriors Guide to Insanity.

This was further reinforced by some recent information posted on my website you might find helpful.

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