Around this time last year I was in the beginning stages of healing from the wounds of post-traumatic stress that had haunted me for over 16 years. My cry for help finally came during the second day of the inaugural Illinois Firefighter Peer Support training held in Bolingbrook in April of 2014. On that day I made a phone call to initiate counseling with one of the best FPS therapists I know, and the rest is a living history. Through a combination of psychotherapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, yoga, nutrition response testing, massage therapy, and reiki (Cody and I will touch on these topics as part of the ILFFPS Holistic Wellness Initiative) I have become a more centered and peaceful human being. Along the way I discovered that talking can be some of the best medicine.
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In the recent online article Dropping the ‘D’ in PTSD is becoming the norm in Washington (2015, June 30), Washington Post columnist Colby Itkowitz related how politicians and veteran’s advocates are changing terminology when referring to post-traumatic stress disorder, in the hope of reducing the stigma attached to this social anxiety disorder. Itkowitz noted that during a recent speaking engagement, former President George W. Bush said that from now on he would drop the word disorder and only refer to PTSD as “Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS)”. Likewise, when President Obama hosted a White House gathering for veterans, he never used the word disorder. Congress also seems to be taking up this new cause.