Religious people are very good at proposing prayer and religious service as an answer for existential problems, mental illness, and even physical ills. But other secularists and freethinkers have experience with these issues as well, and they should have their say. Here, Costas, shares his experiences and thoughts about PTSD from an secular perspective.
Bad things happen. Everywhere. Everyday. Today, a large portion of the developed or first world citizens have never witnessed firsthand the effects of war. For most, conscription is a thing from a bygone era, so most of our young men and women will never witness the atrocities, pain, and death of war. Witnessing these things can, and does, leave deep scars on the psyche. These effects are commonly referred to as PTSD. These symptoms can include, but are not limited to: flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, emotional numbness, and that edgy feeling that occurs after something traumatic happens. Bearing in mind that PTSD can strike any person who has survived all kinds of abuse and/or other trauma, I would like to focus on the veterans. There are hundreds of thousands of men and women and recent military veterans who have seen combat. They have been shot at, seen friends killed or witnessed death up close. The USDVA (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) estimates that PTSD afflicts up to 30 percent of its soldiers who have been in combat situations. There are many forms of treatment for PTSD; some examples include art therapy, medicine, different types of therapy with a psychiatrist or psychologist, support groups, and even, believe it or not, prayer. Before I delve deeper into this, I have to divulge that I am a long-time PTSD sufferer. I have tried many different things to deal with it, but have seen many friends and people from my support groups turn to faith as a means to get past this. I have read many articles, heard from many people on this issue, and have heard of it referred to as “restoring faith”. The thinking is that this kind of severe trauma can rattle someone to their core, challenging their sense of self, their sense of meaning and purpose in life and indeed their spiritual beliefs. Religion, in addition to everything else, is seen as a source of meaning and purpose to millions of people all over the world, and for many, their sense of wellbeing is directly connected to their religious beliefs. In fact, in 2004, Dr. Alan Fontana and Dr. Robert Rosenheck (in a study that included 1385 veterans) found that the experiences of the veterans witnessing or failing to prevent one or multiple deaths in combat weakened their religious faith and increased feelings of guilt. They asserted that the severity of the PTSD symptoms and social functioning had no bearing on whether or not vets sought mental health care, but rather, the veterans were driven to seek help for their feelings of guilt and loss of faith; that they may have been looking to assign meaning and purpose to the trauma that they experienced through religion and faith. Personally, through my own experience and from what I have seen in group discussions, a lot of people like me suffer from survivor’s guilt. It is my opinion that the main “theme” to the start of recovery is forgiveness. I haven’t read a study on this, this is purely my own opinion. Firstly, forgiveness from my fellow soldiers’ families that I came back and not their father/brother/son/mother/sister/wife/husband/etc... Secondly, forgiveness from my fellow soldier, at least in my mind, because I couldn’t save him/her. Thirdly, forgiveness from my friends and family, because I’m not the same person anymore, because I’m ill-tempered, don’t talk as much, and as they put it themselves, broken. Finally, forgiveness from myself. This is the most important step I believe because you come to the realization that it’s ok. It’s ok that I survived. It’s ok that I am who I am now. It’s ok that I am troubled. And it’s ok to seek help. There is no shame in seeking help, and there is no shame in admitting that you need help. I think that this is the alternative that religion offers most sufferers. I have heard of religion being called an “easy” cure for PTSD, in that God is all powerful and all forgiving. Something that took me months to get to, potentially a religious person can get to and feel in minutes all thanks to this large safety blanket or forgiving yumminess. This is a dangerous train of thought, and of course a very dangerous course of treatment. This person needs professional help. Not a quick fix that will have him possibly breaking down months or years down the line like a car that has been through a patch up job after it was almost a right off. PTSD is most certainly NOT a “faith deficit disorder”. PTSD is real. Historically, it can be traced back to almost 4000 years ago in ancient Egypt, where Egyptian writers described PTSD symptoms; even Homer’s Iliad communicates a profound understanding of PTSD and its symptoms, and the price it exacts on its sufferers. It is cruel to tell people they can only get rid of it with faith. It has been proven that PTSD creates structural changes in the brain (specifically the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the medial frontal cortex). This damage interferes with processing memory and emotion and with “assessing and determining how to respond to threats”. People forget that when we (yes all of us), through our elected officials and leaders, send members of our military forces into combat, we have a moral obligation to those soldiers and veterans to treat them all with love and patience, to listen to their stories and to try help them bear the weight of it all and to heal from psychological and spiritual injuries. This responsibility lies on all of us, whether we are religious or not and whether the returning injured soldier is religious or not. We are all people, and we all deserve love and understanding. Roland. Toronto.
