PTSD sufferer Roy Smith has learned, “Understanding you have a choice is one of the most important steps to winning your freedom from the hell that is PTSD.”

Sleep for most people is something they look forward to at the end of a long day. The same used to be true for me. All that changed once I went to war. Then the nightmares found me and sleep ceased to be a respite from the day’s stress and fatigue. In the intervening years, I have learned a fair amount about sleep and dreams and especially nightmares.

Once your soldier has returned from deployment, you may be very eager to get into a routine. But what if your soldier is not? Do they seem more distant, angry, stressed or are they avoiding conversation? The excitement of homecoming can blind our reality, and in many cases spouses will either ignore the signs or just not know how to handle the situation.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is becoming more common today with soldiers returning from single or multiple deployments. PTSD is a very severe anxiety disorder that if left untreated can have devastating consequences for the soldier as well as their families. So how do you know when your soldier needs medical attention?

What many of us who have been to war learn to understand is that, even when we have traumatic experiences dealing with life and death, once the war is over for us and we return home those feelings do not go away. All too often, like with myself, we become closed off emotionally to our loved ones and friends. We even go to such lengths as to learn to press down or bury our reactions and emotions our others. For me in particular, this meant I pressed down the parts of my character that hurt if I showed emotions.

Roy Smith speaks with Dr. Jessica Stern, who served as a staff member at the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration, about her new book “Denial” and her experiences with PTSD.

It may be hard to fathom why those like me with PTSD would be angry and jealous of you. I understand and will give you my best effort to explain it. Put simply, some of us have lost the ability to enjoy the good things in everyday life and society.

Everyone with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, has a “moment of clarity”. A moment when they realize they are not the same person they used to be and the world has changed forever from their perspective. For those like me, the diagnosis for many years was simply an acronym which meant I had to attend counseling sessions, medical appointments, and take medications.

With all the research being done on PTSD why is there still a stigma surrounding this disorder? Far too often we ignore the symptoms and for what? Recently I read two articles that made me reconsider my perspective of this disorder.

It’s important for all of us to learn to how cope with our anger. People with PTSD may experience higher levels of anger than most of us and in some cases may not be able to handle or control it. Understanding how anger works and how it relates to PTSD can be the first step toward controling how it effects your life.

Paralyzed Veterans is the only congressionally chartered organization entirely dedicated to veterans with spinal cord injuries and diseases. They work to empower paralyzed veterans by offering them the means to be independent while supporting research and treatment options.   PV has helped people like Aubrey Youngs find a life for herself after a fluke accident [...]