Post-Trauma Growth Awareness Month of June… My own journey of healing…

by | Jun 4, 2013

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“Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can occur after someone goes through a traumatic event like combat, assault, or disaster. Most people have some stress reactions after a trauma. If the reactions don’t go away over time or disrupt your life, you may have PTSD.”

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Returning home from war… click this link…

What is PTSD?   National Center for PTSD June 2016

The goal of my book and this blog since the beginning has been to raise awareness of PTSD.  I spent the first 64 years of my life not knowing about moral injury and combat stress, especially how it affects the families of warriors returning home.  During my childhood we lived in a chaotic and abusive home.  Even after leaving home, it appeared convenient to push all the bad stuff under the rug and move on. For so many years there was a knot in my stomach that never went away.  I always felt troubled emotionally, but never understood why… I used intense exercise, adventure, and my professional life to channel all this hyper-vigilance and anxiety.  My home life was the most challenging when there was a little free time on my hands.  With the help of my courageous and devoted wife I took small steps over the years to rid myself of anxiety and depression, but never knew or understood the root cause.  It was following retirement that, with continued support from loved ones and friends, it became more urgent to revisit my childhood and early adulthood to put my own life experiences in perspective.

Since researching and publishing my book in November 2011, my life has been transformed.  I no longer have a knot in my stomach and there is  very little anger left in my heart.  Much of my time, in these joyful later years in life, is spent helping others and making a difference in my community as a major part of my own journey of healing.  It is in the spirit of my book, Reconciliation: A Son’s Story, and writing this blog daily that my goal is to help others take the first step toward healing by becoming aware of moral injury and PTSD.  Please take some quality time this month and learn more about PTSD.  Then start your own conversation with others and perhaps your own journey of healing.  It is not easy, and continues to be a work in progress.  For me, it has been worth all the sweat equity and time ten fold to finally have peace of mind.  My life has been transformed and each day is now a blessing and full of promise for the future…

Be well and help others who suffer from post-trauma stress, especially the children and families who are the caregivers of our heroes both military and 1st responders.

Steve Sparks, Author, Reconciliation: A Son’s Story and My Journey of Healing in Life After Trauma, Part 1&2…

P.S. Take a look at these helpful ideas below from the National Center for PTSD.

Do you think treatment is only for people with extreme problems? Have you ever felt that you just don’t have time for treatment with all the other things in your life? The truth is that trauma can happen to anyone, and getting help is taking a step forward, not weakness. Making PTSD treatment a priority will help you get back control of your life.
This week’s step challenges you to think about all the benefits of getting help for PTSD, supporting someone in treatment, or learning how to offer the best care for your clients.

  • Meet Veterans who faced PTSD and turned their lives around at AboutFace.
  • VA providers can use the VA PTSD Consultation Program to get peer support for clinical practice, assessment, improving care, or programmatic issues.

Take the Step: Explore the options.

What can you do if you need help for PTSD? Whether you are learning to manage your own symptoms or you are a caregiver looking for resources, you have options. The steps you take to get care should be the ones that are best for you.
This week’s step gives you information about options for care and support resources to help you make the best choices for yourself or your clients.

About the author

Steve Sparks is a retired information technology sales and marketing executive with over 35 years of industry experience, including a Bachelors’ in Management from St. Mary’s College. His creative outlet is as a non-fiction author, writing about his roots as a post-WWII US Navy military child growing up in the 1950s-1960s.
View all posts by stevesparks →

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