July/August 2006 Issue of
Tikkun Magazine,
Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War
Now in its fourth year, the vaunted "asymmetrical" warfare taking place in
Iraq has introduced America's enlisted persons to unheard of levels of violence
and trauma. In Flashback, Vietnam War widow Penny Coleman, who lost her own
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-suffering husband to suicide, makes
a heartfelt case for caring for the emotional lives of veterans. Interviewing
women whose spouses returned home from combat only to fatally succumb to
its effects afterward, Coleman writes of the prevalence of PTSD and suicide
amongst Iraq war vets, and how, through opening sharing our stories of loss,
we can help heal yet another generation of walking wounded. |