Dr. Tick & PTSD

I’ve had this one certain book sitting on my shelf for a couple years. I regret to say I never picked it up to read it thoroughly until a couple months ago. A very dear friend of mine lost his life to his personal battle with PTSD. It is too late to help him, but maybe I can reach others with the information I discovered since reading the book.  That book, and Mrs. Reiss please forgive my awful citing (it’s been a few years), is War and the Soul by Edward Tick, Ph.D. (2005).  In his book Dr. Tick discusses some of the best ways to help veterans who are waging their own war against Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.  Dr. Tick has over thirty years of experience in helping soldiers heal from PTSD.  He uses some unconventional tactics (according to modern psychiatry) to help.  He has combined all his thirty years’ worth of knowledge into this one unforgettable read. 

                The first thing Dr. Tick does is to describe what PTSD is and how it comes about.  He talks about the two part process of war; “1) dehumanizing the people involved and 2) placing them and ourselves in a kill-or-be-killed situation”.  He talks about how the military removes a person’s “civilian inhibitions” by:

·         Taking a recruit’s civilian identity

·         Having them repeatedly practice ways of killing until it is an unconscious reflex

·         Taking to their breaking point, and pushing them over

·         Demeaning them as a person

·         Punishing the ones whose will is harder to break

Basically stating, they take these young men and women and throw them into some of the harshest situations imaginable.  They are barely even old enough to vote and are having to fight for their lives and the lives of those around them. It is in these moments that “the civilized brain shuts off and the savage takes over”.  Dr. Tick says that after this, there is no return to innocence” for these brave soldiers.  They are taught to lose all feelings, maybe not by their instructors or COs, but by their instincts to survive. Dr. Tick talks about how in order to keep your mind at peace during a war and soldier has to view the “enemy” (whoever it may be) as inhuman. 

It is for these reasons that Dr. Tick, along with Erik Erickson, argues that PTSD is not merely an anxiety disorder, but an identity disorder.  The returning soldiers lose a lot of who they are on the battlefield. In order to make a full recovery they have to find that human or civil side of themselves once again. For some this is harder than others. The ones at the highest risk are those that had to kill close up, or look into the face of their targets. The reason Erikson classified it as an identity disorder is because the young men and women who face battle are typically at an age where they are still developing a strong sense of self. War distorts what should be positive self-images into nightmares.  Dr. Tick states that “many veterans who cannot get on with life are boy-men (or girl-women) stuck in the psychic war zone, lost in an incomplete and horrific rite of passage”.

Of those soldiers returning home from the battlefield, it is estimated that anywhere from 25-60% show signs of PTSD. Dr. Tick believes that one reason for this is that as a society “we do not help survivors rebuild dignity and rediscover inner peace because the recovery of individuals is no longer a priority to the larger social system.” Dr. Tick describes their situation as going through a “death-rebirth” process to where they are transformed from what they used to be.

As bad as all this sounds, Dr. Tick asserts that there are several treatments for PTSD, but the veteran must be open to them.  He asserts that to return to their civility veterans must “cleanse, purify, rejoin the world community, follow the flow of life, and attain forgiveness”. It is from traditional, communal cultures that Dr. Tick derives his treatments. He saw where in Native American cultures the very first thing they did when returning from battle was to purify. One way of doing this was the sweat lodge. Dr. Tick lists several reasons why sweat lodges are the perfect purification tool for returning soldier:

·         It is a safe place

·         It serves as a symbol of transition from the warzone to a world at peace

·         It melts away the defenses they develop during combat

·         Their prayers are sincere

·         It is a communal experience (acceptance is a HUGE part of healing)

·         No one will be judged or shunned

·         Everything said is to be respected

·         It is considered a sacred space (veterans need to feel the spiritual connection)

The next part of purifying is telling their story. This is a crucial component. Having their stories heard and validated help veterans feel more at peace with their actions. Dr. Tick suggests this should be done before the general public with a facilitator there to encourage the veteran to dig deeper into their stories. This also helps the veteran to begin to rejoin society. What helps even more is for the nation as a whole to show their acceptance of the veteran. They may not like the war, but there is no reason to hold the veteran accountable for it. They are merely doing their jobs. Organizations such as Westboro Baptist Church are a large component that needs to be silenced in order to help veterans heal. 

Another point that Dr. Tick makes is that PTSD therapists need to be more open with the veteran. The veteran will open up and disclose more if the therapist is more self-disclosing themselves. The therapist must become part of the veteran’s “warrior society”. What is truly needed is a class of “noble citizen-warriors” who know what war does to a person and is willing to speak publicly about the subject.

I will leave off with this thought, while by many war is classified as an act of violence; Dr. Tick calls it an act of intimacy…

 

Tick, Edward, Ph.D. (2005). War and the Soul. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.