Surviving Trauma: PTSD and “Battling Bare”

My novel MRS. LIEUTENANT deals with the fears in 1970 that newly married wives at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, had of their husbands being killed in Vietnam.

I know those fears because I personally had those in 1970.

What I realize now, so many years later, is that, had my husband gone to Vietnam and survived, he would have come home a changed man.

Today this aftereffect of trauma is called PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – and it can be triggered many years after a trauma event (not necessarily combat trauma) and can severely impact the life of the PTSD sufferer as well as his or her family and friends.

For the past four years I have done volunteer work online to help spread information about PTSD. And some of you already know about my newest project to focus attention on PTSD – the proposed TV drama Solomon’s Justice. (Click here to read this proposal.)

Battling Bare:

The news article “Military Wives Strip Down to Raise Awareness About PTSD: Battling Bare” by Sarah B. Weir in Shine (from Yahoo!) is a poignant story of one military wife trying to get help for her husband.

As I have explained to non-military people, while the military says it wants to help active-duty military personnel who suffer from PTSD, there is a huge risk of reaching out for help, as Ashley Wise found out when she contacted the Family Advocacy Service at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

In desperation, she had a friend use eyeliner to write on her bare back the following:

Broken by battle,
Wounded by war,
I love you forever,
To you this I swore:
I will quiet your silent screams,
Help heal your shattered soul
Until once again, my love, you are whole.

Wise posted a picture of her bare back on Facebook(“like” the Page at https://www.facebook.com/BattlingBare) and started the organization Battling Bare – “until every soldier is whole.”

Read Wise's compelling story now.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the thriller CIA FALL GUY as well as the co-author of the technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.