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The clinical expression of PTS is simply an extension
of this short-term suffering. Sometimes, as with
combat, the painful memories are too complicated,
or too horrible, or there are too many of them
to let them play out in a way that allows healing
from them. Also, in the case with combat, there is
simply no time for this natural progression of the
experience. For many combat veterans who have
lived through something traumatic, the next patrol
or flight or patient is waiting for us, and people
depend on us to be able to do our jobs. There is
no time to stop and feel the short-term effects of
what happened. In these cases, the adaptive thing
is to avoid the memory; avoid thinking about it, put
it away to deal with later.
The problem with combat is that many of our
veterans today have been avoiding dealing with
it for years. Once we figure out how to avoid, we
get really good at it. Again, for many people this
works, but everyone has a limit. The experience
or experiences (often cumulative with combat as
you can imagine) eventually demand that we pay
attention to them, at last giving them the time they
need to be processed.
The symptoms of PTS are simply symptoms of
that avoidance. We experience the event in many
ways, including through dreams or nightmares,
intrusive images or flashbacks. We feel the anxiety,
fear and horror again through general feelings of
being unsafe, afraid, irritable, and very vigilant –
and things like loud noises make us jump. And we
feel numb, a defense mechanism that protects us
from the cumulative effect of waiting all this time to
finally REALLY FEEL the grief — or the loss, or the
fear, or the terror or horror or the exhaustion. Numb
is easier. The problem is, numb, disconnected and
withdrawn, and avoiding anything that reminds
the person of the event, causes dysfunction in our
lives. We avoid restaurants and movie theaters as
they are crowded and loud and we can’t clearly
see the exit. We avoid group gatherings of former
comrades, although these have the potential to
be healing. And we avoid time with our families
because children are unpredictable — when of
course this is what we crave most of all.
PTS can be treated, and treatment works. It involves
3-4 months of therapy that involves processing the
events. This experience often leads to growth and
greater resilience.
Combat vets who have experienced PTS are just
like all of us. They lived through something awful.
But maybe unlike us, they didn’t have time to take
off their packs and let the experience work itself out
the way many of us have. They had to go right back
to protecting people.
Many persons with PTS try to hide what they are
going through. They feel that they will be labeled,
discounted or unfairly judged. During the times
that the person is not “okay,” he/she may feel that
they must deal with it alone. We are not mental
health professionals, but we can create a healing
environment in the workplace with a simple rule. Let
persons with PTS know that it is okay not to be
okay. Silence about PTS causes far more problems
in the workplace than PTS does.
When the silence of PTS is lifted in the workplace,
those persons with PTS can speak to supervisors
about their needs. Supervisors will be more
confident and open to one of the hundreds of
workplace accommodations and solutions for PTS
that are currently available to them through the Job
Accommodation Network.
We must lift the silence. Otherwise we will have
employees with PTS that may be affecting job
performance who are afraid to talk about it to their
supervisor, and supervisors who suspect what
is wrong but feel they can’t talk about it to the
employee. There are no winners at the inevitable
conclusion of this scenario.
Human Resource Professionals need to state the
obvious. If hiring wounded warriors is worth doing,
it’s worth doing it right.
HR
Want more on this topic? Join Richard at
HR West
®
and build your accommodation
leadership strategy. For more about
Richard Pimentel, see page 10.
> “THE PROBLEM WITH
COMBAT IS THAT MANY OF OUR
VETERANS TODAY HAVE BEEN
AVOIDING DEALING WITH IT
FOR YEARS. ONCE WE FIGURE
OUT HOW TO AVOID, WE GET
REALLY GOOD AT IT.”
