Combat Stress

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Combat Stress Overview

PTSD - This too, is training

Maintaining the Fight – Who’s got the Power in this?

Combat Stress Overview

Combat Stress is as old as war is.

Yes, Combat Stress is an ancient phenomena.  But today, we know more about how our minds, brains and bodies work than we ever have.  And by leveraging this knowledge we can overcome, nay crush, even this ancient soldier’s foe.

There are many books and training manuals on Combat Stress and what it is.  MHC is focused on what to do about it.  HOW you overcome this experience and even grow and become stronger on the other side of it.

Combat Stress has been called many things; Battle Fatigue, Operational Stress Injury, Shell Shock, Soldier's Heart during the US Civil War...and it will likely receive new names in the future.  Differences in terminology exist between countries, but it is the same experience.

Combat Stress has three aspects; Traumatic Stress, Operational Stress and Non-Operational Stress which you will learn about in MHC training.  Often it is also called PTSD although you may have Combat Stress without having all the symptoms of PTSD or CPTSD.

PTSD - This too, is training

When people are told they ‘have’ PTSD, often an inner collapse begins to occur as that person may immediately start to think – “My life is over.  I’m fucked.  People die from this.  I know people who have.  I’m done.”  This is exactly what not to do.

Instead, try to think about PTSD in terms of “this too is training.”

PTSD is a four-letter acronym that ‘lives’ in the military world.  It lives outside that world as well, but let’s keep this on point for the moment as a 'soldier’s' challenge.  That four-letter acronym lives with many other three and four-letter acronyms that are really tough.  Take SERE training as an example.  There are many, many others.  That’s the point.

The mindset that is required to get through SERE is exactly the same mindset that must be applied to PTSD.  Both of these four-letter acronyms are tough and therefore, using that superpower that many personnel develop, because that’s what gets you through and out of really hard training, is the same superpower needed to get through PTSD and other aspects of Combat Stress. 

PTSD is a really 'steep hill' that has to be climbed.  Now imagine that you have a real prick of an instructor whose job it is to do everything he can think of to keep you from getting up that hill.  No really, he's a gem.  And, he has access to every part of your life.  He can mess with anything about you; physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually and financially – all of it, in any combination, at any time.  He is both creative and committed.  Not good.  You have to get to the top of the hill regardless of what he does to you.

That’s a good summary of what PTSD is like.  In order to get through and out, you have to get your thinking right.

Back to SERE and other training examples...you already know that when engaged in training courses such as this, or any other hard thing, there is you before the hard thing, you during the hard thing, and there will be you after the hard thing.  Some people refer to this as traumatic growth.  

There is no way to not be changed by these challenges, but that's ok.  Because these hard things, during training cycles or in life generally, force us to level up.  It's the analogy of the steep hill.  In order to get up the hill, you have to let go of what will no longer serve you and you have to level up in some way in order to reach the top. 

Mindset is critical to maintaining the will to get up the hill.  And you know, because you've done it many times with all the other hard things, that there will be a payoff at the top of that miserable hill.  You have become a better version of you.

PTSD is a very steep hill and so much leveling up will be required.  Good.  Imagine how much smarter, stronger, more capable you'll be once you get to the top.

This too is 'training.'

Understanding this concept is important whether you are a soldier, airman, police officer, firefighter, contractor...

Maintaining the Fight – Who’s got the Power in this?

Many people think PTSD is their problem.  When you ask them, what’s going on with you, what’s the problem?  They say, I have PTSD.  That’s not the problem.

That’s a label, a category, a name.  It’s a way to draw a perimeter around an experience so we can call it something.  It’s not the problem.  And you can’t let it be.

You have to avoid the inner collapse.  PTSD is just another four-letter acronym  that lives in your world.  It is essential that you manage it, and NOT have it manage you.  To do that you must keep the power dynamic in the right place – YOU over it. 

In order to manage it, break it down and keep it simple.  What is the problem that you are having the greatest difficulty with right now?  That may be different from what was most difficult two weeks ago and it may change again a month from now.  This can be a fluid situation and as you work your way through and out, symptoms (indicators that are communicating important information to you) feedback from others etc.  will help you narrow down what is the problem now, and then now, and then now, as you work through, resolve, and then meet the next problem.  This is management and this is how you find your way through and out. 

You have the power in this situation.  You keep your power by using the superpower of mindset, breaking your situations down and identifying the current problem, setting up a strategy to meet and overcome that problem then moving on to the next until you are out.

Keep the power dynamic where it needs to be – YOU over it.

Part of managing this challenge is learning about what hacks, techniques and strategies you can use to overcome it.  Learn these before you need them.  Encourage your teams to learn them BEFORE they need this information. 

The time to have the map is before you go into the woods.

MHC training works for those in the PTSD experience, (you're on the hill) and for those who haven't seen the hill on the horizon yet but know they could be called up for this 'training' course at any time.  Better to know, before you need to know.  Got it?  Proceed to the training pages.