Quote:The root of the treat­ment has to come from meeting those who suffer
where they are. It isn’t just hard oper­a­tors. It’s clerks and
phle­botomists and chem­ical engi­neers. It’s people who thought they
were fine, only to wake up one morning and realize that the last few
years have changed them in ways they don’t quite under­stand. It isn’t
just sol­diers and cops and ER nurses. Life in poverty can bring on PTSD. An abu­sive parent can have the same effect.

We need to treat the fear, address the world view, acknowl­edging
that these aren’t things you cure, maybe aren’t even things you change.
We need to tip our hat to the trauma, and look instead at what the life
after it looks like. We have to find a way to con­struct
sig­nif­i­cance, to help a changed person forge a path in a world that
hasn’t changed along with them.

And if you’re a vet, or an EMT, or a cop,
or fire­fighter and you’re reading this, I want you to know that you
can’t put the cur­tain back, but it’s pos­sible to build ways to move
for­ward, to find alter­na­tives to the rush of crisis. There are ways
you can matter. There is a way to rejoin the dust of the world, to find
your own space on the dance floor.

I know this.

Because I did it, am still doing it, every day.

Don’t give up.