Last Updated 10/1/2016
We are an informal, anonymous independent band of Combat Veterans come together to help one another address our problems around Post Traumatic Soul Distress (PTSD) and related issues outside of the VA and the mental Health Industry at large w(ho have demonstrated for half a century that they are systemically incapable of dealing with it in any useful way). We emphasize reducing Veteran Suicide but our ultimate objective is to address all the significant issues with which Veterans and their families are dealing.
Our primary focus is, and will remain, working on the issue of Veteran Suicide. We will address as many other issues as we are able (which turns out to be quite a few, actually), but they will always be secondary to Post Traumatic Soul Distress (PTSD) and the death, devastation and tragedy it leaves in its wake.
We are organizing ourselves as a “flat” organization made of co-equal Peer Support Groups with no governing hierarchy. This model supports empathy as the proven path to recovery. This is because PTSD (as was discovered in the early ‘70s) is a) a spiritual issue and NOT a “Mental Illness and therefore is (and will remain) b) impervious to conventional methodology as practiced by the VA and the mental health industry at large (with NO notable success for half a century now. Cultures that are/have been successful in its remediation employ holistic modalities that involve the entire community. It is these practices that we incorporate and emulate, as a village, that have proven successful down through the ages.
The Corporation and the Peer Groups that it creates and supports is, and will remain independent of all outside organizations. As a matter of fundamental policy, we will be dedicate ourselves to financial as well as policy independence. The function of the non-profit corporation Veterans Helping Veterans Heal Themselves Inc. is to help create, support and provide guidance to the Peer Groups. It does NOT govern. Corporate officers will be drawn from a pool of people nominated by the groups within the corporation. The primary function of the Corporation is to function as a repository for information around holistic solutions for Veterans’ issues and a platform for the individual Peer-Groups’ or Chapters’ revenue generating efforts
One crucial aspect of managing PTSD (or any problem or adversary) is to know your enemy, and to that end, we will all devote substantial time dedicated to reading up on the nature of the beast I doubt this is the first time you’ve been told that understanding your enemy gives you a huge leg up in defeating him. Ed Tick’s books War and the Soul and Warriors’ Return, being pretty much the best references available, will top our list. They are available online for $12 – $18. We feel strongly that they are essential to understanding PTSD and are pretty much required reading in our groups.
Together, we can: