Recognizing PTSD Then and Now!

And I think it’s with anything where people are like, oh all these horrible things are happening in the world now but it’s like, well is it just now or is it that there’s so much more media, there’s so much more communications now we just know about all these things happening. I know when I was a kid we didn’t always know what would happen in the states if something, you know, if there was a car crash down there but now it’s on the radio, you know, we know everything instantly. And I think it was always there. I think it’s there now because people are recognizing it now and addressing it right? When you are in the military culture you think family life, to see a family go the long haul can be a rare thing. It’s a struggle with repeated deployments and moving around and everything else, it’s a huge struggle and a huge stress on families and I think now we are seeing that even single families, just a husband and wife, where a husband goes to Afghanistan for ten months and comes home both people change. It’s a huge change. So I think on the PTSD front it’s just that we are looking now, we are seeing it right. We’re not accepting that it’s okay not to sleep. It’s not okay to, we don’t want to be angry. So many guys that I talk to have said, you know, I came home and I was just so angry and I said ya I know what you mean but we just didn’t address it before I don’t think, it was just… We’re kind of though it’s not perfect, it’s kind of trying to take a more holistic approach in how we treat ourselves.

Understanding the nature of PTSD, Mr. Lord provides his opinion in respect to how society is identifying the nature of this disease and supports the need for awareness and action for all those affected.

Justin Lord

Mr. Justin Lord was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island July 10, 1980. As a teenager he and his family moved to the town of Souris. Before attending university, Mr. Lord made the decision to join the Reserves. With encouragement from his cousin, he joined the 721 Communications regiment as a reservist and worked weekends while attending school. Mr. Lord completed basic training in Kingston, Ontario and experienced varied opportunities with the military. At age 23, he was given the opportunity to join the Royal 22nd Regiment Operation Athena Roto 1 with the regular force deploying to Afghanistan for a six month term in the Communication field holding rank of corporal. Returning home, Mr. Lord continued on as a reservist but his career path took a turn and in 2007 he sought employment with the Federal Government and now resides in Prince Edward Island with his family.