Confronting PTSD among Syrian refugees relocated to my town.

I think one secret is having some renewal ritual when you get home. You can't bring work home ya know? I used to intern in a nursing home with dementia patients. Some days you'd go to work and a room would be cleaned and the bed made up fresh. Another patient who passed on, but the unexpected empty room was always hard.

N' spending the afternoon with seniors who were in their own reality and you had to adapt to each one. Millie is still insisting her room buddy wants to steal her husband...except her roomie is bed bound and hubby has been gone for thirty years. Then the nice little woman who knows Mr. Rabbit Ears is after her whole family.

You get home and just...nothing left...you're starting to feel a bit demented there...I would always come in the door and the first cat that appeared I would hold it and love it to pieces. Just the warm sweet body, the deep rumble of a happy kitty. Then I was ready to change clothes and be home, every day...the cats got me through it.
 
Shalimar said:
Agman, I so need a hog so I can hit the open road and ride away my stress!
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That is exactly what I do, Shalimar, and it works great. Sometimes when I get stressed around here at the ranch my wife can tell it in my face and says "Honey, don't you think it is time for a ride?" Every guy should be so lucky to have a wife like that. Within five minutes of busting out of the front gate my soul comes out to breathe.
 
Shalimar said:
Agman, you are so lucky!
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I know. I've been riding road bikes and dirt bikes since 1973 and I enjoy it more every year. On days when it is too cold and windy to hit the highways, I just hop on my Honda dirt bike and poot around on the trails here at the ranch. It is in the best interests of the ranch and the ranchers to check out all of the trails at least once a week anyway, so my trail riding time is both productive and therapeutic as well.
 
From everything that I have read, Germany has had huge issues with PTSD among the Syrian refugees that they have taken in. These people have seen extreme atrocities and for some have been victimized themselves. Children and women have been especially traumatized from the acts of violence that they have witnessed first hand. Added to all of this is the fact that they now have been uprooted from their home and been displaced to a foreign country that they may have little knowledge of. I had to try to put myself in their position and ask myself, "How would I cope with it?" The article that I read made another interesting point stating that not only will these people need immediate psychological care, but many will need months and maybe years of continued treatments in an attempt to get them mentally repaired.


I seen some of this in Vietnam. I had people, mostly women and children, in Saigon asking me to bring them home with me. I felt so bad for the little kids and today they are still part of my nightmares.
 
Oldman, I am so sorry that those poor people still haunt you. No wonder you have nightmares. I will pray for your peace of mind.
 

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