Your one stop to support our veterans, stay aware with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resources and connections, keep up with events and more. As a tested combat veteran, I understand what our heroes go through as they transition from the combat mindset back to a regular everyday life . The goal of War2Love is to provide assistance through knowledge and resources to help the returning Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and their families to be one step ahead.

     Combat is something you cannot just read about and understand, but for those brave men and women that live it - we understand it too well. The sights and smells burn images deep into the back of the mind  and remain there long after combat... hiding. Surviving the bombs and bullets is just the beginning, as returning home can be just as dangerous if proper attention is not taken.

     With everyone working together and showing their support ... we can help those Heroes of ours in many ways. War2Love not only provides a centralized information ring, but allows a way for an individual suffering to contact someone who has been through the challenges as well as seek assistance.  With dedication to our Heroes well-being and by spreading the word.... we can make the steps from War 2 Love much easier. Thank you for visiting War2Love.com. God Bless.

Define Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A mental disorder, such as battle fatigue, occurring after a traumatic event outside the range of usual human experience, and characterized by symptoms such as re-living the event, reduced involvement with others, and manifestations of autonomic arousal such as hyper-alertness and exaggerated startle response.  Abbreviation: PTSD

PTSD Explained: It is normal to think that everyone returns to normal at some point after a tragic event (fear for your life or others, horrible sights/sounds, feelings of helplessness). However, sometimes people face situations that are so traumatic that they may shut down and become unable to cope and function in their daily lives. Some people become so torn apart by the memories... memories that won’t go away... that they begin change themselves in a negative way to prevent coming into contact with anything that may re-trigger the past events.

When a person feels this way months after an experience has passed, the could be falling victim to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a serious and common health condition. Anyone who has gone through a life-threatening event can develop PTSD, even though here we focus more on the post-combat side. After the event.. it is possible the happenings plague your thoughts and take control of your mind. 

PTSD Symptoms: PTSD is very sneaky and doesn't always have a clear and sudden onset right after an event. It can take months and even years for it to surface. Sometimes it will be ignored for even longer. Here is a list of the 4 common types of PTSD symptoms.

1. Flashbacks or Re-living the event - Little things can spark your memories at any time and any place. This can be a sudden onset of anxiety, feeling like you are living the event again in detail, deja vu, nightmares, etc. For a soldier returning from combat.... it could be something as simple as a car backfiring or fireworks that send him/her into a frenzy by reminding them of gunshots and explosions.
2. Total Avoidance - Some sufferers find it hard to talk about their past, their feelings or open themselves up to others. It is not common for some to avoid movies, music, or anything that reminds them of the past. They basically separate themselves from society which can lead to disaster.
3. Loss of Emotion - Due to the situations and feelings a person has been subjected to, it is possible to become numb to everything. For example... death of anyone, family or not, is just another person dying. Sometimes it causes significant strain on relationships due to the lack of being able to express emotion anymore.
4. Hyper-arousal - There are times when your mind takes over the body and thinks it is back in the combat zone. It is not uncommon to find a war vet in the corner of a restaurant with their back to the wall watching everything, or always looking over their shoulder. Like a panic attack on steroids, this too can be very dangerous. It can lead to sudden blackouts where the person has no recollection of what he did.
   

PTSD Treatments: Current treatments showing good responses are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which has proven to be the most effective, and also EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). These are the sought after treatments and other methods are constantly being researched and reviewed. There are also medications out there that are "supposed" to help, however, I am highly against them as they only mask the symptoms... not cure them. I have made progress without the use of them and highly recommend staying away from them unless it is a last resort.