A Message for Veterans: Heroes, Fantasy, and Trauma

I wanted to take a pause from fantasy fiction content to talk about a “real world” issue facing us right now with veterans. Sometimes I have had folks tell me that I’m trying to cover too many things on this channel, mental health, dreams, fantasy, fiction, neuroscience, Jungian psychology…but the thing is all of these things are connected through the imagination. The human imagination is perhaps the most powerful biological adaptation Nature has yet devised. Look at us as a species: we’re dominating this planet in a way unprecedented in the history of multicellular organisms. The imagination is what is responsible for not only our greatest creations, but it may also be our doom. The same capacity to overcome trauma and crafts stories that inspire generations also created nuclear weapons and advanced torture techniques. 

So its all connected, and perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in the struggles of our veterans. We are facing a mental health crisis in our veterans right now. Lethal self-harm, drug use, crushing depression, and PTSD are at rising levels. We recently saw the government cut back on VA programs deemed “inefficient”. And whether or not you think that’s a great idea or a terrible one, the bottom line is that veterans are in trouble regardless of it. 

My Military Story

I served in the US military for 10 years, first as an enlisted cook in the army at Ft. Knox, and then as an officer in the USAF, where I was mental health clinic director at the only air force base in the world to have bombers and ICBMs–two legs of the nuclear triad. Tension there was sky high. There, and afterward as a civilian dr, I’ve treated many veterans and AD troops with PTSD.

Veterans, Heroes, and Trauma

And my message for those vets out there is simply this: you were trained by the most powerful military in the world. You may have seen numerous atrocities, and you may have even been forced into no-win situations that involved brutal violence. You were trained to be tough and strong. And you ARE tough and strong. There’s a saying in medicine: you can’t kill a vet. It’s dark humor, and it refers to the fact that our oldest veterans often have many health problems because they simply won’t die. Veterans are the toughest of the tough. 

But here is the message. Tough is not invincible. And the problem with being the strongest man or woman around is that nobody ever asks you if you need help. If YOU need support. If you need a break. Just a breather. I’ve seen vets carry trauma and moral injury for decades, simply enduring horrific psychological wounds for years, pushing through by sheer force of will–as one of my patients put it, “I’ve been just raw doggin’ it for years”, not knowing that asking for help was even allowed. I had one combat vet tell me that even though he survived hundreds of ambushes and shellings, and received multiple medals of valor, the scariest thing he ever did was come to ask me for help. Let that sink in for a second.

The Power and Danger of the Imagination

And here is the problem, and where the imagination becomes a mighty sword that unfortunately cuts both ways. In the popular imagination, many vets align themselves with The Hero. This archetypal character, found in countless stories, is a man or woman with tenacity, wit, strength, and fearlessness. This is a being straight out of our imagination. There are many examples from the ancient world as well as the modern world. Beowulf, Achilles, Indra, Mulan, Hiawatha, Quezalcoatl, Maui, etc. In modern guise we still see this in heroes like Batman or Aragorn. It arose because it’s powerful. It’s inspiring. Anyone who seeks to emulate the Hero gains in its strength. Simply having some version of this character–real or mythical–can give you enough hope to push through the darkest, bleakest scenarios…provided you don’t get to close to the sun. Here is the danger of the Hero–we are not the great Hero. We are mortal men and women. Flesh and blood. The Hero is an archetype–an ideal, perfect and incorruptible. We have to allow ourselves to be mere mortals…students of the hero. Limited. Imperfect. 

You EARNED the Right to be Helped

So my message is simply this: perfection is the enemy of greatness. Because perfection is impossible. Greatness, however, is possible, but it must allow for imperfection. You are allowed. Ask for help. By god…you’ve earned it. Even superman has a fortress of solitude. You are owed that help. You deserve to have a chance to heal and feel human again. You deserve to feel alive again. You know what I’m talking about.  You carry the heaviest burdens society asks of anyone and you often receive no substantial reward for it. But you know, as well as I do, that you don’t do it for money or status, or any of that bullshit. You do it, because it’s RIGHT. But any of you think you didn’t do right. But the fact that this causes you pain means you care. This is my problem with modern fantasy’s obsession with “morally grey” so-called heroes. I plan on talking about THAT issue elsewhere. But the short version is that while morally grey characters may be all the rage, I never see this in my practice. The vets struggling with severe PTSD and depression are suffering, in part, because they are NOT morally grey. They strive for the highest standard, so high, in fact, that they cannot reasonably attain it, nor can anyone. But because imperfection is not allowed, it plunges them into despair and self-hatred.

King of the Forgotten Darkness is, in part, about healing from trauma. I use fantastica imagery not to “escape” from the real world, but more like dreams do: that is, I use fantastical imagery to show more accurately our inner emotional world. The best fantasy fiction is not an “escape”. It’s a return. Like superman’s fortress…he doesn’t go there to ‘escape’ the world. He goes there to return to his strength. To heal. To regroup and recharge. To feel the soul fill back up from the worlds toils. This isn’t an escape–this place; this inner world, of the eternal, of the heroic, and of the divine, is the most real the world gets. The best kinds of therapy and treatment foster your fortress. Your castle in the clouds. We need this in order to go back into the grunt and sweat of daily living, renewed and re-strengthened, as students of the hero, yes, but mere mortals. We will do our best, and be proud to do so. And then, maybe, when someone randomly says “thank you for your service”, it won’t feel like an empty platitude to you. Because you will feel it yourself. 

See ya next time.

EG