War fever

War fever

It used to be called “war fever”. Now it is called PTSD-post-traumatic stress disorder. There was a time when there was no cure, only short-term relief. Today, that may be changing, as war-stressed veterans have endured decades with no answers, only symptoms. There is no chemical relief from this disease, but that hasn't stopped thousands from trying every form known to address the problem. There are many dependencies in this arena.

Science and psychology merge in new ways to uncover the places where these former soldiers experience such trauma. We still have living soldiers from World War II. Few were able to escape the wrath of war fever at some point in their travels. Every survivor from every war ever fought faces the same misrepresentation. We pull a section out of time, change all the rules about what it means to be a decent human being, and then change the rules back and expect no backlash.War fever is this backlash. One day killing is wrong. Next time it will be celebrated. The more the merrier is the motto of the war. Genocide. Take out the enemy. Collateral damage is expected.

Top minds in science, physics and chemistry were deployed to massively kill our “enemies”. Einstein discovered a technology that could very well end humanity's path on this planet. But no one has invented a mindset that people can buy into and justify taking the life of another, let alone many other lives. We are not programmed to destroy ourselves. Some (our soldiers) had to learn this and their thoughts are thisburnfrom the idea of ​​it.

A soldier who flew the Cottontails during World War II brought war fever to Medina, Ohio, upon his return. He was my grandfather, Ralph Warren Hisey. Shot down over Ploesti, Romania, he came across a dead British soldier while hiding in the bush. He changed clothes and wore the uniform of this RAF (Royal Air Force) flyer to fool the Germans into thinking he was English. It worked until he was taken to the prison camp and his 'boys' shouted "Hisey, over here!"

A few decades later, I wake up at dawn and see my grandfather standing in the field. I thought he was waving something, so I went outside and stood by the fence. I realized he was throwing something.

He saw me and called me and said that he had stayed healthy in the prison camp by practicing his place all night in the barracks and in the dark. “Hitler didn’t own that!” he said, pointing to his head. “The Nazis never possessed my thoughts,” the soldier claimed. He practiced his pitching form again and again and did all his training exercises on those cement floors until he became too weak.

When he returned to the United States, he was a shadow of his former self and barely strong enough to work. His dream of playing professional baseball became a long lost thought.

War fever gripped him for the rest of his life. Nightmares of Nazi torture came to him by chance. A feeling of helplessness he couldn't describe would take over him. Sometimes just the smell of cabbage brought it forward. He fought against the Germans for the rest of his life.They never freed him.

Now a brand new “technology” is being introduced through a combination of medication and a type of guided meditation/talk therapy. Going back to the scene to relive the damage has been done for ages with mixed results. When you return to a controlled but altered state, you may receive better answers and solutions from the experience. This can only be done with instructions.

Our current battles in faraway places are producing a new brand of PTSD that has resulted in additional deaths. Back on U.S. soil, safe and in their homes, soldiers are still killing in the name of war. They kill their immediate families as they wake up fighting for their lives.

Perhaps the new techniques will bring relief and peace of mind to the generations of war veterans who live among us and will continue to do so in the years to come.

Inspired by Sherry Lynn Daniel