Tag Archives: PTSD

I named this “Realizing you won’t win brings Peace” because I am there. With a cold outlook, a war is many different battles from many different angles that keep hitting us and we fight. We literally fight a new “battle” in this war with PTSD every morning when we wake up and we fight for our lives.

Treating and recovering from a brain that's been injured through post traumatic stress (PTS) or PTSD is unlike that for a physical injury that's visible to the world. Former firefighter and PTSD sufferer/survivor Nathalie Michaud writes about here continuing journey.

I drove through the burn scar of a different fire from the previous summer. I noticed the thick grass crop and the brush skeletons and then, suddenly filled with extreme anxiety, I wanted to escape from the truck.

Retired battalion chief Robert Avsec shares insights and comments from PTSD sufferers in an effort to raise awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding PTSD and other mental health issues for firefighters and EMS personnel.

Going public, speaking about it before groups of firefighters, having a “speaker” Facebook page for those who wished to follow my journey and how you can heal from PTS and PTSD, this created a whole new barrier for me in searching for a new job.

By: Nathalie Michaud After I received the diagnosis of my PTSD in late Summer 2014, I was partly relieved because now I knew why I felt and thought the way I did. It didn’t make it any easier to accept, but now that there was a name for it, a bit of the “ET” syndrome went away. I had choices: ...

During our panel discussion we discussed a term that hasn't gotten much attention thus far in the firefighter mental health conversation: emotional or mental hygiene. We'll go to the doctor when we feel flu-ish or a nagging pain. So why don’t we see a health professional when we feel emotional pain: guilt, loss, loneliness?

With a clearance from the doctors and a personal determination to return to work earlier this year, things were looking up for Nathalie until her employer decided they did not want to risk taking her back and abruptly terminated her employment cutting off all income and support. How shameful is that?

My mission is two-fold: bring awareness to all so that sufferers are no longer afraid to talk and ask for help; and PTSD brain imagemove both Canada and the United States to recognize PTSD as a presumptive illness for firefighters. PTSD is a brain injury that happens because of all that we see and have to deal with through our jobs as firefighters and medics.

During that year, more physical issues came to the surface. Feeling tired, yet unable to sleep; feeling irritable, aggressive, and anxious; nightmares and night terrors were surfacing and night sweats were now a normal nightly routine. If only I could get some sleep...but there was much more to come.