Once again America is feeling the pain of loss, loss on our own turf.
I honestly didn’t want to write anything on this newest tragedy, but everything in me is ready to cry out in agony because of more senseless bloodshed.
My heart is angry, but the more I read about this soldier and the fact that he was being treated for mental health issues after returning from war makes my heart hurt for his loss too.
Spc. Ivan Lopez was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and a sleep disorder, which can be precursors to PTSD, but as a CNN article said, it can take time to make a true diagnosis of PTSD in military personnel.
Reports say he claimed to have had a traumatic brain injury while in Iraq, which could lead to PTSD, but there had been no medical reports to back it up.
These things add into the fact that he was sick. PTSD doesn’t have to take years to come into play, sometimes it is just there but we tend to be over cautious about labeling people.
I feel for the families who lost loved ones and I pray for a speedy recovery to those who were wounded.
I don’t think you could be an American without feeling the loss. However, I think we should look at this as another reason to begin praying for our nation.
We need to begin praying for our soldiers and their families. Don’t just sit by idly thinking that nothing is going to happen.
The more we do nothing, the more bad things will happen and good people will die.
My brother Chris never went to the battlefield after 9/11 and we declared war on terrorism, but as a Marine, he saw the effects of the carnage and bloodshed. He saw the bodies that were mutilated.
He was diagnosed a few years back with PTSD, or posttraumatic stress disorder. He wasn’t able to sleep for fear of seeing those sights again. He had bouts of severe anxiety. He was moody too.
If it hadn’t been for a strong wife, family and walk with God, he could have easily become a story on the news too.
This disorder is felt by everyone around the person who is diagnosed with it, it will affect everything they do.
These people lose their sense of reality and many times end up hurting the people around them. When they do return to reality, the devastation is enough to make them want to end their own lives.
If you read my opinions column on a regular basis, you know I am a big proponent of prayer. Afflictions of the mind are no exception, because this is an all out war in our minds and we must pray.
We have to pray for the sanity of our men and women who serve this great nation.
This is an era of great mental instability and if we rest on our laurel, we will be effected to. Whether by the shock of more blood shed or that it will actually be on our doorstep, we can’t know.
But if we, as a nation, begin to pray for the health of our people, military especially, we will begin to see less and less military shootings.
We have all forgotten the reality of the world we live in. It is time to wake up and not let it rule our lives any longer.
America was once called a sleeping dragon. Maybe it is time we awaken again and burn this mental warfare up by praying.
I beg you to please pray for the nation, especially our soldiers.
