North Dakota Troop Support: Oct. 3 - Save the Day - ?How and Why ...

Save the Date?
Contacts:
Shelle Michaels Aberle: 218-779-7271 (cell) or Shelle@MilitaryOvation.org?

Micki Savelkoul: 701-328-4580 or MLSavelkoul@nd.gov

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?"How and Why We Are Different When We Come Back from War: A Veteran's Perspective"

D.C. Faber, a retired Major from the Wyoming Army National Guard and former Laramie, WY firefighter

Wednesday, October 3, 2012. From 7-9 pm

Bismarck State College NECE Room 335

Sponsored by: Military Ovation and the North Dakota State Suicide Prevention Program

D.C. Faber will discuss why service members are different after returning home from war, what they can do to understand their situation and how family, friends and coworkers can help. He will describe his overcoming what psychologists call Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) after returning from Afghanistan, where he was deployed to train Afghan police officers from July 2007 to April 2008.

"I knew I was having problems when I got home," he said. "I was having a difficult time being around other people ? and my family."? Faber said he also would talk about why soldiers ? especially citizen soldiers ? are dying by suicide in record numbers.

Suicides are surging among America's troops, averaging nearly one a day this year ? the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war. The 146 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 148 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan ? about 50 percent more ?? Veteran suicide statistics show that an average of 18 veterans are dying by suicide each day across America.

Faber said his lecture is based on a post-trauma model he developed using his and other combat veterans' experiences with life after war. "It's a different view from what's out there right now with all the talk about PTS or Combat Stress and (Living in the) New Normal," he said. "I have a totally different approach to why we're different after war."

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) defines PTS as a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Some people suffering from Combat Stress have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of the ordeal and feel emotionally numb. They may also experience hyper-arousal symptoms, which include feeling tense or "on edge."

Faber said psychologists believe combat veterans who have PTS are emotionally focused on the past, based on the emotion and attachment theory of psychotherapy. In contrast, Faber said he believes combat veterans are emotionally present focused because of past traumatic events. "A lot of veterans don't even know how present-focused we are emotionally," he said. "The trauma events over there kind of lock you into a survival mode, which keeps you 'present.'"

Life in a war zone forces soldiers to live in the moment to an extreme degree because of the constant threat of death, Faber said. "You're only living about two hours out. A day over there is like five weeks long (here)," he said. "You're so present every moment so you're not the weakest link in a fight."

Faber described war as like a never-ending car wreck in which a soldier's heightened perception makes time appear to slow down even though events are happening quickly. In addition to always being in the moment, soldiers living in a war zone accept the fact there is a good chance they will be killed before they finish their deployment.

Accepting death produces the grief process of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, Faber said which can happen twice if a soldier survives his deployment. "Once you've accepted death ? and you live, you've got a problem," he said. "You have to go through that whole cycle again, believe it or not, and accept that you lived. Otherwise, you're like Lieutenant Dan in 'Forest Gump,' who kept saying 'I should have died over there.'"

When combat veterans return home, "many have a hard time re-adjusting to a way of life that is less emotionally charged and more emotionally future focused than in a war zone" Faber said, "Now you're back in this world that doesn't make sense. Everybody seems worried about the dumbest stuff, you're only living about two hours out and you're all tense because you're emotionally present and, by the way, you've got a gun, you've already killed people, you're supposed to be dead over there anyway. It's not a real far journey for a guy or gal to go from living to killing themselves."

The Faber Post-Trauma Model (Patent Pending) and its concurrent Post-Traumatic Growth challenges many core assumptions currently held by the mental health community, and offers Veterans and their families new insight into how and why soldiers are different after the war experience, as well as highly effective tools for re-connecting to everyday life. The model and its basic tenets have far reaching implications. Not only will Veterans benefit, but also those who have experienced other forms of trauma that has
dramatically changed their outlook and way of living.

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ABOUT:

D.C. Faber is CEO of faber groupsynergy TM, a consulting firm dedicated to strengthening group dynamics in an honest and highly productive way.?He is also the creator of the Faber Post Trauma Model (FPTM/Patent Pending), a ground-breaking assessment as to how and why soldiers are "different" after war. The FPTM has also proven to effectively guide others who have experienced trauma toward understanding and healing. His diverse career paths and life experiences combined to set in motion these two?innovative programs which have helped countless individuals and groups alike, and are the direct result of D.C.'s many years of leading, following, and practical experience.?

D.C. is a retired officer who served a combined 20 years in the United States Army and Wyoming Army National Guard. Active duty was spent in Germany and Korea, and he received The Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge for?service in Afghanistan. Major Faber has served as an Assistant Professor of Military Science at the University of Wyoming and has counseled thousands of young people in their life and career decisions. He holds?the Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Black Hills State University.

In Laramie, D.C. has been a house-parent at the Cathedral Home for Children, and later became a Community Service Officer with the Laramie Police Department. In 1995, D.C. began his career with the Laramie Fire Department where he held the positions of Firefighter/EMTII, Equipment Operator, Line Company Officer, Deputy Fire Marshal,?and Instructor for the Front Range Fire Consortium. He retired from the Laramie Fire Department in 2010, as the Division Chief of Fire Prevention and Life Safety.

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Military Ovation is North Dakota's very own troop support organization with the philosophy of "Think Globally, Act Locally." Information is available at www.MilitaryOvation.org or www.Facebook.com/MilitaryOvation. Military Ovation currently has two board members trained to teach the ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) workshop. For more information contact info@MilitaryOvation.org

North Dakota Suicide Prevention Program: If you are considering suicide, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-273-8255 (available 24 hours a day / 7 days a week). There is hope. We are here to help. According to the North Dakota Department of Health, North Dakota ranks eleventh in the nation for its rate of suicide deaths. Suicide was the ninth leading cause of death in 2010 among North Dakotans. In 2010, 103 North Dakotans died as a result of suicide.

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Suicide affects everyone, but some groups are at higher risk than others. Suicide rates in North Dakota have risen in the 10- to 24-year-old age group and the older than 65 age group in 2010.? Men are four times more likely than women to die from suicide, but women are three times more likely to attempt suicide. Suicide affects people of all ages and races in North Dakota, but suicide rates have typically been higher in the Native American and the military populations as compared to the general population of North Dakota. For information about developing local prevention programs or for more information about suicide prevention, contact Micki Savelkoul, North Dakota Department of Health, at 701-328-4580.?

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Source: http://northdakotatroopsupport.blogspot.com/2012/08/oct-3-save-day-how-and-why-we-are.html

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