Insights from Prison: CF

Posted by Anna Debenham, December 7, 2017

We’re on week 9 of a 10 week program in CRCI (prison) and as always I’m astonished at some of the transformation in the room. I have a wonderful veteran, about 40 years old. He did a few tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and came home with a swarm of diagnoses, including PTSD among other things. The way that PTSD seems to get treated, from what I’ve heard, is with a cocktail of different drugs. It’s crazy what he was given. I guess it’s the easiest way to deal with severe anxiety, night terrors and flashbacks. It’s not hard to see why so many of these veterans end up with addictions and homeless. You’d be amazed how many people that spent years fighting for their county are now in prison.

Yesterday in class Chris announced that he has come off his night terror medication as he hasn’t been woken by terrors once in 7 or 8 weeks and has been sleeping through the night for the past 6 weeks – something he never thought he’d be able to do again. He also shared that he hasn’t had a severe panic attack and he even watched a program on Iraq last week and he didn’t have a flashback. He puts it down to understanding how the mind works and the insights he’s had from being in our program. He’s simply not reacting to every thought going through his head, he has more peace of mind and he’s no longer scared of his experience. His thoughts ‘no longer have legs’ – as he put it. He recognises now that he’s not broken and doesn’t need fixing.

I have a couple veterans in this class. Chris and Mike spent the majority of the past 10 year locked up. They are both being released within weeks of each other and are looking forward to helping other veterans who so desperately need something other than medication. So proud.