Thanks to Tom Spooner and ElderHeart.org for sharing this.
Below are the thoughts of Nez Perce Elder on PTSD:
They
said I would be changed in my body. I would move through the physical world in
a different manner. I would hold myself in a different posture. I would have
pains where there was no blood. I would react to sights, sounds, movements and
touch in a crazy way, as though I were back in the war.
They
said I would be wounded in my thoughts. I would forget how to trust and think
that others were trying to harm me. I would see dangers in the kindness and
concern of my relatives and others. Most of all, I would not be able to think
in a reasonable manner, and it would seem that everyone else was crazy. They
told me that it would appear to me that I was alone and lost even in the midst
of the people, that there was no one else like me.
They
warned me that it would be as though my emotions were locked up, and that I
would be cold in my heart and not remember the ways of caring for others. While
I might give soft meat or blankets to the elders or food to the children, I
would be unable to feel the goodness of these actions. I would do these things
out of habit and not from caring. They predicted that I would be ruled by dark
anger and that I might do harm to others without plan or intention.
They knew that
my spirit would be wounded. They said I
would be lonely and that I would find no comfort in family, friends, elders or
spirits. I would be cut off from both
beauty and pain. My dreams and visions
would be dark and frightening. My days
and nights would be filled with searching and not finding. I would be unable to find the connections
between myself and the rest of creation.
I would look forward to an early death.
And, I would need cleansing and healing in all these things.
