Invisible Injury

What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental illness. It can occur after traumatic experiences, such as when people experience life-threatening situations, catastrophic events or great suffering (including from others).

Trauma occurs when such experiences have such a strong after-effect that they shake essential mental foundations and the mind does not recover from them. As a result, post-traumatic stress disorder can occur: The experience haunts the person, unwanted memories keep intruding.

Typical symptoms of PTSD are:

1. Persistent memories and nightmares
2. Repression of what has happened and avoidance of similar situations
3. Restlessness, irritability, sleep disturbances
4. Social isolation, flattening of interests

PTSD and the German Federal Armed Forces

PTSD in members of the armed forces

When deployed, members of the armed forces are exposed to great stress. They may find themselves in life-threatening situations or have to witness severe suffering. During missions in conflict and disaster areas, they can suffer traumas that can lead to PTSD, but often also to anxiety, depression or addiction.

Returning soldiers are therefore always examined by a troop doctor. However, PTSD often only appears months or years later. Even then, treatment is still possible and makes sense. A Bundeswehr study concludes that around 3 per cent of all soldiers suffer from PTSD after deployment.

What PTSD means for Family & Friends

PTSD leads to the affected person’s behaviour changing. Those around them notice that they withdraw or have fluctuations in emotions: From sleep disturbances, quick irritability and outbursts to being overwhelmed in everyday situations or emotionally blunted.

These changes can be met with incomprehension or a feeling of helplessness by relatives and the personal environment. Because they cannot explain what is going on – or how they could help. Relationships can suffer as a result and conflicts arise.

Family & Friends therefore play an important role when it comes to helping those who are injured in body and soul. They are often the ones who give them the impetus to seek treatment. They are fellow sufferers – because, for example, everyday family life changes. And they stand by the side of those who are ill on their way back to life.

How the Bundeswehr supports those affected

The Bundeswehr has set up a support service that is specifically aimed at soldiers, civilian staff and former members of the Bundeswehr with mental health problems. PTSD support is available to those affected, but also to their relatives, comrades, superiors or helpers.

Since 2010, there has been a central point of contact in the Federal Ministry of Defence in the form of the PTSD Officer. The Act on the Continued Use of Military Personnel and the Soldiers’ Pensions Act lay the foundations for the Bundeswehr to provide extensive support to those affected. The goal is to help them back into life and, if possible, reintegrate them into service.

Specialist doctors from the Bundeswehr care for the sick. Source: Bundeswehr/Jonas Weber

Offers of help

The medical service offers active and former soldiers a range of therapies. Specialists at the Bundeswehr hospitals provide them with individual care. Where appropriate, those affected are also treated in civilian facilities.

Interdisciplinary patient-centred rehabilitation teams (IPR) plan the course of treatment and rehabilitation individually. Experts from the Bundeswehr hospitals and the regional medical facilities work together in this process.

The role of sport in the treatment of PTSD

Sport and sports therapy play a role not only in the rehabilitation of physical injuries, but also in psychological injuries. The Bundeswehr’s sports therapy builds on health sports, fitness and relaxation. This is because sport strengthens self-esteem, makes it possible to experience improvements through exertion and creates routines.

Sports therapy for those injured in action

If there is an appropriate medical indication, the sports therapy group of the Bundeswehr Sports School can offer sports therapy courses for deployment-related PTSD disorders.

The introductory course deals with fitness, flexibility, coordination and strength. This is followed by team and experience-oriented sports. The focus is on physical and mental health, not on performance. Psychological support is an integral part of the therapy. The jointly set goals include both sporting and psychological aspects.

The sports therapy group after deployment injury

Training takes place in the sports therapy group. Here, the members of the group are also prepared for competitions such as the Invictus Games. Those who have already made significant progress in their rehabilitation process and for whom the specialists expect a further positive effect from the international sporting event take part in the games.

The Invictus Games as a milestone on the way back to life

For many competitors, the Invictus Games are a special highlight of their rehabilitation. Here they compete in respectful, friendly competition. And here they meet the Invictus Community – an international community of people who share their experiences and support each other. This includes competitors as well as Family & Friends.

In the Invictus Community, there is a camaraderie of exchange and genuine understanding for each other. Together they all experience an event with an extensive social programme that is all about them and their individual experiences. Here they feel respect, here their achievement on their way back to life is celebrated.