They say, “War is hell”. A person never knows what to expect in the heat of battle. One moment the silence is deafening, and the next moment the countryside erupts in percussive explosions with the endless spray of bullets flying everywhere. Sometimes it is hard to tell, under the constant shelling and lifeless bodies strewn about the battlefield, who is friend and who is foe.
Art Therapy Helping Veterans
Alternatively, it is not always the intensity of the fighting that gets under a one’s skin. Just the sight of another member of one’s unit having a bad encounter with a roadside bomb is all it takes to shake a person up. The thought quickly crosses the mind, ‘That could have been me.’ Or, maybe it is the guilt some feel from that first or second confirmed kill. It is enough to compel many soldiers to ask, ‘Is human life really that expendable?’
Art Therapy Helping Veterans Battle PTSD
On the battlefield, the need to survive causes many soldiers to quickly learn how to suck it up and tuck many of those feelings inside. Perhaps the greatest difficulty is facing these issues when the war machine is no longer forcing these individuals to engage the primal instinct to survive. They call it aftermath, because that is when the real calculations are performed by the human psyche, and the final assessment of the real extent of the damages are made.
Back in the states, hundreds of miles from the action, life inevitably goes on. But, for many that life is riddled with PTSD, depression, guilt, and in some cases, more severe expressions of mental instability.
It is not uncommon to learn that many of those who leave the battle field are not always capable of leaving the war behind them. In fact, it is common for people to engage in substance abuse in an attempt to find a modicum of peace in a variety of desperate acts of self medication. But, what about finding solace in applying brush to canvas?
Art therapy could be the new path to overcoming the trauma of war, and finally being able to move on. If the point of therapy is to get what is bothering a person out into the open, there’s possibly no better way to accomplish that goal than to express what one feels through the artistic process.
Sometimes a person just can’t face the fact that it is okay to leave the baggage of war behind. By expressing how one really feels in the pit of the soul through the use of art, perhaps the mind can begin to let go of the trauma by transferring the images and ideas to another object of their creation through the medium of art.
Some who have engaged in the use of art therapy have found that at the very least, it is a helpful tool to take their mind off what is bothering them. Others have realized that art therapy is an avenue that helps them to overcome the stigma often associated with being labeled as having a mental disorder.
What many people have experienced is that, through the use of art therapy, they depend less on using medication to help them cope. Perhaps the most valuable lesson to walk away with here is the idea that if the human mind is stimulated properly, through an avenue such as art therapy, then the mind will progress in a healthy way towards overcoming trauma, depression, and even deeply seated guilt. In this manner, maybe there is some truth to the notion that time heals all wounds, if one uses that time constructively.
this helped me soooooooooo much that i still do it! it works i’m prove . my name is samantha wall and i was therapy for 13yrs. only the last part of the 13yrs i had great help in therapy. i found out alot in myself through it which is the point right.!i’m greatful to therapy for all it has done and te art part was easy for me
Where can a person interested in using Art Therapy get involved?
I like this very much, but I would have liked to see some art displayed that is not necessarily
‘pretty’.’ Art therapy’ is not only about drawing pretty piectures. It is about facing and owning your demons. And there is beauty in that also.
Well said. I think that trying to be “artistic” is a distraction and listening to the voice that seeks approval, rather than giving voice to something that is beyond words.
These are truly inspiring. We are so excited to announce the start of our new Art Therapist, Emerald Smith in Indianapolis. There is so much that this type of therapy has to offer. The creative process has healing power.
I find this so fascinating…art therapy for PTSD, wow! I think it’s awesome that many people have found that they depend less on using medication to help them cope after using art therapy. I’d like to learn more about this process. Could you go a little bit more in depth on what this type of therapy involves?
Lisa | http://www.roadtowellbeing.com/ServicesProvided.en.html
Hello,
I am very fascinated in reading the posts about the way the Art Therapy is helping people. The writing keeps people to be captivated and make them to learn more about it. I am from Mauritius and during my free time I love doing some drawings or what we use to call the ‘Mandala Designs’. It is a way for me to express all the negative emotions that I feel inside myself and pull them out. I had the opportunity to work especially with children beside an art therapist recently and it was a great pleasure. I think this alternative medicines such as art should be recognized everywhere and media should also communicate more about it in a way to make people aware of all the benefits the Art Therapy could give to people. This is incredible to see the way it has positive impacts on people, especially here veterans and also of how it heals them. Often people feel difficulties in expressing themselves through words and language, however through art they have the possibility to express their feelings easily. I think you are doing a excellent job in posting about this new process as it will make people to learn more about it and eventually to help a lot of them.
This has got to be the most wonderful news in healing I have heard about. I believe in color so much and the emotions. I believe emotions are attracted to wanting to express the senses in anyway that is comforting. It can be expressed (color that is) in so many ways, and shared or not shared. Just as long as the person expressing feels that healing connection.
After hearing about art therapy from the Health.mil website, from the VA, and from the Army online magazine Stand To! which all featured stories about the therapeutic value of drawing, sculpting, painting, playing a musical instrument, etc. last January I launched my own comic series, taking my cartoons from years in a sketchbook to the public and on their way to a graphic novel. The healing value for brain trauma from art therapy is truly real and has been wonderful for me. I want to thank this administration for their super support of active duty service members as well as honorably serving veterans like me, and also I am grateful to the renewed, more responsive Veterans Adminstration. But mostly – Thank You All for supporting your military members! https://twitter.com/HeliumComics