Reintegrate Team Update: Living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Dexter J. Singleton
Our project began a few months ago with meetings and discussions of where we wanted to go with the project and what we wanted to achieve. In recent years, I have become fascinated with a style of theatre called “documentary theatre,” made famous by one of its innovators, MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Anna Devere Smith. She and her team go into communities and interview people of all walks of life around themes of a particular subject. They transcribe and edit all of their interviews into a single play form that Anna, in all her genius, performs as a brilliant solo production.
We felt it was important to seek answers to our questions from those directly affected by our country’s ongoing ten-year war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the process we’ve been having conversations with active soldiers, officers, veterans and retired military. We’ve spoken about their service duty, health care, reintegrating back into civilian life, military policy and the troubles of war. We are listening to their stories and deciding what we want to say with our project and the level of awareness we seek for PTSD.
We know that there is a huge social stigma with mental health issues in this country. Many people don’t want to seem weak or like they’re “crazy,” so instead of speaking to someone they may keep it inside or self medicate, hoping that they will magically be okay. Some may speak to a friend or spiritual leader, but very few seek professional counseling or help for their problems, often resulting in more severe, long term issues. For soldiers who have been engaged in battles in Iraq or Afghanistan, PTSD is more common because of the elements of war, witnessing death or severe injury, being shot at or ambushed. On average, 94% of soldiers have experienced trauma in war. These factors can cause a great deal of long term issues at home, combine this with our country’s stigma around mental health and that puts our soldiers in a great dilemma with the highest rates of PTSD in U.S. history. For the thousands of soldiers who have sought help, there are still thousands more undiagnosed.
As an artist, I feel a great responsibility to turn a mirror on the world itself. We take pride in the fact that this project will shed light on an ever-growing issue nationally. As we continue to welcome our loved ones home from war, we also must make sure that they have the proper services available to be productive once they return.
We have a HUGE challenge and are excited to continue the journey.
reintegrate 