Theres a new movie coming out this friday. Its called "The Dry Land" and stars America Ferrera of "Ugly Betty" fame, and is directed by her fiance'.

Its about the experience of a soldiers wife, after he returns from Iraq- and his struggles to reassimilate into this new weird society, while at the same time struggling with PTSD.

Ferrera appeared on "The View" today and talked about her trip to Iraq last year, and her subsequent research into returning veterans and how they are (and in some cases aren't) dealing with this strange phenomena, (i say phenomena because thats how the "normal world" views ptsd..)of reassimilation into a society that stigmatizes internal mental turmoil.

Our armed forces are assumed by society to be these strong, brave folks who have "faced the devil" as it were, and triumphed. Society as a whole assumes that just because they come back, seemingly unscathed, that they are supposed to be able to just pick right up where they left off in their previous lives.

We here- we know thats not the case. Some of us here suffer from PTSD; some from war and many just from the vagaries of a horrible life. But we all know what its like. To feel as if you're just a distant observer in a crowd of people. To always feel "out of place". An aquaintance pointed this very thing out to me once. He looked at me and said "Were you over there?" i asked where and he said "incountry" (a term common amongst those who fought in vietnam) i said no and asked why he thought that. He said "You have the thousand yard stare."

The thousand yard stare. Its something that only another sufferer would know. Here, where i live, is a huge air force base, and a good majority of our populas is military. i've seen it alot. The guy that freezes and gets that look on his face if something inocuous happens, like a car backfiring, or something crashes, even just thunder. That happened not long ago- i was at wallyworld and there was this guy standing behind me. Some people were being quite loud in the next line, i turned to look and saw this guy- he had a look on his face that told me if he didn't get outa there quick, he might melt down. Even tho i didn't have that much stuff, i turned and told him to take my place in line, he had alot in his basket , looked like he might be starting all over. He just looked at me for a second and then said "You Know." i just smiled silently and nodded.  i felt so bad for him- i know. Yeah i know.

Just wish the rest of the world realized it.

"The Dry Land" - check it out. MO

Tags: Ptsd

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