Afghanistan War vet urges a rethink on PTSD

As Canadians prepare to remember veterans who have served and died overseas and at home, a veteran of the Afghanistan War is working to change the narrative and public perception of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“We don’t finish the narrative. The narrative should be that it’s an injury; they can see that it’s an injury in the brain. We should be treating it like it’s an injury with the expectation that it will get better,” Cpl. Jody Salway said while speaking on the Greg Morgan Morning Show.

Salway served as a member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry from 2004 to 2012. He did a tour of duty in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2006.

“We were sent there to help stabilize the government, provide a little bit of infrastructure and help remove the Taliban from Kandahar City so they could establish some voting,” he said. “We found out very quickly it was one of the most violent places, combat-wise, on the planet.”

Salway said Canadian Forces members regularly had to deal with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted in the ground, hidden in moving vehicles and sometimes worn by people.

“Psychologically this is something that you had to deal with every day,” he said.

But Salway’s brain injury came from a “friendly-fire incident” during an 18-hour firefight he and Forces members were having with the Taliban in a small town.

An American fighter pilot “got confused between our location and the Taliban’s location,” dropping his 500-pound bomb on the Canadians, Salway said.

Nobody was killed or seriously hurt, but Salway’s collarbone had been dislocated, and his neck and back were injured.

His PTSD “started develop after the tour,” he said. He started seeing a symptom — horrible night terrors — the next year. Salway would wake up with his heart pounding and was covered in sweat.

It wasn’t until 2017 that he sought out professional help.

He got his service dog, Clover, from the Paws for Veterans program at the Royal Canadian Legion. It provides the dogs for retired Canadian Forces members and RCMP members.

As he has worked to heal his PTSD, Salway hopes that other people can realize how it is misconstrued and misunderstood.

“Besides what we see in movies and TV, PTSD is not people acting violently. If anything, what happens is the Limbic brain (the central region that controls memory, emotion and motivation) just holds everything hostage. So you’re stuck in this fight or flight, and it’s a circle you go in all the time,” he said.

That’s why he’s pushing for people to rethink PTSD as an injury from which someone can heal.

“There are people who suffer with PTSD who have perfectly normal jobs, perfectly normal lives, that go on to be productive members of society,” he said.

Salway suggested that for anyone who knows someone who suffers PTSD to start by listening; don’t start by dishing out advice.

“That’s the best place to start,” he said.

“Always assess a situation as well … If you feel they’re insinuating or making gestures that they might commit suicide or self-harm or harm others, I think that’s maybe when you should step in and get other people to help you.”

At that point, he said, “try to get them help. Push them towards getting them into peer groups (and) seeing a psychologist.”