There has been so much written about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) - soldiers coming back from battlefields, people who've survived disasters and people who've survived violent crime. These victims and their families endure the aftermath of whatever trauma has upended their lives in many different ways and for various lengths of time. Some never "get over it". Suicide, divorce and family devastation are too often the final chapters to these stories because there are few proven therapies and few trained therapists. Often, the therapy only focuses on the immediate victim - the soldier or the victim - and the people who make up that person's support system are either overlooked or, at best, given little more than a pat on the back.
"Dateline" aired a special three years ago - "The Desperate Hours" - which dealt with five kidnap-for-ransom cases from Mexico, Central and South America. All five men were rescued, either by ransom or by law enforcement, and all five had been married with families at the time of their kidnapping and rescue. Their stories were horrifying and miraculous. What stood out to me, however, was an end note: 'five years after they were rescued, only one couple remained married.' Could that happen to us? I knew the answer was "yes" because our family was splintering around the edges.
In searching for a therapy that would help Paul and I "move past" the trauma of his kidnapping, I found more and more articles written about "therapy" dogs and how these service animals produced faster and deeper healing than most traditional therapies, not only for the victim but for the victim's family as well. PTSD sufferers and their families were reporting less stress, better sleep and less depression. The more I read, the more shows like "60 Minutes" that covered the growing treatment and resulting success, the more convinced I was that no "person" could provide the therapy that Paul and I needed to move forward in our lives together.
Two years ago, we adopted Cora. She protects us. She knows when Paul is feeling anxious or down and soothes him. She "reads" us. It's amazing. She's taken over our home and our hearts, healing the wounds no traditional therapist ever came close to doing. She is love and trust and confidence in a fur coat. I am so glad that, in large part, because of Cora, more than five years later, "there's a smile on my face, knowing that together everything that's in our way, we're better than all right". (lyric from "Between The Raindrops"-Lifehouse and Natasha Bedingfield)
WALKING BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS - coming soon.
