10/15 quote

In the next 100 or so pages of, The Concussion Repair Manual, by Dr. Dan Engle, the book talks about an Iraq war veteran named Cody, who suffered severe PTSD caused by multiple concussions. He was in the thick of war, and was "blown up" twice, once from an IED, and the second time from a rocket attack. These two attacks left Cody's brain a mess of concussions and PTSD. The doctors put him on two opiate pain relievers, an anti depressant, and a sleep medication.  For weeks he took these pills with no positive result, if anything, these pills were making his condition worse. Finally he tried flotation therapy, and he never turned back.



"Flotation therapy was the best and worse thing that could have ever happened to me" (Engle 44).

This is a quote from Cody right after he floated for the first time. flotation therapy is a type of therapy where you sit in a pod-like chamber and float in a salt water solution. The solution is so dense that ones body actually is suspended in the liquid, and it is a warm temperature so the mind can relax and take a break from regulating. This break allows the mind to relive situations, and help people sort through them. For some, as this soldier, flotation therapy helps tremendously.  Cody talks about how his mind relived the situation from a third person point of view, and doing this allowed him to begin to be at peace with what happened to him in Iraq. His body pain went down, his sleep began to return to normal, and it helped his anxiety tremendously. Flotation therapy does not work for everyone, but in the case of Cody and my cousin, it worked wonders.


I connect to this quote because my cousin was an infantry soldier sent to Afghanistan at the beginning of the war. He served two years for the American Marines, and when he came back he was not the same. He would space out and irrationally freak out at his friends and family. He would sit in darkness for hours with his door locked, allowing nobody to speak to him. He would also awake at night screaming and dripping sweat. Flotation therapy helped save my cousins mind, just like it did Cody's. Once my cousin tried flotation therapy, he never turned back. Floating once a week in a pod he has in his basement, my cousin has made significant improvement with his PTSD. It has helped him be a better cousin, husband, and father. As a godfather to his children I am extremely happy that My god-daughter has her funny, loving father back to raise her right, and it is all thanks to flotation therapy.