I can't sleep...

Dear Sebastian Junger,

About a week and a half ago, a friend of mine, lent me his copy of WAR. For the week it took me to get through it and had rented Restrepo from iTunes, I couldn't sleep. At all. In fact, I'm still not sleeping.

It just happened that the CBC ran a documentary last Sunday night on PTSD and suicide inside the armed forces.One of the stats cited was that in the U.S., 18 servicemen commit suicide every day. fter reading and watching, I'm actually shocked that the number isn't higher.

It was one thing to read the book and paint my own picture of the characters. But to see the faces of the "characters" in your book was devastating. I could not believe how young they were/are. Kearney, O'Byrne. I imagined them as middle-aged, experienced servicemen.

Having experienced a personal trauma two years ago and spending the past two years trying to find my way back, I can't begin to imagine how one finds their way "home", having lived a trauma a minute. It seems virtually impossible to me. I'm a very optimistic person who believes that tomorrow will bring sunshine again but the darkness and clouds, mashed up with the deep connections made through the need to survive is so complex.

I have no idea if there's anything I can do to support/contribute but would be interested to find out more.

It's hard to say thank you for delivering something so impactful and disturbing ... you know what I mean.

jenn