[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 107 (Monday, June 23, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H2885-H2887]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             RECOGNIZING NATIONAL POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH DAY

  (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Bergman 
of Michigan was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
majority leader.)


                             General Leave

  Mr. BERGMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members

[[Page H2886]]

may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Michigan?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BERGMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in belated recognition of 
Post-Traumatic Growth Day--I repeat, post-traumatic growth.
  Observed annually on June 13 as part of National PTSD Awareness 
Month, this effort was initiated by Boulder Crest Foundation, a 
nationally recognized nonprofit helping veterans, first responders, and 
their families turn their struggles into strength.
  When we think about the numbers of veterans and first responders who 
have experienced an event, the numbers are small but not 
inconsequential and staggering but, I think, kept too well hidden. For 
example, over 50 percent of veterans have experienced at least one 
traumatic event in their lifetime.
  Mr. Speaker, let's just go back a little bit in history because 
``PTSD'' was not always a term of reference and a term of the norm when 
it came to dealing with stress. In World War I, I believe the term was 
``shell shock.'' In World War II, the term was ``battle fatigue.'' In 
Vietnam, when I was there, we used to call it the ``thousand-yard 
stare,'' a certain emptiness we would see in others that indicated an 
increased level of stress.
  That was then. How did we, especially in the military, deal with 
whether it would be battle fatigue, shell shock, or the thousand-yard 
stare? Back in World War I and World War II, there was this thing 
called the troopship. When, let's say, you were in the South Pacific 
and coming back to the States, you boarded a troopship somewhere and 
sailed, in some cases, for well over a month just to return to U.S. 
soil. It was the same thing with the European theater or the North 
African theater.
  There was a long period of time where those combat veterans who had 
been under tremendous stress had a chance to decompress over a period 
of time with each other and share their experiences, cry, hug, laugh, 
but work through it in a way that used the element of time together to, 
again, work through the challenges of the horrific events that they had 
experienced.

                              {time}  2020

  In Vietnam, the timeline shortened a little bit, and please don't let 
me forget Korea, as well. Because when you look at the memorials here 
in Washington, D.C., you have got the World War II Memorial, which is a 
tremendous testament to our country coming together to overcome evil. 
You have got the Korean War Memorial. For those of you who have been 
there, the darkness of that memorial is evident in the expressions on 
the faces of those soldiers there at the Korean War Memorial. You have 
got the Vietnam Memorial, which has all the 58,000-plus names of the 
men and women who gave their lives in Vietnam.
  Some of my colleagues who served there, the only way that they can 
come to grips with some of their PTSD is to go to the memorial and 
visit their comrades whose names are on the wall. We have dealt with it 
differently, but we tended to think of it as relieving stress in a 
negative way.
  After 9/11, after Desert Shield, and Desert Storm, the first war that 
we were involved in where members could be on the battlefield one day 
and back literally in their homes within 48 hours. During OIF and OEF 
where a person could come off the battlefield on a Wednesday and, 
again, be at home watching TV and watching their friends on the 
battlefield within 48 hours, there was no time to decompress. There was 
no time to work through the challenges that you have seen.
  What do we do? Well, PTSD is real. Nobody disagrees with that at all. 
How do we turn a negative into a positive?
  Well, how about in changing the term ``post-traumatic stress 
disorder'' into ``post-traumatic growth.'' Take the experience, work 
through it in such a way that you grow from it. Think about all the men 
and women who currently serve, only about 10 percent have been 
diagnosed with PTSD. That is of all who served.
  For those who served in combat zones, the rate of PTSD can reach up 
to 20 percent. Among first responders, police officers, firefighters, 
and EMTs, 80 percent have experienced at least one traumatic event 
while on the job.
  Between 10 and 30 percent of first responders will develop post-
traumatic stress disorder. Again, whether you are in the military, 
whether you are a first responder, whether you are a NICU nurse, a 
cardiac nurse, a physician, you give it all for those people you are 
serving. Whether you are a first responder in the healthcare field, or 
in the military, how do you deal with it? How do you deal with what you 
gave? Can you return to a positive attitude in your life?
  That is why the belief among servicemembers and first responders who 
have gone through this, we have figured out that the best way to deal 
with what we deal with internally is to move forward with an attitude 
of what happened happened. How do we grow from it?
  It is easier said than done because in the society in which we live 
today with instant communications, social media, and reliving things, 
it is tough, in many cases, to leave the negative behind us.
  There are different therapies, group therapy, individual therapy, 
there could be potentially in some cases, as we advance therapies in 
new areas, and not taking a pill--here, take a pill for this. This will 
make you feel better. If that pill doesn't make you feel better, take 
two of these pills type of thing. We have to get rid of that because it 
doesn't help.
  We are human beings, and I would suggest to you that one of the 
options we have to promote the idea of post-traumatic stress is to get 
behind some good things. Both Democrats and Republicans here in 
Congress, who want to do better in this arena, there is a caucus here 
in the House of Representatives called the PATH Caucus. It was formed 
about 3 years ago.
  I happen to be the Republican lead and my dear friend and colleague 
Lou Correa from Los Angeles is the Democrat lead. We call it the Noah's 
Ark Caucus, where one Democrat and one Republican come together and 
join it, but the whole goal as the PATH Caucus--the title is, 
Psychedelics Advancing Therapies, keyword advancing therapies. We have 
kind of casually renamed it the good path caucus, which means get off 
opioid dependency and advance new therapies to allow members of the 
military and first responders and everybody else to actually get inside 
of themselves and be able to release those demons through different 
kinds of therapies that don't involve taking a pill, taking another 
pill, taking another pill, changing the pills, whatever it happens to 
be, forever.
  It is about new therapies that will enable those members going 
through it to open up their minds, clear out the demons, and move 
forward with life.
  We have a responsibility as the House of Representatives and as the 
legislative branch of our government, to include the Senate, to do the 
best we can on the legislative side in enabling resources to be focused 
on research that enables that individual growth to occur.
  We are a long way from getting to the point where we can say we are 
done with this. We will never be done with it. There will always be new 
advancements in therapy, new advancements in dealing with the human 
mind, the brain, the least explored and least understood part of the 
human body, but it is who we are as God's creatures that will enable us 
to move forward with continuing to grow.
  I am honored tonight to just call this to the attention of the people 
watching and especially to my colleagues who--again, not Democrat or 
Republican--have chosen to make the world a better place by helping 
people be their best selves, to continue to grow after, in some cases, 
very horrific, stressful events.
  I ask everyone who is listening, please consider--because we can all 
have a bad day--what a positive affect you can have on others when you 
present yourself to them, when they are under a time of extreme stress 
and potential disorientation, to lead them down a path that they can 
grow from what they have gone through. We can all make this world a 
better place by helping one another.

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  I thank the Speaker and the House for allowing me to talk today on 
celebration of post-traumatic growth normally. We will be celebrating 
it again next year on the 13th of June on that annual day.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________