[afraidfortherepublic]

Please explain why digging would be therapeutic vs any other activity? I’m all for archeological digs and for helping soldiers to reintegrate into the community, but why these two activities together?

PS — Thank you for your service.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

I’m not a therapist ... but intuitively, it seems like any low-stress, manual, repetitive activity that got you out into nature and was also beneficial to the community (so you knew it wasn’t just make-work) might be good for someone with frazzled nerves or even actual PTSD. JMO.

[Tea Party Hobbit]

If the dig is in a rural area (as the one in the article is), that would be a major part of the benefit. Just being outdoors in a green, natural area has a soothing and de-stressing effect (in pleasant weather, anyway).

[Some weeks ago (?) I even heard a news report that said doctors had just discovered that. What took them so long?]

[95B30]

OK, for some unknown reason digging in the dirt has a great calming effect. I used my old, disused garden and a forked spade to turn a 60’ X 45’ plot as a way of working myself back into “normalcy” (is that even a word?). The action of digging and the smell of the dirt was capable of removing angry feeling, anxiousness, and unwanted flashes of things past in a way no other activity could. Finding old nails, toys that my kids had played with and other finds just added a bit more fun to the whole. AN archaeological dig would require a level of concentration that would add to the other aspects. Every returning soldier has some level of need to reintegrate into society, this seems to fit well. Having had this experience I think most of our current knowledge and practice of PTSD is flawed, this kind of activity helped to bring happy memories to the fore.

[95B30]

OK, for some unknown reason digging in the dirt has a great calming effect. I used my old, disused garden and a forked spade to turn a 60’ X 45’ plot as a way of working myself back into “normalcy” (is that even a word?). The action of digging and the smell of the dirt was capable of removing angry feeling, anxiousness, and unwanted flashes of things past in a way no other activity could. Finding old nails, toys that my kids had played with and other finds just added a bit more fun to the whole. AN archaeological dig would require a level of concentration that would add to the other aspects. Every returning soldier has some level of need to reintegrate into society, this seems to fit well. Having had this experience I think most of our current knowledge and practice of PTSD is flawed, this kind of activity helped to bring happy memories to the fore.