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Retired Army Dad Suffering From PTSD Writes Children's Book To Help His Daughter Understand « back

September 18th, 2017

Sergeant Seth Kastle reading his book to his daughter

The men and women who suffer from PTSD after their service in the military can have a negative impact on not only them, but their families as well. And that's exactly what happened with retired Army First Sergeant Seth Kastle.

When he came back from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sergeant Kastle started suffering from PTSD. His mood, behavior, and demeanor were very different and immediately noticeable. At times his family didn't even recognize the person standing in front of them, and they had virtually no idea of how to go about helping him recover.

Kastle represents just one of the near 20% of veterans who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder. He didn't know how to explain it to his daughters and couldn't find anything kid-friendly to help him in making the reasons behind his behaviors clear to them. And at the risk of tearing both himself and his family apart if this continued, Kastle decided to help his family better understand his disorder.

And that is why he decided to write a children's book about it.

The book is titled: "Why Is Dad So Mad?," and talks about the "fire in his heart" that plagues him on a daily basis. And now, when he reads to his daughter at bedtime, she takes pride and comfort in knowing her father is the author.

Because of the book, his daughter Reaghan is coming to understand that Daddy's "fire" is not her fault. And no matter what, she knows that he loves her. Seth has already sold thousands of copies and has used the money to hire an illustrator to bring the book to life for kids around the world.

It is his hope the book will be used in households across the country to help other families in need with their efforts to understand and cope with the effects of PTSD.

Inspiration for this story came from littlethings.com.

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