Project Healing Waters volunteer Joe Humphreys guides US Army veteran Josh Williams as they fish.
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uring a deployment in Afghanistan, Alan Fitzpatrick’s life changed in an immeasurable way. After suffering a traumatic brain injury, the young man came back home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), an often devastating disorder with symptoms such as hypervigilance, flashbacks, and nightmares. Fitzpatrick himself was dealing with hypervigilance, causing him to be overly aware of everything going on around him, always on edge, and expecting the worst in every situation. In 2014, a man named Chuck Tye, a volunteer for Project Healing Waters at the time, asked him to join a program that could help him cope with some of the symptoms. After refusing multiple times, Fitzpatrick says, “he literally grabbed me by the collar and dragged me to a Project Healing Waters booth.”
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One in 11 people will be diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime. This disorder is not curable, however, it can be managed with a combination of psychiatry and medication. While it affects everyone differently, people with PTSD often suffer from unwanted thoughts or memories as they try to sleep, work, eat, or do anything most people take for granted. Project Healing Waters is a nonprofit organization that was established in 2005, focusing on creating programs that serve veterans with PTSD by taking them on numerous fishing trips throughout the year. The program does everything from helping them build rods and taking them fishing to helping build camaraderie with other members of the community. As Fitzpatrick went through the program, he became
