Retired Army 1st Sergeant Seth Kastle served 16 years in the Army Reserves, and his service included deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Qatar. But he wasn’t able to return home and just pick up where he left off — like so many other veterans, Kastle struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. He had problems with anger, and with his memory. But he had trouble explaining PTSD to is children, and found that there weren’t many resources to help. So he decided to do it himself, and wrote a book for children so they could understand PTSD.
“Why Is Dad So Mad?” is a story about a family of lions, told from the point of view of the mother and children. The father is a service member who has PTSD, and the book explains the symptoms that many who suffer it face — sleeplessness, anger, forgetfulness, nightmares. The book describes it as a fire inside of Dad’s chest, but that no matter how mad or sad he may seem, the love for his family is always there.
Kastle started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the book, and within hours, had met its goal of $3,000. By the next day, the amount had doubled. “Why Is Dad So Mad?” is available now at KastleBooks.com, and already, Kastle and his team are working on a companion book for moms, called “Why Is Mom So Mad?”. The site also features resources for veterans who need help with PTSD.
Kastle hopes that the book will help explain to military children why their parents are the way that they are, but also to reassure them. Military parents may struggle with PTSD, and things may be hard, but as the book says, they love their children more than anything, and no amount of PTSD can change that.