2023-07-15 08:19:30
The Athos houses, set up by the French army, accommodate soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress. They are around sixty in Aix-les-Bains, in Savoie, to be followed on a daily basis.
Traumatized men. After a mission abroad, many soldiers return not only injured physically, but also psychologically. To help them overcome the post-traumatic stress from which they suffer, a specialized house of the Army welcomes around sixty soldiers in Aix-les-Bains, in Savoie.
These houses, called Athos, house a total of more than 300 soldiers in the country. France currently has 4 of them. In addition to Aix-les-Bains, there is one in Bordeaux, in Gironde, one in Toulon, in the Var, and another near Auray, in Morbihan.
Group activities as therapy
In Aix-les-Bains, a rake in hand, Julien, a staff sergeant in the army, gets down to work on his small garden plot. For him, this activity was a real discovery and a form of therapy, after the violent scenes he faced during external operations.
“When I scratch the ground, it frees my mind and it prevents me from thinking about the past,” he confides to BFMTV.
Julien fought for more than 18 years for the French Army. During all these years, he went on almost all fronts. Witness to violent scenes, the staff sergeant then returns to France without post-traumatic stress, this severe anxiety disorder which appears after a person has had a traumatic experience, being detected in him.
“I fell seriously into alcohol,” he says, very moved, at our microphone.
After having experienced a difficult period, Julien still manages to get out of it. “I did a weaning and from that day, in 2015, it’s zero alcohol,” he says.
A healthy and suitable environment
From now on, his disorder has been diagnosed and he is accompanied on a psychological level, in Aix-les-Bains. An environment adapted to each soldier. “We come here, everyone has their problems, their addictions, their medications”, explains Julien.
Despite this help, you have to be patient. “It’s not because we come to this house that we don’t have a nightmare”, underlines the soldier, assuring that he “always feels this sword of Damocles” above his head, telling him to “pay attention to tomorrow”.
However, he wants to be optimistic: “the days pass and the work pays off”.
“The feeling of having failed”
Also a staff sergeant in the army, Simon is a regular at this house in Aix-les-Bains. Arriving in September, he manages, after long months of psychological work, to take a step back from the traumatic events he has experienced. “It was the Athos house that allowed me to project myself into an aftermath,” he says.
The soldier previously went through periods of doubt and heavy questioning. “We have the impression of having failed in the mission because the mission was to hold on, to serve France for as long as possible,” he concedes.
“When we let go, we have the impression of having failed personally and at the same time, we have a feeling of abandonment by our comrades which is also hard to accept”, he believes.
“Re-link”
In addition to gardening, the patients of the Aix-les-Bains house increase their activities throughout the day, with the daily presence of six guides.
“We help them to remobilize, to recreate a link with their local environment, their family, some with the regiment, others on the contrary will no longer want to see their regiment. We respect the temporality and the needs of each, “explains René Debuire, director of the Athos house in Aix-les-Bains.
After this stay, few of these soldiers plan to return to the field for a new mission. The Ministry of the Armed Forces is planning to set up 10 houses of this type throughout the country.
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