Military Dad Couldn’t Find a Book to Explain PTSD to His Kids, So He Wrote One

After sixteen years spent deployed to Qatar, Afghanistan, and Iraq, Army Reserve First Sgt. Seth Kastle retired and returned home to Wakeeney, Kansas. And while he was happy to be back with his wife Julia and daughters Raegan and Kennedy, Kastle struggled with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“When I returned home and began the reintegration process, it was difficult, but I didn’t understand why,” Kastle told Babble. To deal with his feelings and hopefully help his kids understand his PTSD, Kastle sat down at the kitchen table and started writing a story he’d been mulling over for a long time. Half an hour later, the first draft of Why Is Dad So Mad? was complete.

Kastle’s effort is a children’s book is about a family of lions, modeled after Kastle’s own, in which the father is struggling with PTSD. The disorder is represented in the book’s illustrations by a fire raging inside his chest.

Kastle hopes that his book, which met its initial Kickstarter goal in a matter of hours, helps other veterans and their families, not just his own.

The VA estimates that 11 to 20 percent of veterans of America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have experienced PTSD, but it remains a difficult subject to discuss.

“Reading this book to my daughters was a pretty powerful experience,” Kastle said. “After I read it to my oldest daughter, she told me she was sorry I had a fire inside my chest.

“That is something that will stick with me.”