Sunday, May 24, 2015

Therapist Says PTSD Can Be Cured?

I was just reading a report on an Iraq veteran with PTSD, Iraq veteran Gabriel Perez now in battle with PTSD, Lubbock Online by Karen Michael. Most of the article is pretty good and worth reading however this part left me flabbergasted.
Andy Young works with Lubbock police officers after incidents that could lead to PTSD. He also has a private therapy practice and teaches a semester-long class at Lubbock Christian University on identifying and treating PTSD.

Post-traumatic stress disorder can be cured, Young said, noting as a therapist, he is always optimistic.

I really hope that was just a typo but it wasn't been the first time some said PTSD can be cured. It is something other doctors have claimed in the last 40 years right along with some denying it is real.

Ok then why haven't they cured it? Why have there been so many suffering all these years with PTSD and losing so much hope after surviving combat they end their own lives? Why haven't they cured it when suicides among veterans are double the civilian rate and most of them are over 50? Why do they spend billions a year on lifetime disability claims, prevention that has only prevented them from seeking help, awareness that has only spread word veterans kill themselves but remain silent on what helps them heal and even more money going to charities as more and more veterans end up in veterans courts along with facing off with police officers?

If PTSD can be cured then why are so many families still falling apart and blaming themselves? The list goes on showing that it cannot be cured as much as the list grows on how they can heal and live better lives. Saying PTSD can be cured makes about as much sense as the Three Stooges giving a class lesson on speech.
The veteran in the interview said,
"You come home and it's like, 'I missed so much. Where do I fit in? Where do I want to be?' "

Start with the Three Stooges and how it didn't matter to them they didn't fit in with anyone other than each other. They were understood perfectly and free to be themselves.

Veterans are not strange to other veterans. They are not some kind of oddity or freak to others. They are not someone to be dismissed or ignored. They do not hear "get over it" said to them by other veterans.

In the veterans community they are reassured that while the civilian population does not, or will not understand them, they are among their own kind with them. Other veterans know what it is like to attempt to assimilate into civilian life. They gave up as soon as they discovered the simple fact they never really fit in before they served since civilians were not interested in doing anything they did.

Everyone screams about their rights when they believe someone tries to take them away but no one screams about the servicemembers risking their lives everyday to retain that right. Everyone screams about useless wars but no one seems to remember they actually had the ability to change things all along when they refused to even show up to vote.

The conversations we have a a lot different than the ones going on in the civilian world where a claim of curing PTSD can be accepted but to us, it is more in line with the Three Stooges teaching the class.

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