Psychologist: Threatened volunteers should be evaluated for PTSD

If you want to get a better idea of what PTSD is all about, this will help you understand it. Remember PTSD comes after trauma. It is not caused by you. It invades you.

Psychologist: Threatened volunteers should be evaluated for PTSD
Monday, March 07 2011 @ 12:05 AM MST
Contributed by: Admin
Views: 246
by John Q. Murray

Two volunteers who said their lives were threatened by Frenchtown Fire personnel may now be experiencing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The Chronicle asked a clinical psychologist familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD to review interviews with Jenny Ross and Christian Boots to assess whether they would benefit from treatment.

Dr. Steven R. Farmilant said that their statements are consistent with a diagnosis of PTSD, and they should be evaluated to determine whether they have the condition and require treatment.

Jenny Ross was threatened by former Frenchtown Fire Chief John Bibler, who claimed to be a decorated military hero and sniper. He said he would shoot Jenny Ross after first killing her dog and then her family.

Christian Boots, a resident firefighter, said he was beaten and threatened by another resident who reportedly had substance abuse and anger management problems. The resident allegedly said he would throw Christian into an icy river to drown, so that his body would be eaten by animals and never recovered.

With the consent of both Jenny and Christian, the Chronicle shared notes and stories about the violence and threats with the psychologist.

Dr. Farmilant concluded that some of their statements and alleged experiences are consistent with a stress-related injury "requiring further evaluation and possible medical and cognitive therapy intervention."

Both Christian and Jenny made statements consistent with the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). The manual, which provides detailed criteria for identifying psychological conditions, including PTSD, is updated periodically to reflect current research on mental disorders.
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PTSD is scary, confusing — but most of all, treatable

This came from Beacon News. I searched for the name of the author but couldn't find it. I wanted to say "thank you" for telling a story that had to be told. I can try to explain what PTSD is like and come pretty close but when you hear the words from people with PTSD inside of them, then you are able to understand better than I could ever come close to explaining to you. This is powerful and comes from a regular person after surviving two traumatic events. Maybe after reading it, you will have a clearer understanding of what it is like for the troops and even our police officers. They expose themselves to traumatic events everyday, year after year because they are jobs that have to be done.

PTSD is scary, confusing — but most of all, treatable
Mar 2, 2011 2:10AM
It was late, maybe 3 a.m. I was sitting in my roommate’s parked Chevy Cavalier, alone, panicked, hoping nobody could see me — hoping I wasn’t really there.

The full story is long, much like that night was. I was at a house party in November 2003, my senior year of college — something my sorority sisters and I did almost every weekend. A girlfriend and I were about to leave when we heard a few popping sounds, much like firecrackers, from just outside the front door. The next thing I knew, one friend ran inside, yelling for someone to call 911.

Our friends hosting the party were trying to kick out a group of teenaged crashers. I’ve been told one of these strangers unexpectedly pulled a gun out of his pants, fired randomly, and ran. One of the bullets hit a friend of the party host square in the chest. He died a few minutes later.

I will never forget what it felt like, sitting in my roommate’s car as we waited for police, staring at the body sprawled on the lawn. Silent. Unmoving. Dead. “I was just dancing next to him an hour ago,” I thought, “and now he’s dead.” I’ve always lived by the mantra that “life is short,” but seeing the body of one of my peers at the age of 21 was the kind of wake-up call I never expected to experience.

Fast-forward four years later, when I was 25. I was driving my relatively new Honda Civic, on my way to a family gathering at about 9 a.m. in Chicago. I’m still not clear on exactly what happened, but I’ve been told that I went through a red stoplight that I didn’t see and crashed into the side of a gold BMW that seemed to come out of nowhere. In my confusion, I veered to the right and slammed into a curb. My airbag deployed while my hand was still on the horn.

I always compare that moment to the cartoons: When one of the characters is bonked on the head, they have little gold stars floating around them. That’s exactly what that moment felt like. When I came to, probably only a few seconds later, I didn’t feel right. I looked down, saw blood from a fingernail that had broken off, and then saw my right forearm. It was shaped like an S, and my hand was almost flattened against my inner forearm. The airbag had whipped my hand around and shattered the outer portion of my wrist.
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PTSD is scary, confusing but most of all, treatable

Also from Beacon News


PTSD’s stronghold can have debilitating affect

University of Vermont research helps with understanding PTSD

Understanding PTSD

Feb 23, 2011 8:28pm

NECN: Anya Huneke) - When you think of PTSD, you probably think of those back from war, or dealing with another tragedy. Some new information out from the University of Vermont helps explain why some suffer more than others.

In a new report published in the journal 'Nature', scientists from UVM and Emory University have identified a hormone - known as 'pacap' - that appears to be linked to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The researchers found that women with high blood levels of pacap showed more of the symptoms of PTSD. The same correlation was not found in men.
Understanding PTSD

Mental Health In Focus After Shooting In Arizona for Responders Too

One of the reasons I trained as a Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains was to be able to help the "helpers" the rest of us depend upon. They are the last people to ask for help, which makes it more difficult for them to get any. We never think they need help after the crisis is over for us. Think about it. They put out fires, save lives but they also have to recover bodies, often bodies of children. They have to respond to accidents, save lives but they also have to recover bodies and body parts. We never think of them after they've done their jobs.

After Katrina, responders had to recover the bodies of people they were too late to save. No one thought of them. After September 11th, few people in this country thought of the survivors among the personnel responding to give aid and again, recover bodies and body parts. The countless hours of hoping, praying for survivors ended with just praying they could find all the bodies for the sake of the families.

Here again, another crisis with more responders needing help to recover. The next time you see a firefighter, police officer or other emergency responders, remember this story and then think of all they go through after the crisis is over for us. It was one time out of our lives but it is endless days of one crisis after another for them.

Mental Health In Focus After Shooting In Arizona
by JEFF BRADY

January 16, 2011
The two have relied mostly on each other for support because patient privacy laws make it difficult to talk about specifics with anyone else. In fact, Southwest Ambulance says it can't even confirm that Rogers and Magnotta transported Giffords, but the Pima County Sheriff’s office released the information in a time line of events from that day.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) is still listed in critical condition at a Tucson, Ariz., hospital. Doctors say her recovery has been "exceptional" so far. She's opening her eyes, responding to commands and Saturday she was taken off a ventilator.

Outside the hospital, in the community she represents, mental health has been a recurring discussion topic since the shooting that left six people dead. There are questions about the alleged gunman and concern for the victims who survived. The police and firemen who responded also require special care.

Paramedic Aaron Rogers and EMT Wes Magnotta treated Giffords right after shooting and transported her to the hospital in the back of their ambulance.

Rogers and Magnotta had four days off after the shooting and are back at work now. The gruesome details of what they experienced will be with them for a long time.

"One thing that stood out for me was smell," Rogers says. "There was so much blood on-scene and it being warm, from the sun, that that's what I smelled. It was that iron-y smell."
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Mental Health In Focus After Shooting In Arizona

Treating trauma - Risks of debriefing after disaster

I am alive and pretty well balanced because without knowing it, my family did debriefing every time there was a crisis. They were there to listen. That's the point of crisis teams showing up after a crisis. They are there to listen and let people talk to someone without having to worry about hearing a judgment, having their feelings dismissed or hearing someone tell them they have all the answers. Crisis teams are there to take care of immediate needs including the need to talk, cry and let it out. The crisis teams are not there to force anyone to talk but there for the people who feel the need to be comforted this way. There is also a residual effect when they see others being comforted. It allows them to seek it for themselves.

This article seems to miss this point as it goes far to show that there are risks of debriefing but the risks come when people are not trained properly and they can do more harm than good. There is also the risk to the responder. Deploying into one crisis after another can leave them being drained and often they need to talk to someone too but good trainers and team leaders already have someone in place for them to connect with.

Treating trauma - Risks of debriefing after disaster
By Natasha Mitchell

The church in Carisbrook shows how high the water rose in town (ABC Ballarat: Brad Barber)

Last week's floods have brought devastation to thousands of Queenslanders, and now Victorian homes are going under.

The stories of loss and survival emerging from close-knit communities in the Lockyer valley, in towns like Grantham and Ipswich are confronting and sobering, as people describe hanging on for dear life to trees, rooftops and each other as floodwaters pushed past them with the force of an "inland tsunami". People are still missing, some ripped from the arms of loved ones, and search and rescue teams are steeling themselves for grizzly discoveries amidst the rubble and receding waters.

"Mum and dad are beautiful people, and we're still in shock we've lost them", Sarah Norman told ABC News, after both of her parents perished, their bodies swept to their final resting place two kilometres from their Spring Bluff home, near Murphy's Creek. "It was heartbreaking, but we just believe they were together and God has his hands on all of this".

Sarah shared her story on camera with quiet clarity and without the raw emotion you might expect, but her muted stare gave it away - this was a woman in shock. Surreal, numbing, stunned shock.

After the deluge, our natural inclination is to want to help people deal with this shock, and fast.

Help comes in many forms, both material and emotional. Donating to the Queensland Premier's Flood Relief Fund is one way, or registering with Volunteering Queensland to lend a hand is another, offering people temporary shelter, helping families sort through the stinking mud and debris for precious hints of life as it was, and reaching out with open arms and hearts to those who have lost everything.

Next we want to send in the psychologists and counsellors, and understandably so. Talking through the hell that's happened will help, won't it? It makes sense and sounds right for professionals to get in early and help us bear witness to our own trauma, doesn't it?
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Treating trauma - Risks of debriefing after disaster

September 11 survivors show lasting traumatic stress

15% seems low considering we've been talking about one out of three for PTSD (some experts say one out of five) but you have to consider another factor here. Right after 9-11 trauma teams rushed out and got to work taking care of survivors. This shows that even with immediate help, 15% had their lives changed that day above others. What do you think the chances are for the troops coming back from multiple times with their lives on the line and not getting any help after each time? Not good odds at all. So why is it that no one in the government was ready for the troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan? They never thought to treat them like humans instead of "soldiers" trained to do their jobs.

September 11 survivors show lasting traumatic stress

By Amy Norton
NEW YORK | Tue Jan 4, 2011 4:41pm EST
(Reuters Health) - Many civilian survivors of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center were still suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress several years after the 2001 disaster, a new study finds.

Surveys of nearly 3,700 people who escaped the Twin Towers that day found that nearly all -- 96 percent -- still had at least one symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) two to three years later.

And of those, 15 percent screened positive for full-blown PTSD -- a rate about four times higher than that seen in the general population in any given year.

The study, reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the first to focus on the long-term mental health of the people who were actually in the Twin Towers on the morning of September 11.

Past studies have looked at the general public, or people who lived near the World Trade Center, said senior researcher Dr. Sandro Galea, of Columbia University in New York.

The study found that people who had escaped from floors above the planes' "impact zone" were at greater risk of PTSD than those who escaped from lower floors. Similarly, people who were evacuated relatively later, or who had to run from the cloud of debris sent out by the collapsing towers, were also at elevated risk.

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September 11 survivors show lasting traumatic stress

After cheating death, the real challenge of living begins

I supposed that I must be part of the two thirds considering the worst experiences to be life changing for the better. I am not as insane as that sounds. For me, each time changed me, made me more loving, living in the moment and above all, more forgiving. I value the people in my life more because I know that at any moment something can change all of it. Someone else may worry about it to the point where they stop living and enjoying the living but this is a story about what is possible after trauma and it is possible for anyone. Even people with PTSD can heal if not be cured and the next set of changes for them can be for the better.


After cheating death, the real challenge of living begins
How trauma can upend lives and, wondrously, transform some for the better


By Jennifer Wolff Perrine

When Julia Ferganchick learned storms had delayed her connecting flight from Dallas to Little Rock, Arkansas, she found a seat at an airport bar and ordered a Bloody Mary. The 30-year-old writing and rhetoric professor had just spent Memorial Day weekend on Coronado Island, off the coast of San Diego. She was eager to return home to start the summer semester at the University of Arkansas, where she had applied for tenure. Now she was irritated; the bad weather would push her arrival close to midnight.
Two hours and 12 minutes behind schedule, American Airlines flight 1420 took off. Once above the clouds, the flight was relatively smooth, but as it neared Little Rock, they flew into lightning and severe thunderstorms. “Quite a light show off the left-hand side of the aircraft,” the pilot announced. “I’m going to have to slightly overfly the airport in order to turn back around to land.” As the plane circled and dipped, it jolted in the wind. “I knew—all of us knew—that this wasn’t the feeling of a plane touching down,” Ferganchick says.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 slammed into the ground going 184 miles an hour, careening off the end of the runway into a flood plain, where it smashed into a steel light stanchion and split in two just four rows behind Ferganchick’s seat. Her seat belt kept her torso in place, but the impact ripped her blue clogs from her feet and wrenched her back so badly she herniated a disk in her spine. Still, she was alive. And as fire enveloped the cabin, she could see a way out, through a jagged gash in the plane’s ceiling. Ferganchick clawed her way over mangled seats and carry-on bags until she found herself in the open air in the middle of a hailstorm, standing barefoot atop a plane that seemed ready to explode.

Some never recover. But most do. In fact, nearly two thirds of trauma victims, even those who had extreme pain, say they ultimately benefited from the aftermath of their experience, according to the research of Richard G. Tedeschi, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Tedeschi and his colleagues have tracked outcomes for people who survived accidents and other traumas, such as life-threatening illnesses or the death of a child, and identified a phenomenon they call post-traumatic growth: Some survivors grow closer to people they love; others develop a sense of personal strength or appreciation for life. Still others deepen their spiritual beliefs or change their career and life goals. Women are more likely than men to report these benefits, and even those who are most impaired at first can find their way, as Ferganchick did, to feeling enriched by their ordeal.
What can these women teach the rest of us? As researchers learn more about what makes people resilient, they hope to develop therapies that could lessen negative responses and promote post-traumatic growth instead. “It’s not about getting over it‚ it’s about processing it in the most meaningful way,” Tedeschi says. “You still have your fears and grief and suffering, but you have made your suffering meaningful. If you can learn to do that, you can get through the bad stuff in life and find value in the struggle.”
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After cheating death, the real challenge of living begins

After shooting, officials work to prevent lasting trauma

If you can understand the need for something like this after one event, then maybe you can understand a soldier coming home needing help after a year's worth of events when their lives were on on the line.

After shooting, officials work to prevent lasting trauma

December 25, 2010 02:17:00 PM
S. BRADY CALHOUN / News Herald Writer
PANAMA CITY — Everyone involved in the hostage crisis at the Bay District Board room has a buddy.

It was one of the first things Superintendent Bill Husfelt ordered, along with time with a counselor for all the board members shortly after Clay Duke pulled out a gun during a Dec. 14 board meeting and ultimately opened fire on the board. The 56-year-old was shot by Mike Jones, the district’s chief of safety, security and police. Duke fell to the ground, returned fire and then turned his gun on himself.

No one besides Duke was physically hurt but officials are concerned that the emotional and psychological scars could linger.

“We set up a buddy system so we can look out for one another,” Husfelt said. “Especially over the holidays.”

Those who survive a traumatic event sometimes suffer from acute stress disorder, said Omar Howard, a psychiatrist with Life Management Center in Panama City.

“They have intense fear, feelings of helplessness or horror,” Howard said, adding that victims often have nightmares, problems sleeping, anger issues. They may also avoid the source of the trauma and if the incident was videotaped, like the hostage situation, they may avoid watching the video.
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After shooting, officials work to prevent lasting trauma

September 11th, is it time for the weary heart to rejoice?

September 11th, is it time for the weary heart to rejoice?
by
Chaplain Kathie

An act of hate killed that day and destroyed the lives of survivors. But acts of love and courage inspired a nation. We can all remember where we were that dark day when the news broke that a plane hit one of the Twin Towers, followed by another shock that a second one hit the other. We can remember being horrified. Fear, anger and hatred are very strong emotions. Memories of horrific events take hold and they are hard to forget. But if those events are followed by moments of grace, then those memories become stronger.

We saw the firefighters and police officers running toward the Towers while average citizens were running away. We saw them seconds before the first Tower fell and we knew most of them would die. We saw the images of the fire trucks and police cars covered in debris and dust, horrified, preparing ourselves for the numbers of the dead to be released.

Some people in this country want to hang onto the hatred and anger they felt that dark day. To them, what they feel is justified but it is not allowing them to heal. They are being eaten away by what was inspired by bad instead of what was created by the goodness of so many.

We saw pure love that day and in the days that followed. Firefighters accustomed to risking their lives on a daily basis were digging through the rubble of the Towers and stood silently as one of their own fallen was recovered. For moments they grieved for the loss of life, the loss of a friend, someone's husband, someone's Dad. Soon they returned to searching for more of their brothers they went into danger with.

As homes across America put their flags out on display, every street was covered with the stars and stripes in unity. Cars either had magnets on their bumpers of flags hanging off the windows. Even members of Congress stood together on the steps of the Capitol.

After traumatic events an anniversary date can cause a lot of pain unless we replace that horrifying memory with another one. If we focus on bad, then that is what is allowed to enter into our souls dictating the process of our healing. If we remember the event yet also remember what happened afterward, then most of the time it is healing because we see grace and love in action.

When a solider is wounded, someone comes to help them and save them. They are not left there alone. Someone reaches out a hand to them. Someone comes to comfort them. Someone comes to take them to get medical care. Someone prays for them. They are surrounded by love.

Witnesses see the gore and wonder if they could be next but they also see the response of the other people rushing to help. If they allow that memory to become stronger than the event itself, then they begin to heal. If they allow the horrific memory to be the stronger one, they begin to suffer.

We are all a part of what we see and how we look at the world around us. If it is all bad, then we take that into the rest of our lives. If it is good following bad, then goodness in others lives on. We have hope that we would be treated with the same kind of love.

Nine years after 9-11 many in this country want to hang onto the hate and anger. The pain they carry touches everyone they come into contact with. Many more have allowed the magnificence to take away the pain they felt. They remember people coming to help and they in turn wanted to help others. It is time for the weary hearts to rejoice by allowing love we witnessed to take hold and inspire us to pass that on. Hatred and anger inspire more of the same, but love and compassion can heal a nation.

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Does The Impact Of Psychological Trauma Cross Generations? Dah!

I can't believe I'm reading this! New research? If this is new research then the researchers must have been born and lived their lives in a bubble.

Psychologists have always asked, "Why did you hate your mother?" for a reason. Our parents play an important role in what we turn out to be but it goes into what their lives were all about as well.

This study took a look at families of Holocaust survivors. They took a look at how the DNA could be altered but what they didn't do was understand how living with someone with PTSD changes everything for the people they live with.

I knew what PTSD was when our daughter was growing up. I knew how to smooth things over between my husband and her but there were things she still had no tolerance for and would get very upset. She was raised knowing why he acted the way he did, yet even with that knowledge, it effected her.

My readers know my Dad was a violent alcoholic until I was 13. Living under those conditions of his anger, outbursts and shame of neighbors seeing him stagger up the driveway, left a scar in every member of my family. My Mom ended up bitter toward him. All of it robbed her of the joyful spirit she showed others. She was a generous woman and very loving but even she couldn't forgive him. Many years after he passed away, the pain inside of her came out whenever she talked about my Dad. My brothers carried it all inside of them as well with parts of their soul being eaten away because they were unable to forgive my Dad for his actions. I forgave him. For the most part, I healed. There are still times when what he did and didn't do gather up forces attempting to take over my "bliss" robbing me of hope.

My Dad had a problem with his Dad because he was an alcoholic too and was mean to him. My Dad was the same way with us no matter how much he hated how his own father acted. We paid for how he acted in one way or another and so did our kids. It is generational but not genetic. It is from how each generation treated the next that left the mark.

For many veterans it will be the same story because they don't understand it. Their families don't understand it so they have no way to minimize the damage done. They don't have the tools to deal with the anger and hostility PTSD in the home can cause and this ends up making the living conditions worse. When kids grow up with all that comes with PTSD, it wears on them and can leave scars inside of them that will carry on to the next generation. Knowing what it is, why they act the way they do and what the rest of the family can do about it, will reduce a lot of the damage being done and thus, reduce what the next generation will have to deal with.

What we all go through determines where we are going and the lives of those we take with us on this journey. Each one of us are affected by events in our own lives but those events include the people we live with. If these researchers didn't see the obvious, then what else are they missing?

Does The Impact Of Psychological Trauma Cross Generations?

In groups with high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as the survivors of the Nazi Death Camps, the adjustment problems of their children, the so-called "Second Generation", have received attention by researchers. Studies suggested that some symptoms or personality traits associated with PTSD may be more common in the Second Generation than the general population. It has been assumed that these trans-generational effects reflected the impact of PTSD upon the parent-child relationship rather than a trait passed biologically from parent to child.

However, Dr. Isabelle Mansuy and colleagues provide new evidence in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry that some aspects of the impact of trauma cross generations and are associated with epigenetic changes, i.e., the regulation of the pattern of gene expression, without changing the DNA sequence.
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http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/200410.php

PTSD Assistance Needed In Christchurch

PTSD Assistance Needed In Christchurch
September 5, 2010

The Royal New Zealand College of Genereal Practitioners is calling on health agencies to ensure the longer-term emotional after-effects of the earthquake are dealt with appropriately.

College deputy president, Dr Tony Townsend said it is likely that some people will suffer post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake.

"It's normal for people to feel anxious after a major event like this, and most people will recover.

"However, some people, especially women, children and the eldery, may continue to feel anxious for longer periods and it is essential that these people see their general practitioner.

"Parents and teachers of younger children should keep an eye on their charges over coming weeks to note any signs of behaviour change."

Dr Townsend said it is essential that health agencies plan and organise for enough trained people to be available at that time to assist people in need.

"Trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy is widely reecognised as the most effective intervention for PTSD," he said.
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PTSD Assistance Needed In Christchurch

Survivor Celebrates Trauma Anniversary

Survivor Celebrates Trauma Anniversary with Online PTSD Community


Michele Rosenthal celebrates her trauma anniversary with followers and fellow trauma survivors online with a month long series of events.


(I-Newswire) August 11, 2010 - Michele Rosenthal, a West Palm Beach resident, is celebrating an unusual anniversary: the day she survived a life-threatening trauma. While what she is celebrating may not be a typical milestone for most, her way of affirming life serves to benefit many people around the country who have a similar milestone to reconcile.

On August 31, 1981, Rosenthal was admitted to a hospital with the rare diagnosis of Stephens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS). A a severe allergic reaction to a medication that affects .5 people/million, SJS can leave a patient with as little as a 30% chance of survival. Rosenthal did survive, but after going through acute stress, she spent the next 25 years suffering with intense and disruptive psychological and emotional symptoms that were finally diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

For trauma survivors, the anniversary of the day their world changed can be extremely painful. PTSD symptoms often increase, and on both conscious and subconscious levels survivors struggle to cope with memories and feelings they often can't control or explain. For example, on her trauma anniversary date each year during her 25 years of undiagnosed suffering, Rosenthal’s insomnia increased and her hair shed massively and, according to all the doctors with whom she sought help, inexplicably.

Once she was properly diagnosed, Rosenthal went on a healing rampage. She took control of her recovery and is now PTSD-free. Today, Rosenthal is the founder of Heal My PTSD, LLC, (www.healmyptsd.com), and works as a Self-Empowered Healing Coach, helping survivors shift from powerless to powerful so they can progress their healing journey.
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Survivor Celebrates Trauma Anniversary

Chapel of the Net

Matthew 4 19

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."(New International Version)



I have a new blog, Chapel of the Net.  It is for trauma survivors. 

It is a nondenominational blog based on Christian beliefs. There are not many traumatic events I had not been touched by but not one has destroyed me.




Domestic violence

My father was a violent alcoholic until I was 13. With the help of AA, he stopped drinking and never touched another drop until he passed away at the age of 58.

My ex-husband beat me once and nearly killed me. I was saved by my landlord and the police.



Divorce

I divorced my ex-husband and he stalked me for over a year. I have been married to Jack, a Vietnam vet since 1984.



Car accident

I survived being hit in the rear and sent head on into a guard rail.



Traumatic brain injury

At 4 ½ I was pushed off a slide at a drive-in movie. I fell two stories head first and landed on cement.



Health crisis

Miscarried twins and hemorrhaged.

After my daughter was born, I had an infection that was not treated properly. It caused a massive infection that almost killed me eight months later.



Death of family members

Father at the age of 58

Brother Warren at the age of 42

Brother Nick at the age of 56

Mom at the age of 85

My husband lost his whole family, Father, Mom, two sisters in 13 months.

His nephew committed suicide. He was a Vietnam veteran and committed suicide due to PTSD and heroin.



Job loss

I lost my job working for a church, a job I loved and didn’t receive unemployment. As a church they didn’t have to pay into the system and I was left with no income to support my ministry. We survived on my husband’s disability and pension.

It is the fact I have not lost hope that I am stil here.  I want to give to others what was given to me and that is the support and love that has seen me through it all. 
 
Please visit Chapel of the Net and as the days go on, I hope you will not only find comfort there but share it with others.  If you went through something, please share it and how you overcame it.
 
There will be no ads on this site and totally reader supported.

Distress of 9/11 may have led to miscarriages

Distress of 9/11 may have led to miscarriages, research says
By Madison Park, CNN
May 25, 2010 7:42 a.m. EDT
Even without personal connections, people can be stressed by major events like September 11, 2001.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Distress after 9/11 may have contributed to a higher loss of male fetuses
Even without direct relationships with those killed, women appear affected by attacks
Stress during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, early labor, low birth weight
Factors seem to affect only male fetuses; reason not known


(CNN) -- The shock and stress felt by pregnant women after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, may have contributed to an increase in miscarriages of male fetuses in the United States, according to a study released Monday.

Researchers found the male fetal death rate increased in September 2001 and subsequently affected the ratio of boys born in a later month, according to the study published in the journal BMC Public Health.

The authors hypothesized that this might be a case of "communal bereavement." Even without direct relationships with the deceased, pregnant women may have been distressed by the attacks, resulting in miscarriage, according to the research.

"A huge population saw the consequences and carnage onscreen," said lead author Tim Bruckner, who is an assistant professor of public health at University of California Irvine, about the effects of 9/11. He examined this topic "because pregnancy is sensitive to stressors. I wondered whether pregnant women might have a physiological reaction to witnessing harm."
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Distress of 9 11 may have led to miscarriages

Understanding what trauma does

Understanding what trauma does
by
Chaplain Kathie

NASA fuels space shuttle Atlantis for final voyage, afternoon flight to space station

MARCIA DUNN

AP Aerospace Writer

7:38 a.m. EDT, May 14, 2010


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA fueled space shuttle Atlantis on Friday for its final journey, a delivery trip to the International Space Station that will provide fresh batteries and extra room.

Atlantis was slated to blast off at 2:20 p.m. Everything was going well in the countdown and the weather was looking favorable. Forecasters were sticking with their 70 percent odds of good weather, but a NASA spokesman said that likely would improve as the morning wore on.

The launch team began pumping more than 500,000 gallons of fuel into Atlantis' massive external tank well before dawn, just as the six astronauts assigned to the mission woke up. The all-male crew downed a hearty breakfast: medium-rare steaks and French fries for three of them, a cheeseburger for another and sandwiches for the remaining two.

The 12-day mission is the last one for Atlantis, the fourth in NASA's line of space shuttles. Only two flights remain after this one, by Discovery and Endeavour. NASA hopes to end the 30-year program by the end of this year.
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NASA fuels space shuttle Atlantis for final voyage

NASA is getting ready to send the Atlantis shuttle up for the last time. Here in Florida each time the shuttle goes up, it's stunning, especially when one takes off at night. We can see it all the way over in the Orlando area even though it takes off from the east coast. There are times when we hold our breath because we remember the day when a shuttle exploded.

Challenger
The Challenger flew nine successful missions before that fateful day of the disaster in 1986.
Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to fly in space.
Mission commander Francis R. Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; mission specialists Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Judith A. Resnik; and payload specialists Gregory B. Jarvis.

I was still living in Massachusetts when it happened and I can remember what I was doing when the news broke on the radio. I was in MacDonald's ordering lunch at the drive-thru listening to WBZ radio. Even after all these years I am greatly sadden remembering that day when I was simply listening to the radio instead of being personally involved. I didn't have to be there to be touched by it. No one in the country had to be there to feel strong emotions.

Each time they come home, we remember this as we pray it does not happen again.

The Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster happend on Saturday 1st, February, 2003 and was the second Space Shuttle Disaster and the first shuttle lost on landing. There was shock around the world over the tragedy.

The memory comes back when triggered by similar events or anniversary dates.

It is the same way around the country when September rolls around again. We all remember what we were doing that morning when we first heard the news about a plane hitting the tower in New York. I was glued to the radio after my boss came into my office to tell me the news. One of my co-workers rushed home to get a portable TV so that we could find out what happened as soon as the other tower was hit. We were sure there would be more tragedy to follow.

Again, I wasn't living in New York. I was far away from the attack in Massachusetts. I didn't know anyone killed or anyone working in the towers. For the rest of the day and weeks after, just like everyone else, I took a personal interest in every bit of news coming out. A sadness comes over this nation every year remembering what happened that horrible day.

Something as simple as moving from one state to another can be traumatic. We moved from the city I had spent my entire life in to Florida in 2004. Needless to say since I could get lost getting out of a paper bag, it was terrible learning how to get around. My elderly Mom was still back in Massachusetts after she changed her mind about moving with us. The first meal I cooked, I packed up the left overs as always forgetting how far away I was from her. We had a good laugh over what I did but there was a sadness in me when I realized how far away from home I really was. Then came hurricane Charlie, Francis and Jeanne. Each year when hurricane season rolls around, I remember what it was like to live thru a hurricane like Charlie as if it was yesterday and my neighborhood was destroyed.

These are just triggered memories of unpleasant things. The events were shocking but they do not affect my daily life nor do they haunt my days unless something brings back the memory. The trigger sets off seconds or a minute or two of great sadness but then that sadness fades away.

People surviving traumatic events experience the same thing when the remember the death of someone they loved, an accident, a fire or a crime. For some it's triggered memories and not part of their daily lives. For others, the memory never dulls. The events have become a part of them so strongly they cannot move on.

When participating in traumatic events, instead of surviving them, exposing themselves to the events on a repeating basis, it can leave scars upon scars. This is what happens to men and women deployed into combat. It's not just one moment in time they have to be recovered by triggers. It is a series of them. Imagine a full year of tragedy and shock each building on the other events. Then imagine having a break between trauma and normalcy back home followed by re-exposure to more of the same. The traumatic events become more "normal" for them than uneventful days.

We can all understand what trauma does to them when we take a look at what it has done to us in our own lives. It is not so impossible to imagine what it would be like for us to have it never go away. Some need time to heal but others need help to recover from the events. We experience abnormal events all the time but for them, they experience horrors as active participants in them and their emotional wounding cuts deeper, takes a stronger hold, leaves a deeper scar and takes more effort to recover from. When they are changed by combat, we need to realize how much events in our own lives leave their mark and then we can use that same understanding to help them.

Researchers finally figure out killing in combat can hurt?

Researchers finally figure out killing in combat can hurt?
by
Chaplain Kathie

They finally get it! They are starting to understand that there are different events behind PTSD and need to be treated differently. Could you imagine taking a survivor of child abuse and treating them the same exact way a Police Officer is treated? What good would that do? They need to focus on the events as much as they focus on PTSD itself. The other thing is that in this study, they finally had to admit they have found what was already known with Vietnam veterans.

Mental health experts said the new study confirmed findings from research on Vietnam veterans and did not break much new ground. But they said it underscored that treating stress disorder among veterans is often very different from treating it in people who, say, have been raped or have been in car accidents.

PTSD is not new and most of the research has been done to death. They take the same findings they did thirty years ago as the veterans wait for actual "news" on PTSD.

When a Police Officer is involved in a shooting, they are sent to talk to someone. No matter how hard anyone tries to remove the "Thou shall not kill." from their minds, this eats away at them. They are only human and have killed another human. It is understood that they are not to be treated the same as someone surviving a tornado. They are not just survivors of traumatic events, they were participants in them.

When PTSD Not God's Judgment was developed, it was intended for combat veterans. It ended up being used working with Police Officers. Why? Because they are the same type of person as the military servicemen and women. They are dealing with what other humans do as much as what they had to do in response. Double edge trauma cutting them deeper than if just their life was involved.

When a soldier is involved in the death of someone else, well, that's just part of combat and they should have expected it. While they were willing to think of the fact they may have to it is a totally different story when they actually do it.

Police officers and regular military members have a lot in common. If you ever wondered what makes some people go into the line of work they do, you need to begin with them. They have the compassion to care about others and the courage to do something about it. In their core, their soul, they have the ability to risk their lives to save lives, but beyond that, the ability to take lives in order to save others. When it happens "once too often" they suffer for it but can recover if they receive the right kind of help as soon as humanly possible. Police Departments understand the need, but this has escaped the military's thinking process.

Firefighters and National Guards, as well as Reservists, have a lot in common, but for them, while they have it in their core to risk their lives to save lives, what they lack is the added element of willing to kill to do it. There is a vast difference between what they intended and what ended up being expected of them especially if they are sent into combat.

If their life was on the line, then when PTSD strikes, they need to be treated differently than someone after they had to kill someone. What is appalling is they are just now figuring this out and that would indicate they've been getting it wrong all these years!

Study Suggests More Veterans May Be Helped by Talking About Killing

By JAMES DAO
Published: February 13, 2010
The act of killing is as fundamental to war as oxygen is to fire. Yet it is also the one thing many combat veterans avoid discussing when they return home, whether out of shame, guilt or a deep fear of being misunderstood.

But a new study of Iraq war veterans by researchers in San Francisco suggests that more discussion of killing may help veterans cope with an array of mental health problems stemming from war.

The study, published last week in The Journal of Traumatic Stress, found that soldiers who reported having killed in combat, or who gave orders that led to killing, were more likely to report the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse, anger and relationship problems. The study was based on data from health assessments conducted on about 2,800 soldiers who returned from Iraq in 2005 and 2006.

Shira Maguen, a psychologist at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the principal investigator on the study, said the results suggested that mental health professionals need to incorporate killing more explicitly into their assessments and treatment plans for veterans. That would include finding ways to discuss the impact of killing, in public forums and in private treatment, to reduce the stigma and shame, she argued.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/us/14killing.html

Living with the wounds of Fort Hood

Living with the wounds of Fort Hood

By DANIEL P. FINNEY • dafinney@dmreg.com • January 31, 2010


The pink surgery scar runs halfway down Staff Sgt. Joy Clark's left arm like a zipper.

Dime-sized dots mar each side of the limb - permanent reminders of a bullet that ripped through her arm during another soldier's Nov. 5 shooting rampage that left 13 dead and 30 wounded at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas.

Those scars are as obvious as the grimace on the Des Moines native's 27-year-old face as she grips a weight during physical therapy.

Unseen is the ache inside her. Clark survived the attack, but her injuries forced her to stay home while her unit deployed to Afghanistan.

"I know it's not my fault," Clark said in her first extended interview since the tragedy, "but there is this sense of an unfinished mission."



On Nov. 5, Clark waited in line for a routine medical checkup inside a Fort Hood office building.

The exam was her third stop in a necessary but tedious preparation for deployment to Afghanistan scheduled for after Thanksgiving.

The mission was to be Clark's first overseas mission since joining the military in 2001.

Instead, Clark found herself on the front line of what Vice President Joe Biden later would call the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

At 1:34 p.m., military investigators allege Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan entered the building and opened fire on his fellow soldiers.

The soldier closest to Clark, a man she did not know, was hit. He slumped forward. Clark, a field medic, wrapped her left arm around him and tried to help.

A bullet pierced her left arm. She recoiled and the wounded man she held fell to the ground. He died.

Clark looked at her arm. A bullet had passed through it and there wasn't much blood. She felt no pain. With her good arm, she reached out for another wounded comrade.

"We were unarmed," Clark said. "There were no weapons in the building. There was no way we could defend ourselves."
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Living with the wounds of Fort Hood

Help Other People Evolve

Help Other People Evolve

by
Chaplain Kathie

H O P E

Today I went to a trauma seminar at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne FL. The speakers were wonderful but my mind drifted away from the civilians they were talking about focusing instead on the men and women in our military as well as the veterans.

We all get up in the morning not thinking today is the day our life will change forever, as a couple of the presenters pointed out. No one plans on traumatic events. It could be a car accident. It could be a fire. It could be someone deciding they wanted to obliterate co-workers they thought treated them badly. No matter how careful we are and no matter how much we don't deserve traumatic events to come into our lives, they happen usually because we are careless or because someone else caused it.

Getting over it depends on the kind of help we receive after, support from family instead of them avoiding us and the event and it also depends on our own inspiration to heal. God blessed us with the ability to overcome. All we need is already there but most of us have no clue where to look for it. Most want to return to the way they were before and when they can't this adds to the pain they carry. Any good therapist will tell them honestly there is no way possible to "return" to normal after trauma but they will also add in that the survivor can be better than they were before since every event in our lives, no matter how trivial or serious, changes us in some way.

Normal, regular people experience traumatic events in daily life even though we all try to avoid them. As bad as things can get for us, we need to stop and think about the men and women in the military serving today and the veterans we have living among us. Think of purposely going into danger and what that takes to be able to do it. Knowing someone ahead of them wants to kill them yet doing it anyway. This takes great courage to expose themselves to danger constantly in order to do their "jobs" and what deliver on what is asked of them.

We see police officers respond as they did today to the shooting in St. Louis

8 people shot, 3 fatally, at St. Louis factory, police say
January 7, 2010 2:50 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Suspect identified as Timothy Hendron; no word whether he's among those killed
Police doing room-by-room search at plant; interstate, surface streets closed
Of 8 shot, 3 are dead, 3 critically injured, two in fair condition, officials say
St. Louis, Missouri (CNN) -- Three people were killed and five others wounded Thursday in a shooting at a St. Louis, Missouri, transformer manufacturing company, police said.

It was unclear whether the suspect was among those killed at ABB Inc., St. Louis Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

A law enforcement official identified the suspect to CNN as Timothy Hendron.

The shooting occurred just before 6:30 a.m. Arriving officers were told that a man had entered the building with a rifle and a handgun, and that several people had been shot, police said.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/07/factory.shootings/index.html

We know they have to do this kind of thing all the time as well as respond to everything else going on in "regular" life. What we do not see is what happens in Iraq and Afghanistan any more than we saw what really happened in Kuwait, Bosnia, Somalia, Vietnam or any of the other actions. We saw news reports but do you ever wonder what it would have been like if film was rolling 24-7 with each and every unit? It would begin to help the rest of us understand that if traumatic events can change our lives so drastically with one event, what must it be like for them with event after event after event? We know civilians end up with PTSD and we know responders do as well but somehow that does not translate into assumption of "normalcy" when it comes to the servicemen and women.

Years ago I tried to explain that PTSD is a normal reaction to abnormal events, events out of our control bringing everything in our lives into question, because we can understand the shock a family feels when someone dies unexpectedly, the shock when a fatal diagnosis is given or when someone never walks thru the door again. We have an easier time acknowledging what the survivors are going through than we do when it comes to people dealing with all of it, plus their own "normal" traumatic events the rest of us go through. An example of this came this week.

Mom serving in Iraq hears two young sons died in house fire back home
Sons die in fire while mom's in Iraq'SHE'S DEVASTATED' Father pulls boys, ages 2 and 5, from room as smoke billows out window
January 5, 2010
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter
If the dreaded news comes, it's supposed to arrive stateside with a knock at the front door and a visit from two somber soldiers.That tragedy played out in reverse Monday when a Lansing soldier serving in Iraq was told her two small children had perished in a fire while napping at home."She's devastated, and she is trying to hold on," said Clint Towers, who is Areah Brown-Towers' father-in-law and grandfather to the two victims -- Joshua, 2, and Jeremiah, 5.Clint Towers said the American Red Cross was making arrangements Tuesday to bring the grieving mother home -- perhaps as soon as Thursday.
read more here Sons die in fire while mom in Iraq

This Mom expected traumatic events in Iraq but as she faced them, the trauma came back home when her two sons died. Her life changed in an instant, yet not the kind of change, not the kind of trauma, she suspected would happen. In Iraq, in Afghanistan, they are prepared for the fact they could be in the wrong place when a bomb blows up or when a bullet has their name on it, just as they are prepared for the fact one of their friends could die, but as they face this reality, they also know something could happen back home even though they force themselves to not think about it, push it out of their minds because they have enough to worry about where they are as they face the reality they can do very little about it while they are deployed.

This is their reality.

When they are in the National Guards, they are soldiers while deployed, first responders back home facing natural disasters at the same time they worry about their families. For many, they work regular jobs, but these regular jobs often come with facing traumatic events on a daily basis while they are police officers, firefighters and emergency responders. All of this adds to what they have to heal from.

We are all humans, no matter what caused the trauma. It doesn't matter if we willingly risked our lives or not because all of our lives are at risk everyday. Most of us make it through our days without anything terrible happening, but for those touched by trauma, there is a private hell we either climb out of or sink into. For those who are able to climb out, we have a unique place in this world. We can help others find hope of being able to make it out of that pit because we are standing there.

We do not have to have PTSD to understand someone with it. We don't have to lose a limb to understand how something like that can change a life just as we don't have to lose a family member to be able to understand that. We understand better if we are survivors of the same kind of outcome, but just surviving trauma in itself helps us to be able to help them.

There is no kind of trauma that has not touched my life and perhaps that is why I was able to understand my husband better. He's the combat veteran and I am a veteran of trauma. My traumatic experiences began the day I was born with an violent alcoholic father who stopped drinking when I was 13. Before I was 5 I almost died because of what someone else did. Another child pushed me off a slide. I landed on my head, cracked my scull and had a concussion, but my life was placed in greater danger because the x-ray was read wrong and I was sent home. This was followed by a car accident, being beaten by my ex-husband, miscarriage and then almost dying after my daughter was born and an infection turned my system septic. With all of this and more, I was able to understand that trauma changes everyone. I also knew being a survivor was not anything to be ashamed of or feel hopeless about.

We can always offer hope to someone else. We can help other people evolve from darkness, feeling lost, frightened and alone into someone able to see that they can come out on the other side stronger too. We do this with experience, compassion and living an example of the continuation of living a full life by overcoming that which we cannot heal. Some trauma survivors have had serious bodily injuries they may never be able to fully recover from but that is not what has trapped them. It is what they have living inside of them trapping them from healing. You can help them find the power to heal and help them make peace with the fact the event changed them but does not have to destroy them.

When you read stories like the ones above, remember that most of the people on this planet will experience something out of the ordinary finding it hard to find someone as a role model to find hope from. Be there for them. Try contacting others online and share what you did to heal. If you are not healed yet, reach out to someone else and heal each other. None of this is impossible as long as there is still compassion in your heart from someone walking in your well worn shoes.

Witnesses of limbs blown off and soldiers on fire need just as much attention as survivors

When you talk to veterans with substantial physical wounds, they talk about all the support and care they received. It would be pretty hard for medical providers to not understand there could be wounds not visible to the naked eye after losing limbs or suffering burns. This obvious need somehow never seems to penetrate the survivors who witnessed the limbs being blown off or the soldier on fire.

Witnesses of limbs blown off and soldiers on fire need just as much attention as survivors. If they feel the need to talk, listening is very important but it really depends on who is doing the listening and how much the talker trusts them.

Chaplains are deployed after traumatic events, trained in crisis intervention, among other things for a very specific reason. First, they are trusted. People see the insignia of a Chaplain and they know they are deeply spiritual people (no matter what faith the person has) and they will not judge the one needing to open up.

Chaplains are trusted also because they care. No one becomes a Chaplain unless they care about others deeply. The survivors of traumatic events also know they will not dismiss any of what they have to say by responding with "Get over it" or "It isn't so bad" or even worse when people can respond to pain by trivializing it and laughing.

We don't have all answers but when people are in crisis, the answers are not as important as hearing. Being able to talk to someone is sometimes all it takes to prevent what we are seeing with PTSD.

It's wonderful to have someone to talk to but if the person doing the listening does not know what to say, or when not to say anything at all, too often the friend we confide in will make us regret talking at all. We may struggle with our faith in that moment and have a well meaning friend dismiss our crisis while magnifying their own issues. They may answer a cell phone while we are trying to pour our hearts out so they can talk to their friend about plans for later or to hear gossip, or look at their watch wondering when we'll be finished taking up their time. A buddy may take us to a bar for a drink so we can calm down but has no interest in hearing what we have to say.

I grew up in a big Greek extended family surrounded by relatives I knew cared no matter what. No matter what crisis someone was going thru it was always talked out. When the one suffering was done, no matter how long it took to get there, then the subject was dropped, but not until the one in need was no longer in need. That helped immensely but as with most people they also had their own way of "helping" which was not very useful at all. Still with ever crisis I had, some of them life threatening, it was "talked to death" until I had nothing more to say.

It is my greatest belief after all I've learned about veterans that this along with my faith, is the reason why I did not develop PTSD, especially considering I have a lot of the same characteristics they have. The leading one opening the door to PTSD is compassion. This is the most common with PTSD veterans.

We know it's vital they have someone to talk to and watch over them. What no one seems to be talking about is what kind of training the "buddy" has to address the crisis and help instead of making things worse accidentally. This is where having a support group with even minimal training will accomplish a great deal until the DOD and the VA have enough mental health providers to fill the need. Every expert has stated clearly the sooner PTSD is addressed the sooner it stops getting worse and begins to get better. Having someone to talk to until they can be seen will prevent it from taking control over the life of the survivor.

While there is no one dismissing the need to add trained psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as Chaplains, their job healing will be made easier when the trauma is not left alone to fester. This isn't rocket science. It's human science and mostly common sense.

Learning to listen the right way is just as important as caring in the first place. We can all learn to do it and then think of how far we will really go helping our troops heal. We can help keep them from killing themselves. We can help them from seeing their families fall apart. We can help them stay in the military and live a long happier life if we learn how to listen with our hearts and shut off our ego.

Fort Hood Carnage seared in her memory

FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS
Carnage seared in her memory
Fort Hood nurse helped supervise triage at shooting rampage.
By Marty Toohey
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, November 16, 2009
FORT HOOD — Paulette Smith-Kimble stood, stunned, in the entryway of a large room where she had helped put many wounded soldiers on the path to healing.
Blood covered the floor. Men and women writhed in pain. Some were past feeling pain.
Outside, the shooting suspect was down. Smith-Kimble, an experienced nurse, had verified that the medic had kept him alive. She had checked on a police officer who had returned fire. And she had helped coordinate the nursing students who had come flooding onto the scene from their graduation next door to help.
Inside, a downed soldier lay to her left. She was too far gone. Move on.
Smith-Kimble's eyes moved to another person. He wore civilian clothing, and he lay in a pool of blood.
She recognized him. They spoke often. She knew instantly: He was dead.
But some in the room were still alive.
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Carnage seared in her memory