Veterans Find Natural Healing Power on Mount Rainier for PTSD

Veterans climb above trauma on Mount Rainier
The News Tribune
BY JOSHUA BRANDON
March 14, 2014

Researchers took veterans in groups of six to 12 on a multi-day hike and surveyed their moods before and after. One week after the experience, veterans reported improvements in mood, social functioning and outlook on life. More research is needed, but anyone who has spent time on a trail knows the restorative power of being outside.

After three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. Many of my brothers and sisters and arms have faced the same challenge upon returning home from war.

Yet too few of them have access to a resource that, at least for me, was ultimately life-saving. For me and many like me, recovery is a lifelong journey that we will always strive for but may never quite reach.

During one of the roughest legs of my journey, I was able to take shelter on the land I served. Getting outside set me on a path to survival.

I had never truly experienced mountains or forests before I was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Growing up for most of my life in Cleveland, a city park or a wooded back yard was about as close to “wilderness” as I ever got.

When my buddies and I first saw Mount Rainier looming on the horizon, our immediate impulse was to go climb it. As a group of restless warriors waiting for their next fight, what else was there to do?
read more here

Spiritual healing added to Arkansas PTSD Veterans treatment

Arkansas program helps vets connect with community via spiritual, mental treatment
Russellville
All Voices
BY Mirjana Pantic
Jan 26, 2014

A community-based program in that began in 2009 in Arkansas is helping veterans with the tools and skills they need to reconnect with their local communities.

A Vietnam era marine, who just like many other vets has been disconnected from the military and hadn’t been in touch with the Veteran Affairs (VA), finally gets his life back in order. Four decades ago, he was a cook in Vietnam. Now he has a similar job – he cooks for a local prison in Arkansas. He is one of some 1,000 veterans who have participated in the VA/Clergy Partnership for Rural Veterans, a program established in Arkansas aimed at reintegrating veterans into the communities where they live.

“Being a part of one of our local partnership boards gave him a consistent sense of purpose over the last few years,” Steve Sullivan, the director of the VA/Clergy Partnership for Rural Veterans told Allvoices.

"His persona seemed almost resurrected when he was given an opportunity to cook breakfast for more than 100 service members on a drill weekend through one of our outreach events. Other veterans have become connected or re-connected to church life through the patience and veteran-friendly acceptance of one of our local churches.”

As it is widely known, many veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and have difficulties getting their life back on track after coming home from war. To tackle this and other problems veterans face, a pilot project was launched in 2009 in El Dorado, Ark. What is unique about that project is that it combines spiritual care and mental treatment. Moreover, the project uses a community-based participatory method, so it is different at each site and tailored to the needs of every community.

According to Sullivan, the project brings changes in veterans’ lives in a few important ways. For example, there is a large number of Vietnam vets who have gotten access to the VA for the first time in more than 40 years. “They have lived in suspicion of VA services and were unaware of the nature of PTSD and its treatability. They are now getting to a time when they realize that they really have had problems all these years and that it’s okay to get help. Most of them come seeking benefits initially, but then receive mental health assessments and get the help they need,” he said.
read more here

The 'Easy' Cure for PTSD? The Cruelty of Shallow Religious Answers

The 'Easy' Cure for PTSD? The Cruelty of Shallow Religious Answers
Huffington Post
Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph. D.
Director, The Soul Repair Center
Posted: 11/22/2013

Got PTSD? If you have enough faith, if you truly believe, televangelist Kenneth Copeland asserts you can get over it, right now! The Bible tells you so.

In an interview broadcast on Veterans Day, Copeland asserted that the biblical God assures the Israelites preparing for battle that they will be "guiltless before the Lord and before the nation" (Numbers 32:22). Copeland insisted, "Any of you suffering from PTSD... [you] get rid of that right now.

You don't take drugs to get rid of it. It doesn't take psychology. That promise right there will get rid of it." Evangelical David Barton chimed in, saying, "You're on an elevated platform up here. You're a hero... When you do it God's way, not only are you guiltless for having [participated in war]... you're esteemed."

So... are you feeling better yet? No? You're not the only one.

When Bill Gibson, a VA psychologist, related the Copeland-Barton interview to members of a combat PTSD group he facilitates, he received stunned silence. Finally, one Iraqi war vet said, "I wish it was that easy -- do people think I want to feel this way?" And a Vietnam War veteran added, "The only person who would say something like that is someone who has never been in the kinds of situations we've been in."

Barton and Copeland insult all veterans with PTSD. PTSD is not the result of a "faith deficit disorder," as Allen Clark asserts on his website CombatFaith.com. PTSD is real, and it is in the brain.

Almost 4,000 years ago, Egyptian writers described PTSD symptoms, and in Achilles in Vietnam, psychiatrist Jonathan Shay finds in Homer's Iliad a profound understanding of PTSD symptoms -- and the toll they exact from its sufferers.
read more here

I was furious when I read about what these people had to say. OMG! Preachers blame veterans for PTSD on Veterans' Day

20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. Joshua 6

but that was just a small part of what Sunday School songs leave out when talking about the battle of Jericho. They slaughtered everyone in Jericho. Old men, women and children. That was what war was like back then and for Joshua, there were many, many more. It was not until the Psalms of David that it became clear the price these ancient war fighters paid.

They were in war all the time. Few soldiers escaped the retirement of the grave.

The people spouting off about lack of faith having anything to do with PTSD are false preachers that Chris warned about. The fact they grieve so much is testament to the magnificence of their soul.

To survive the worst humans can do and still be able to shed a tear, reach out a hand to comfort anyone is beyond reason. To grieve so much that they end up with PTSD proves God was there with them all the time. If they see the wonder of their souls/spirits and the power they have within them to love, to give so much of themselves that they were willing to die for someone else, they heal.

Leaders, or false preachers, push them away from the healing power already within them and that is the worst sin of all.

They had to train hard to stop being a civilian and they learned it well. Then no one got them to understand training to adapt afterwards was going to be a harder thing to train for. It takes work to heal and they can come out on the other side better than they were before but they are still trying to go back to the way they were before. They need to make peace with it and that, that is one of the hardest things for them to do.

So far too many are not finding what they need to heal and it is all right there inside of them just as PTSD is but they need help to get it reconnected again.

Documentary looks at Native American traditions and PTSD

Healing PTSD is about as basic and natural as it can be but above all, close to free. It is as old as when the first war and has been recorded in the pages of the Bible but while you won't find the term we use today, you can see it in the writings of those who struggled with it.

Native Americans have also been dealing with PTSD for generations with sweat lodges, helping to find peace and honor with all living things on this earth. Much of what is done connects the veteran with what is already inside of them. Much like my job, I just help them find what is already there and has been there all along in their souls.

“Guilt and shame are the biggest things guys bring back with them,” Telonidis said. Often, veterans with PTSD have one particular image that is frightening and they relive it over and over. Sometimes it’s the death of a colleague or friend or a memory of killing an enemy.

The medicine man instructs the veteran to bring the spirits of the people in those memories with them into the sweat lodge. Then, he tells the veterans to have the conversation the veteran has been wanting to have with them all these years. Veterans are encouraged to talk to those people and tell them how they feel, and to ask forgiveness if they feel they need to."

The stories veterans tell me are all different but they have one thing in common. Their stories all involve forgiveness. Either forgiving someone else or forgiving themselves. Once that has been achieved, they begin to really heal no longer burden with guilt or hatred.

As long as they take care of their spiritual needs along with their minds and bodies, they heal and live better lives. As for what works, that all depends on what they already believe.

Documentary looks at Native American traditions and PTSD
Elko Daily Free Press
By Elaine Bassier
November 22, 2013

ELKO — Native American traditions may be the key to helping modern-day veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Taki Telonidis, the producer for the Western Folklife Center’s media office in Salt Lake City, has been working on a documentary called “Healing the Warrior’s Heart” that explores the ways some Native American tribes treat their veterans when they return from war.

Telonidis said around two million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some come home fine, others have life-changing injuries and “many are coming home with invisible drama,” or PTSD.

Some tribes refer to PTSD as a wounding of the soul, Telonidis said. Part of the veteran’s spirit is still on the battlefield, and he said the tribes have traditions that can heal his or her heart.

“What they’re trying to do is bring their spirit home,” Telonidis said.

He said a lot of Native Americans have lost their connection to the warrior spirituality, but he is seeing a revitalization of that idea. The traditional healing methods are not only working for some Native American soldiers — Telonidis has seen the method work for other veterans suffering from PTSD.

Telonidis is studying two specific locations for his film: the George Wallen Veteran Affairs Center in Salt Lake and the Blackfeet reservation in Montana and Canada.
read more here

OMG! Preachers blame veterans for PTSD on Veterans' Day

OMG! Preachers blame veterans for PTSD on Veterans' Day
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 13, 2013

Stunning how little these fools know about what is in the Bible about PTSD and all they had to do was read the Psalms of David to see it in his words.

They would have understood what it was when they read this among many others.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
31 In You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be ashamed;
Deliver me in Your righteousness.
2 Bow down Your ear to me,
Deliver me speedily;
Be my rock of refuge,
A fortress of defense to save me.
3 For You are my rock and my fortress;
Therefore, for Your name’s sake,
Lead me and guide me.
4 Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength.
5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.
6 I have hated those who regard useless idols;
But I trust in the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy,
For You have considered my trouble;
You have known my soul in adversities,
8 And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a wide place.
9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
My eye wastes away with grief,
Yes, my soul and my body!
10 For my life is spent with grief,
And my years with sighing;
My strength fails because of my iniquity,
And my bones waste away.
11 I am a reproach among all my enemies,
But especially among my neighbors,
And am repulsive to my acquaintances;
Those who see me outside flee from me.
12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I hear the slander of many;
Fear is on every side;
While they take counsel together against me,
They scheme to take away my life.
14 But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in Your hand;
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies,
And from those who persecute me.
16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant;
Save me for Your mercies’ sake.
17 Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon You;
Let the wicked be ashamed;
Let them be silent in the grave.
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence,
Which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
19 Oh, how great is Your goodness,
Which You have laid up for those who fear You,
Which You have prepared for those who trust in You
In the presence of the sons of men!
20 You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence
From the plots of man;
You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion
From the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord,
For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city!
22 For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes”;
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
When I cried out to You.
23 Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints!
For the Lord preserves the faithful,
And fully repays the proud person.
24 Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart,
All you who hope in the Lord.

David never doubted who God was but that didn't mean he was protected from suffering. While you won't read Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Bible, you will see it in their words over and over again.

Healing comes in three parts. The mind, the body and the spirit. If spiritual healing is left out, there is only numbing and not true healing. Add in the spirit and then they heal. How can they ever think that they can find that if jerks like this are telling them it is due to a lack of faith?

Traumatized Troops Lack Faith?
The American Conservative
By ROD DREHER
November 13, 2013

On a Veterans Day broadcast program, televangelist Kenneth Copeland and controversial historian David Barton told listeners that soldiers should never experience guilt or post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from military service.

Reading from Numbers 32: 20-22, Copeland said, “So this is a promise — if you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war … you shall return, you’re coming back, and be guiltless before the Lord and before the nation.”

“Any of you suffering from PTSD right now, you listen to me,” Copeland said as Barton affirmed him.

”You get rid of that right now. You don’t take drugs to get rid of it. It doesn’t take psychology. That promise right there will get rid of it.”
read more here

So hear some truth. God doesn't screw up. Each and every person on this planet was sent here to do something with their lives. When it comes to the defenders, it is in their soul. It is that pull-tug-gnawing to join. Even the men drafted were not there on accident or luck of the draw. Each and everyone had it in their souls to do exactly what was asked of them and it was not for any type of God deciding who won or lost. It was about taking care of the others. After all, that was the reason they were willing to die. Wasn't it? For each other?

People doing what they were intended to do are the happiest if they know what the "it' is. Everything they need to do it is already inside of them including how to heal afterwards. That ability to care that much to be willing to die is also what allows them to feel so much pain.

God put that strength within them and it is the job of anyone claiming to be any type of religious/spiritual teacher to help them reconnect to what is already there so they can heal.

It is not their job to be jerks while claiming any connection to Christ.

This is a few years old. The only thing that has changed is there are more veterans with PTSD thinking they were abandoned by God or worse, making them suffer. The truth is, they suffer more because they cared more.

PTSD Not God's Judgment from Kathleen "Costos" DiCesare on Vimeo.

PTSD Therapy Saved My Life — It's Time to Kill the Stigma

PTSD Therapy Saved My Life — It's Time to Kill the Stigma
Policy Mic
By Adrian Bonenberger
November 11, 2013

Most infantrymen I know grow beards when they leave the Army.

They take a couple weeks off, tear through some booze and cash, get a little wild, play that video game they’ve been waiting to dive into for a while (mine was Skyrim), exhale, and then get back to work or school.

This seems to be necessary in part because the military still doesn’t have a very good approach to the almost inevitable psychiatric and social disorders that come about as a natural outgrowth of going to war — a group of neuroses and behaviors collectively known as PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I had a fairly intense case of PTSD when I was in the Army, did a bad job of taking it seriously, and was not encouraged to take it seriously. I wanted to take advantage of this platform to say some words about the process.

Enough has been said about PTSD at this point so it doesn’t seem critical to go into a detailed background of the issue. For those unfamiliar with the term, PTSD describes a condition wherein a person who has lived through a traumatic event finds themselves unable to move forward because that event exists in their present rather than their past. For people with PTSD, their brains are hung up on some memory, which they re-live as though it is happening again and again — through dreams, nightmares, or waking anxiety. Any traumatic incident can trigger PTSD.

"At the end of my military career, I was lucky to have a direct supervisor, Major Matt Hardman, who encouraged me to seek treatment, although not everyone in the chain of command was as understanding. The overall culture of the military, and especially combat arms and the infantry, is one that is diametrically opposed to people seeking help for psychological and sometimes even physical injuries. I hope that my fellow vets (and especially combat vets) all make good use of the free therapy available to them at the VA, and take the problem seriously.

There are effective treatments out there, and if everyone works hard to tackle the legacy and trauma of war, we can reduce or even defeat the old stereotype of the haunted war vet.

I’m living proof."

read more here

Larry Burrows haunting pictures of Vietnam heal the souls

After growing up surrounded by veterans meeting the man I would spend the rest of my life with didn't seem that odd at first. My Dad was a Korean War veteran and all of my uncles were WWII veterans. I didn't know how much different it would be with Jack. I had no clue what my Dad was talking about when he said "He's a nice guy but he's got shell shock." My Dad tried to explain it as well as he could but I had to learn more.

That was in 1982. No internet to search on, I headed to the library every chance I had. Jack sure wasn't ready to talk about it and tell me what happened. It wasn't the words so much as it was all about the pictures. They pulled me in and grabbed ahold of my heart almost as Jack did.

Most of the ones I saw were taken by Larry Burrows, but I didn't know anything about him. All I knew, all I had to know was those pictures were a part of Jack's life and eventually would become part of mine.

Larry Burrows' Vietnam Photos Still Haunt Us 47 Years Later
Huffington Post
Posted: 11/01/2013

Wounded Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie (center, with bandaged head) reaches toward a stricken comrade after a fierce firefight south of the DMZ, Vietnam, October 1966.
(Larry Burrows—Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images)

In October of 1966, the Vietnam War had already been raging for nearly 11 years. Thousands of troops were still fighting, and in their midst a courageous photographer risked and ultimately lost his life documenting the horrors of one of the longest wars in U.S. history. As LIFE magazine wrote of Larry Burrows in a 1971 issue:

He had been through so much, always coming out magically unscathed, that a myth of invulnerability grew up about him. Friends came to believe he was protected by some invisible armor. But I don’t think he believed that himself. Whenever he went in harm’s way he knew, precisely, what the dangers were and how vulnerable he was.

Burrows had died that same year when his helicopter was shot down over Laos, together with three other photographers. Their tragic deaths are a harrowing reminder of the acute danger war correspondents face in doing their jobs, and of the endless dangers that armed forces and civilians face in the midst of violence.

For those left at home, there is little that conveys the horrors of war as thoroughly as photographs such as Burrows'.
read more here

When you look at the picture of the Marines, what do you see? You see the body wounded but do you see the emotional connection between the wounded Marine and his friend on the ground? Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie didn't care about his own wounds. Someone he cared about was wounded too. That is the way they were and still are.

All these years later you can still see it in their eyes. Spending most of my free time with veterans I see it all the time. They are connected, bonded beyond what any single word could ever come close to expressing. It goes beyond love. They were all willing to die for each other.

A lot of veterans ask me "where was God" when all that was going on and I'll point out some of the pictures like this one. I tell them "He was right there." When they could find that depth of compassion for someone else in the midst of hell, God was there. When they could reach out their arm to comfort, shed a tear, offer a prayer or kneel by the side of their "brother" God was there.

Look at these pictures and know that depth of love is what gave them the courage to do what they had to do. They did it for each other.

These pictures have done more than record history. They have recorded what they all needed to be reminded of. Why they risked their lives was for the sake of someone else and that kind of unselfish love few others know. These pictures heal the soul more than any words I could ever say.

Larry Burrows and the other photographers did not know how healing their pictures would be so many years later.

New Research on PTSD dumb idea

This is how we ended up with the bullshit program called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. It was a research project and was not even tested before it was delivered to the troops. Once the suicides went up afterwards, they just pushed the program harder.

“We do have a new study starting up for post-traumatic stress disorder many of whom the veterans will be treated at the C.W. Bill Young Building on campus,” Kip said.

The goal of academia is to apply the research as quickly as possible according to Interim Vice President of USF Health Dr. Donna Petersen.

There has been over 40 years of research done on PTSD but these folks don't want to bother with a tiny detail like that. What has already been proven to work, they avoid. What has been proven to fail, they repeat.

Read more for yourself. Yes, I am fed up too.

Researchers Work to Prevent Past Neglect of Veterans
Health News Florida
By BOBBIE O'BRIEN
November 1, 2013

An estimated 2.3 million men and women have served during the nation’s last 12 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. And as they transition out of the military, the veterans will need care for immediate and long-term conditions like post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.

And many from health care professionals to retired military are concerned that the neglect of past veterans is not repeated with this new generation.

Troops in World War II came home in 1945 and went right back to work and college. There was no re-integration, no recognition of post-traumatic stress. So many WWII vets had to find their own ways to cope with the trauma of war.
read more here

For a start looking back at what happened after WWII is that everyone went if they were healthy. My husband's Dad and three uncles did. One of them was killed. Another was a Merchant Marine. His ship was sunk and they ended up in the ocean. He ended up with PTSD. He was given a choice. He could go into an institution or go live on a farm with other veterans a couple took in to give them a peaceful place to live with other veterans just like them. It was called shell shock back then and yes, they were trying to treat it. They also did have a lot of support from each other.

As for PTSD and newer generations, Vietnam veterans led the way on that and they made sure things got done. Either by the government or by the public.

In 1984 Point Man International Ministries started to address PTSD in the veterans as well as addressing what the families needed to stay together.

Charleston mom talks about soldier’s return from combat

I am so tried. Tired of trying to get people past the fact these stories are so sad and to the point where they decide to do something. To be moved somehow to try to save on of them from suffering needlessly instead of healing. When does that happen? When do you get to the point where you listen to someone talk about their Dad, their brother, sister or friend and say, "I can help." Tell them there is hope and in the last 40 years Vietnam veterans proved that because while many of them are gone, more are still standing strong.

PTSD is not the end of the world. It doesn't have to be the end of anything. It is a new beginning just like anything else. The start is the hard part. Then comes the middle when they start to allow themselves to feel again when the wall comes down. Then comes the part where they start to reach out their hands that once held their heads and find someone else needing be helped to where they got to.

None of them fight this alone but they didn't fight in combat alone, so they should be able to accept that fact. Families don't have to go it alone either. There are hundreds of thousands of other families just like them. Some have suffered wordless agony but more have escaped the worst that can happen. Some like my family are still together looking back on how far we've come and knowing that it could have turned out so differently had we not been willing to love past all of it. We started this journey in 1982 and we are not done yet. By the way, we still hold hands.

Oh, no, I am not talking about just loving them into healing, even though it is a huge part because this battle fought at home does not end. Each day matters. Each new piece of the puzzle comes into place as we learn more about PTSD and the majestic thing we call the soul rising above the odds.

Knowing what it is and why they have come home with a piece of hell in their heart is key so that we can understand how we act and react to them can either heal them or destroy them.

If we do not help families do what has to be done we will keep reading sad stories but as you read this one you'll also see that there is more healing going on because people cared enough to reach out to someone else. Even if it is just one person at a time.

Fighting PTSD: Charleston mom talks about soldier’s return from combat
ABC News 4 Charleston
By Ava Wilhite
October 31, 2013

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) – Sharon Brown often finds herself looking back at childhood photos of her youngest son, Jonathan who's now 24 years old.

"We really thought this was going to be a career for him," said Brown.

In 2009, Brown agreed to let her son leave his full academic scholarship at the College of Charleston to enlist in the United States Army. Shortly after boot camp, Jonathan was sent to Iraq in his first deployment.

"Jonathan did a really good job of telling me things that he wanted, as a mom, wanted me to hear. Things like, ‘Oh no, I'm very safe here. I never go outside of the area,' which later on I found was not exactly true," said Brown.

Brown says when her son returned from Iraq there were subtle changes in his behavior.

"There were things like, he seemed very anxious, which was not really his personality. If we'd go out to restaurant, he would have to be sitting facing forward he would not let anyone sit behind him. Kind of always vigilant looking around," said Brown.

Brown also noticed her son began to drink heavily and a once outgoing Jonathan Brown was now withdrawn from family and friends.

"Instead of kind of being able to talk to anybody about it, I think it just welled up inside of him, so he had kind of an episode of feeling that, you know he was not happy being here," said Brown.

Three months after returning from his tour in Iraq, Jonathan Brown attempted suicide. His mother was notified by a late night phone call.

"That's a call no mother, well no one ever wants to get, but totally sidelined me. I did not expect that at all," said Brown.

Brown says her son was admitted and spent 30 days in a recovery unit where he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But as a mom, Brown was struggling, too.
read more here

Chaplains of House and Senate Give Lessons to Leaders

Senate chaplain: Shutdown is 'madness'
By Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog Co-editor
October 9, 2013

(CNN) - The federal shutdown has found its angry prophet.

Senate Chaplain Barry Black is usually a calm, pastoral presence on Capitol Hill, doling out spiritual wisdom and moral counsel to his high-powered flock.

But the Seventh-Day Adventist and former Navy rear admiral is mad as hell about the shutdown - and he's letting the Senate, and the Lord, know about it.

"Lord, when the federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of (soldiers) dying on far-away battlefields, it's time for our lawmakers to say enough is enough," Black said in his prayer opening the Senate on Wednesday.

"Cover our shame with the robe of your righteousness," Black continued, citing the Hebrew prophet Isaiah, who was no mean critic of government incompetence himself. "Forgive us. Reform us. And make us whole."

Black was referring to the withholding of death benefits for the families of U.S. soldiers because of the partial federal shutdown. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote Wednesday to reinstate them.
read more here

Particle Magic for Partitioners Treating PTSD

Particle Magic for Partitioners Treating PTSD
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 5, 2013

We have all heard stories about people using telekinesis as if it is a normal thing. Average people are amazed by their ability to use nothing more than their brain to do extraordinary things. One of the definitions of this is "Employed or used for a special service, function, or occasion" but what we don't seem to be able to be amazed by are the people with something going on in their minds that enables them to do extraordinary things for the sake of others.

They are average folks on the surface but there is something else going on in their heads few others have tapped into. Why? Because they just don't have the ability to know what they were put on this earth for.

I have talked to generations of veterans as well as people with many different professions. The happiest ones felt they never wanted to do anything else with their lives. I talked with psychologists, psychiatrists and even Neurosurgeons I had a temp jobs with trying to figure out what makes people decide what to do with their lives. They were fascinating. It is such a unique career choice that I had to know what drew them to it. Each one said they never thought of being anything else but a doctor while they were not sure what field to practice until someone in their family or someone they cared about suffered with an illness they wanted to understand.

Veterans are a bit more tricky to figure out since some of them were drafted. They didn't really want to go to war but once they were there, they discovered an ability within them they didn't know they had. Some wanted to serve since as far back as they could remember. Some of them were convinced to join after September 11 and left their family members shocked by the decision.

There are so many strange things average people do that puts them into a category of being extraordinary. What they need to do it is not injected into their minds, it is tapped into while they train to do what they have to do.

Researchers are trying to figure out what to do with the minds of veterans as if they are defective or something. They are studying rats with PTSD “We think that PTSD is kind of like getting stuck in an inappropriate response mode,” explained U.T. Health Science Center neuroscientist David Morilak, Ph.D."

If this is not the strangest thing you heard of, they are also getting injecting them with pot. "Israeli researchers say synthetic marijuana helped rats under stress recover sooner from emotional trauma. The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests marijuana may help patients overcome life stresses that worsen reawakened trauma and other symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder." While some reporters think it is something new, this report came out in 2009.

The truth is, they can keep doing the same research over and over again but they will discover the same results since the basic design of the human mind has not changed any more than trauma has.

War? That has been around since cave men fought over who gets the best one. As a matter of fact crimes have been around since the first murder was recorded and that was when Cain killed his brother Able. Two brothers from the same parents doing two different things and being two totally different people.

The turmoil of war has been recorded in the Bible as well in the writings of David. Read his psalms and you will see exactly what the human soul goes through.

Psalm 144
New International Version (NIV)
Of David.

1 Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

2 He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

3 Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? 4 They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.

There are more you can read along with Dr. Jonathan Shay's Achilles in Vietnam. He didn't write it after reports came out on Afghanistan and Iraq veterans came home, but in 1995 after years of working with Vietnam veterans.

Shay wrote extensively about the "Moral Injury" for a very long time because he had his eyes open and listened. He has the ability few others use because he cares more about these extraordinary veterans.

Different things work for different veterans. The basic steps are to treat the whole veteran.

Their minds with whatever works for them from medications and talk therapy to working with the families so they understand what PTSD is. The problem with too many medications is they only numb the veteran. Don't expect their medications to be healing.

Their body to help them learn how to calm down again based on them with anything from Yoga to Martial Arts to something as simple as walking with calming music in their headphones.

The biggest one being missed is where PTSD truly lives. Take care of their souls. Not with a lot of Bible quotes or condemnations. They do enough of that to themselves.

They need to be loved so they are helped to love themselves again. Tap into what moves your emotions from your own experiences. You may not know what war is like but you do know what being alive is. Listen to them with your heart and then help guide them with true cognitive therapy. Getting them to relive it over and over again does not bring them peace or the ability to remember what they have forgotten.

Help them to see that what they did was because they wanted others they were with to live and while it meant they may have had to kill in order to save lives, their intent was not evil. They have to see where God was in all that happened in war because the horrors they saw made Him hard to see.

He was there when they were able to still care. Whenever they saw an act of kindness, mercy or held a buddy in their arms, or said a prayer, He was there. Goodness reminded within them and that is why they grieve. Had that been lost, they would not care or shed a tear or spend on sleepless night remembering.


Hero After War from Kathleen "Costos" DiCesare on Vimeo.

The last thing that you need to know is, they were given the calling to enter into the military and most didn't want to do anything else with their lives. They are very unhappy not being able to do it so help them be of service to others by finding something else to do with their lives.

The number one profession of veterans is law enforcement, then firefighters, emergency responders, medical fields and teaching. They are happiest when they are serving others. Tap into that. Help them figure out what they can do next that will use what they have the extraordinary ability to do. Even if they cannot work for a paycheck anymore, get them involved in veterans groups so they can be with other people like them. They are very happy helping other veterans and their communities.

Do not expect them to heal if you treat them like any other group because just as there are different levels of PTSD, there are different types depending on the cause of the trauma.

Another claim of "new" study on PTSD

Another claim of "new" study on PTSD
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 7, 2013

Last night I was watching Now You See Me. Morgan Freeman played Thaddeus Bradley out to debunk magic tricks. He payed attention to how the 4 Horsemen were getting away with the things they did. (Not giving away the movie other than to say it is well worth watching.) Bradley knew a great deal about magic but there was someone with a lot more knowledge but very little public exposure. Bradley assumed his "student" didn't know anything but it turned out, the "student" knew more than the teacher. While magic was Bradley's career, magic was the "student's" life.

Flashback to 1990 when a psychologist explained to me how using alcohol and drugs to numb PTSD was not the same as being addicted to the chemicals. There are some with the addiction and alcoholism runs in their families. The majority of PTSD trauma survivors use the chemicals much like the pills they get from psychiatrists. They want to get numb.

In the 80's rehab programs didn't work for Vietnam veterans with PTSD. They would come out and start getting numb anyway possible because the treatment was treating the wrong condition. Hazelden was trying to work on the addiction as well as the other disorders their clients were dealing with. They use the 12 Step approach just as Alcoholics Anonymous does.

The 12 Steps are not psychological. They are spiritual. If a trauma survivor receives care addressing the three parts of "them" then there is healing. Psychologist work on the mind but are only a part of what is needed. When we're talking about Combat PTSD, these men and women had prolonged exposures to trauma and their bodies learned how to adapt. Physical therapy addressing teaching their bodies to calm down again. Then there is the spiritual aspect. When you consider what they saw, what they did and what was done to them, you understand how vital spiritual healing is.

Combat PTSD has been my life for over 30 years. I learned from experts and by living with it. I learned from friends and their families. I have not stopped learning or searching for the answers to the questions I still have. For the most part the "teachers" I come into contact with are experts on what they know however they do not know all there is to know simply because they focus as if it just their careers instead of their lives. There is so much out there but if they do not look for it, they do not learn. I have found the best "teachers" on PTSD are not just trained from text books, but are living with what they seek to heal. Most of them are getting fed up with all the claims of "new research" because they have invested their lives to becoming the smartest guys in the room.

When you read the following understand that none of this is new.

KLEAN Treatment Center Champions New Study on Merging Treatments PHILADELPHIA, PA, September 07, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- KLEAN Treatment Center understands that some forms of abuse can lead to mental disorders, and that some addictions are treatable along with disorders, like PTSD outlined in a recent article featured in Fox News. The article asserts that, "Despite fears that expose therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] would worsen alcoholism, a new study found that doctors can safely treat both conditions at the same time."

According to the report, researchers discovered that people with PTSD and alcoholism benefited the most from the simultaneous treatments to reduce alcohol cravings and lessen distress, compared to people on other treatment regimens. Edna Foa, the study's lead author, expounds on the fundamental results. "What we found is that those people that got [medication] plus prolonged exposure therapy for alcohol dependence together with the treatment for PTSD did the best for maintaining their low level of drinking," she said.

The experts at KLEAN Treatment Center weigh in on the serious condition of PTSD. "People can develop posttraumatic stress disorder after traumatic events that leave them in a heightened state of distress, even when they are no longer in danger. Many of these individuals also develop some level of alcohol dependence." The article elaborates, "About 11 million adults in the U.S. have PTSD and about one-third of them are also dependent on alcohol, according to the editorial accompanying the new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association."

While there is disagreement regarding how to care for individuals with both conditions safely, Foa points out her desire to see patients undergo simultaneous treatment. "I'm hoping this is going to encourage the people who are treating the PTSD and alcohol dependence to do simultaneous treatment, instead of treating one after the other, which isn't so effective," she said. Yuval Neria concurs as a professor at Columbia University and director of the Trauma and PTSD program at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

"This may encourage physicians - specifically those in the [Veterans Affairs] setting - to prescribe patients to both drug and evidence-based therapy," said Neria, who was not involved in the new study. The professionals at KLEAN Treatment Center add that there is a large population with PTSD who may also have comorbid alcohol abuse, namely, war veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The study suggests that there is hope for those combatting both conditions, giving treatment facilities across the country the opportunity to safely treat both PTSD and alcoholism. The team at KLEAN Treatment Center does mention, however, that there is a vicious cycle between alcohol dependence and PTSD, and that facilities must carefully treat both conditions, especially in alcohol cravings that can make PTSD more severe.

The Soul Survivor of Combat

The Soul Survivor of Combat
De-tour Combat PTSD Survivor's Guide
Kathie Costos
September 3, 3013

Before we begin, there are several things that have to get out of the way. The first thing you need to know is that God is not punishing you. You are doing a good enough job of that on your own. He didn't abandon you or put the whammy on your head. Just because you didn't notice what came from God during combat doesn't mean it was not all around you.

Most wonder how a loving God can allow all the horrors and suffering in combat. The fact is, He has to allow it. God doesn't mess with freewill. Every human is free to make their own choices and that includes leaders of nations. Wars have been fought since one caveman clan decided they wanted what another clan had. When other humans decide to start wars, it is up to the war fighters to carry it out but when you really get to the bottom of why you were willing to die, it isn't for the deciders. You do it for each other.

The fact you are still grieving means you still care. You cared then. You cared when one of your buddies was killed as much as you cared when one was wounded. You cared when prayed, wished, hoped or screamed for an end to the horrors going on all around you. You cared when you put your arm around a friend but showed you cared even more when you comforted another soldier you didn't really like. When you shed a tear, you cared. Caring, especially in that kind of action, being able to think about someone else other than yourself, showed that God was there all along.

Another thing to get out of the way is the notion that Combat PTSD is the same as all others. While there are different levels there are also different types and Combat PTSD is much different from the others. The only type that comes close is what police officers get because most of the time they have to decide to use their weapons or not. They are not just responding to the danger, they participate in it must like you did.

If you think PTSD means you are demented instead of tormented, you need to know the difference.

Demented is Mentally ill; insane. Suffering from dementia or a loss of cognitive function

While tormented is,

1. Great physical pain or mental anguish.
2. A source of harassment, annoyance, or pain.
3. The torture inflicted on prisoners under interrogation.
1. To cause to undergo great physical pain or mental anguish. See Synonyms at afflict.
2. To agitate or upset greatly.
3. To annoy, pester, or harass.

PTSD has nothing to do with what you were born with but has everything to do with what was done to you. The only way to get PTSD is by surviving a traumatic event. How many times did that happen while you were deployed and then add up the other deployments you had but don't stop there. You have to add in what happened during training as well. (We'll discuss this during the week)
read more here

Why does PTSD hit the whole you?

Why does PTSD hit the whole you?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 24, 2013

This weekend I am working at convention. One of the speakers I was listening to is a chiropractor and he was giving a fascinating presentation on the brain along with the central nervous system. Why was it so fascinating to me? Because of all the time I spend trying to explain to veterans why every part of their body is effected by their brains especially when their minds are dealing with PTSD.

I couldn't find the exact pictures Dr. Ron Wellikoff used but here are a couple of really good ones.

PTSD hits the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe controls these parts of you. Frontal Lobe- associated with reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem solving.

And here are the other three. Parietal Lobe- associated with movement, orientation, recognition, perception of stimuli. Occipital Lobe- associated with visual processing. Temporal Lobe- associated with perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory, and speech.

This is the nervous system running through your body.

This is why PTSD does not just hit your brain. It hits every part of you. When you make irrational decisions or when your emotions are out of control, this is part of the answer. When you notice that every part is connected through the massive amount of the workings of the human body, it is easier to understand how everything can go to hell.

Maybe now it will be easier for you to understand why it is so important to have every part of you treated for this one diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

You have to take care of your mind with psychological help and often that includes medications. Medications are not the whole answer and there is no one medication that works on everyone. If your doctor gives you medication that does not help or you have problems with it, talk to your doctor. They have others they can try that can help you. They won't change your medication unless they know what is happening so don't just give up taking them. Communicate!

You have to take care of your body so it is vital that your body learn how to calm down again. It had to be trained to go through combat. It has to learn how to calm down again and drinking is not the answer. It is part of the problem. There is a growing list of things you can do from taking a walk with calming music in earbuds so that you can drown out thoughts that upset you, to Yoga, martial arts, swimming, playing musical instruments and artistic projects that work for you. Keep looking until you find what fits you and not the other way around. You are not your buddy or the other guy you talked to in the waiting area of the VA.

You also have to take care of your spirit and that also lives in the same part of your brain. It is why you have been unable to "just get over" what happened, what you did, what you saw and what was done to you.

Learn what PTSD is and why it has taken over so much of your life but then know this. It is not the way things have to be for you. They can get better. I've seen veterans heal for over 30 years. I have not seen one of them "cured" but their lives did get better. What you cannot heal, you can learn how to cope, change and adapt. You can do it. After all, you adapted to becoming part of the military. You can adapt to become a new version of yourself.

You can fight against PTSD

You can fight against PTSD
De-Tour Combat PTSD
Kathie Costos
July 10, 2013

There is yet one more news story of "new PTSD research" that is not really new and misleading.

There are somethings science has gotten right on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, however they seem to be getting more wrong. Keep in mind that PTSD has been researched for over 40 years, so there has been very little that has actually been new coming out.

One of the things science got right was when they started to scan brains of PTSD survivors. These scans have shown how the mind reacts proving that PTSD is not just in your head. It has changed your mind.

This is only partly right.

According to the model, changes in two brain areas — the amygdala and the dorsal anterior cingulated cortex (dACC) — may predispose people to PTSD. Both of these regions are involved in feeling and expressing fear, and both appear to be overactive in people with PTSD, even before they develop the condition. read more here

Bliss of the Old Soul

Bliss of the Old Soul
Wounded Times Blog
Kathie Costos
June 30, 2013

Today is the end of PTSD Awareness Month. On Thursday Kathleen Sebelius wrote about it with this on the end of her piece.

During PTSD Awareness Month, PTSD Awareness Day on June 27, and all year long, we are determined to help our fellow Americans and their families and friends dealing with this debilitating condition. Through continued support for research, education, and treatment, we can help provide the hope and reality of recovery for all for those living with PTSD.

Millions of Americans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but with all the raising awareness happening year after year, we have arrived in a place and time when 40 years of research has produced more suicides and attempted suicides, families falling apart and homelessness.

My focus has always been on veterans and their families but for today, we should talk about all people suffering after traumatic events. After all, we are all still just only human. There are events in our lives that change us. Sometimes people think events make us stronger but they avoid acknowledging the inner strength was already there and was merely given the opportunity shine. The power of the human soul/spirit is something we are all born with. The trick is getting all parts of us connected.

There are some people with everything inside of them working together and they are able to retain bliss in any circumstance. They grieve but are not destroyed. They are saddened but do not lose hope. They are the people walking away after traumatic events believing they were there for a reason, no matter how great or small. They do not think God did it to them or punished them but they survived by the Grace of God.

For others, especially when they hear the stupidly delivered fix it fast slogan "God only gives us what we can handle" they walk away believing they were just punished for something. No one was watching over them. They had been judged. What do you think they will think after hearing those words? God sent His angels to spare them or God sent the angels to harm them?

There is another group closely connected to the first group that needs to be explored so that we can actually do something meaningful on healing PTSD. First we need to understand people like me. I am nothing special. I have an expression that pretty much sums up what life is like for me. "I have finally arrived at a point in my life where I have succeeded at failing."

It sounds bad but in reality it isn't. Everything I have tried to do with my life has failed when you consider that we all equate success with financial gain. I can't pay my bills, find financial support or even begin to pay back my student loans. Everything I do people expect me to do for free and the two books I wrote so far have cost me money instead of making money. Some veterans and family members I helped over the years simply moved on and some of them started their own groups but forget all about me. All of this does tend to cause some depression but I get over it. Why? Because I know I am doing what I was intended to do no matter how great, no matter how small.

When I was working as Administrator of Christian Education for a local church, I asked the youth pastor how she came up with sermons so far in advance. She told me that most of the time she just went by the calendar but when she was inspired to write a sermon, she just went with what was inside of her. It didn't matter how well it went over or not because she was writing it for who was intended to hear it. She just trusted the guidance of her soul. I have heard some of those sermons and frankly there was some kind of divine map questing going on. There were usually several people reacting to the message.

While others may have thought it was not a good sermon, the people needing to hear it got the message because they had connected to it because she connected to her soul and listened.

We all have that capacity. All my life I knew I was supposed to be a writer. My English teacher, Mr. Aucone said I had talent and should be a writer.  He also told me that if he just graded me on spelling, there is no way I would have gotten an A.  Back then we didn't have spell check.

There was no guarantee I would be a good writer and my goals were pretty uncomplicated. In my high school year book my only goal was to graduate.

After having TBI as a four year old, things in my head didn't work the same. For the way my brain takes in information it is easy to lose it fast. I had to come up with tricks to fix what didn't work. One of them is spelling so I thank God for spell check. Considering I am from the Boston area with a full accent and they taught phoenix in school very little has the same spelling as it sounds. The other is the rule of grammar especially when I am writing something that raises my passion level to boiling. Then there is another. Important things I need to hang onto have to find room in my long term memory so I have kick somethings out to fit them in. When I read something I can remember when I had read something else. That is how I come up with old news reports to prove something is not new or prove the new report false. Still it is not the TBI that almost cut me off from listening to my soul. It was everything else that happened.

From 4 to 40 it was one traumatic event after another starting with my Dad. He was a violent alcoholic until I was 13. I lived in fear that he would lash out at my Mom and brothers but even though he never went after me, I feared he would. One day he did on accident. He was pulling apart the living room and didn't see me on the couch. He threw a chair and it hit me. He was devastated. Long story short it was around then that he decided to stop drinking and got help. There was a car accident I should not have walked away from. My ex-husband tried to kill me, then he stalked me for a year. A miscarriage caused me to hemorrhage when I lost twins. Another health crisis after our daughter was born and a massive infection took over. You get the point. Then the biggest reason was living all these years with my husband and what PTSD was doing to him after Vietnam. It was not until years later when all the investigation I had been doing on PTSD that I finally got the clue I had been looking for. What made me different from him?

For my husband his trauma came in Phu Bia Vietnam 7 years before I graduated high school. When we met I didn't have a clue what happened in Vietnam and even less about what war did to those we sent. When it came to PTSD, he had a much different experience than even I could understand. My traumatic events changed me but in a different way than his did. I spent the rest of my life trying to understand why I didn't have it as much as I wanted to understand why he did.

The difference was the way everything in me was connected. Not just my mind, body and spirit connected together but connected back to God and where my soul came from. When you can find bliss in any condition, that is what is happening. After traumatic events caused by natural events, there is not just the event but the threat of it happening again. That only happens when the weather report warns you. Like the hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004, only months after we moved here. We went through three of them. The only other time we worry is when something is in the Gulf. There is a huge difference between the type of PTSD survivors of a natural disaster can end up with compared to one done by other humans.

Accidents, crimes including abuse, death of a loved on and health issues can cause PTSD. I went through all of them and some hit me pretty hard but I recovered. These events did change me and the way I think but my strength was not something that developed. It was already there. It is one of the biggest reasons why I find the military's efforts on teaching "resilience" so repulsive. They are trying to teach something to people who already have it without telling them how to find it and get it working with the rest of everything else within them.

My strength was living within my soul and my soul is older than my body since my soul was created long before my body was born. My body is not perfect. It is getting older but will never catch up to the age of my soul. It is from my soul that I was able to make peace with what was done to me in every part of living. To know that God did not do it to me, but in fact, He spared me for whatever reason from the time I was 4, helped me have peace with my faith in Him. To know that I did the best I could with whatever I tried to do helped me find peace with myself. I am not haunted by the past but I am not strengthened by it either. I am only stronger because every part of me works together. When my body is weak, my head tells me to rest and do what I can until strength comes back. When my mind is weak, my spirit takes over. It all works together.

Whatever living does to us can be so much better if we make peace with what has been as much as we find peace living with whatever it is in this moment. When I say I have finally succeeded at failing, I am telling you that no matter what, I am at peace with all that came before, all that is and have faith that whatever comes next, it will turn out however it was meant to be. I no longer seek permission of the world to do what I do. I do not expect anyone to understand what I have to say as much as I expect the people hearing it need to hear it.

The best example I can give on this is often overlooked. When we talk about Christ it is easy to think of the 12 walking with Him but we forget there were many more.

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two
10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

We do not know their names but they are not less important than the others they were with on the same mission. Maybe they may have wanted to be as famous as the others but I am sure they found peace with what was required of them instead of what was required of the others. I wonder if they fully understood the impact they really had because had it not been for that multitude, Christianity may not have spread as much as it did because they reached more people and the people they reached, reached even more.

In the end the thing we all have to understand is that we make a difference in lives, no matter how great or small. When we follow where our old souls lead us, we find bliss on this journey. It is not how others view the outcome of our lives but it is how we view it. The sooner we make peace with what happened, the sooner were are ready for what comes next and that, that we can face with all that comes within this old soul.

Why Feeling Bad is Good

Emotional Acceptance: Why Feeling Bad is Good
Avoiding negative emotions seems like a good idea. It isn't.
by Noam Shpancer, Ph.D. in Insight Therapy
Published on September 8, 2010

According to recent psychological research (by David Barlow, Steven Hayes and others) one of the main causes of many psychological problems is the habit of emotional avoidance. This may seem surprising, because the attempt to avoid negative emotions appears to be a reasonable thing. After all, negative emotions don't feel good, and they are often linked in our minds to negative events that we want to avoid or forget.

Moreover, we are all familiar with the momentary relief that avoidance can provide. If the thought of speaking up upsets me, then I can make myself feel better by deciding not to speak. Indeed, avoidance is an effective solution in the short term. Long term, however, it becomes a bigger problem than whatever was being avoided in the first place. And life, if you're at all lucky, is a long term proposition.
read more here

Courage and Combat PTSD

There are many things that keep getting missed when we talk about Combat and PTSD. This is to clear up the biggest one of all. What is courage and how does it link to being "mentally tough" so that you can push past what you were told about "resiliency" training. Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare of Wounded Times Blog tries to explain this in interview done by Union Squared Studios. woundedtimes.blogspot.com

Wounded Times proven right by new research on Resilience

Wounded Times proven right by new research on Resilience
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
June 3, 2013

I get it and that should freak everyone out. I am an average person. I don't have a PHD. I do not get millions in research grants. As a matter of fact I am so average I still haven't figured out how to get enough donations to keep my head above water while working 70 hours a week 365 days a year. The real frightening thing is, I got it back in 2008 when I came out and said the training the military was doing was harmful. I got it even more when the next year I wrote that if the military pushed "resilience training" they would see an increase in suicides.

After tragedy, who bounces back? Keys to resiliency may lie in childhood
By Rebecca Ruiz, contributor
NBC News
June 2, 2013

After a tornado hit the Henryville, Ind., home of Stephanie Decker last year, injuring her so badly that both her legs had to be amputated, the 38-year-old mother of two knew she had to "push forward and thrive," she told NBC News. “If not only for myself, but also to show other amputees who have struggles of their own that the impossible is possible.”

Since that day in March 2012, Decker, known as "Tornado Mom," has become famous for her resiliency and spirit. She's now a motivational speaker and has created a foundation to help other amputees.

As the nation recovers from recent tragedies in Boston and Oklahoma, "resiliency" has become the buzzword for recovery, a promise to rebound made almost before the full emotional impact of a disaster has been absorbed. Studies have shown that the majority of trauma survivors do go on to lead happy, productive lives -- but not everyone.

Emerging research on the biology of resilience suggests a person’s ability to recover – or risk of spiraling into depression -- may depend on an elusive combination of early life experiences, genetics and brain chemistry. In fact, recovering from trauma or heartbreak is a far more complicated response than scientists once thought, says Dr. Farris Tuma, chief of the Traumatic Stress Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health.

“This is the Holy Grail – to understand what makes people resilient,” Tuma said.

Social relationships, faith, health and financial stability are factors in resilience, while negative childhood experiences, such as trauma, abuse and chronic stress, can prime the body to react to both major hardship and everyday setbacks with the same degree of fear and panic.

But not all victims of trauma are able to bounce back as Decker has.

read more here

This is from 2008 and posted with the question, "Is Battlemind better than nothing?"

Battlemind skills helped you survive in combat, but may cause you problems if not adapted when you get home.

Although 89% of Soldiers report receiving suicide prevention training, only 52% of Soldiers reported the training to be sufficient, indicating the need to revise the suicide prevention training so that it is applicable in a combat environment.

It was followed up by this Excuse my language but BattleMind is Bullshit! Everything I was seeing and hearing from the veterans given this training told a much different story than what the military was saying and it was obvious for one simple reason. This average person paid attention.

Last year after spending many years working with families after it was too late to help their veteran heal, I agreed to write THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR. They wanted their stories told but above that, they wanted someone to finally tell the truth about what was going on with this training. What I discovered was sickening. Billions spent every year by multiple government agencies and no one held accountable for any of it. Parents were visiting graves of soldiers who were supposed to have been safely back home and not being in more danger than during war.

They were reading what research was contained on Wounded Times and they knew why their lives turned out the way they did. They also discovered they were not responsible for the suicide. We were. They could finally stop blaming themselves and start blaming people defending resilience training.

As part of Point Man International Ministries we address the spiritual healing in small groups. There you have the spiritual and social support. We cannot help with the financial needs because most of us are operating out of our pockets. We don't have a powerful PR agency behind us. The kicker is, this approach was understood in 1984 when Vietnam Veterans were back home and in a lot of pain. The same pain we see in the eyes of the OEF and OIF veterans. Nothing has changed. War is still war and basic human needs are the same. PTSD has been researched since the 70's but it is almost as if nothing was learned if you read the press reports. Again, leaders of Point Man are average people but we have above average understanding of what it takes to heal.

Fear Circuitry' In Brains Always On High Alert

This is why you have to take care of the whole you! Your mind, your spirit and your body. You have to reteach it to calm down again.

PTSD Combat Veterans' 'Fear Circuitry' In Brains Always On High Alert
In order to better diagnose PTSD, researchers looked for the part of the brain associated with the disorder and found them.
BY ANTHONY RIVAS
MAY 19, 2013

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has long been known to have lasting behavioral and emotional effects on soldiers long after they leave the combat zone. But what happens to physically to the brain of a combat veterans with PTSD is gaining more attention, including that of researchers at New York University's School of Medicine.

Their research, which was presented today at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatry Association in San Francisco, showed that PTSD physically manifests within certain regions of the brain, even when combat veterans aren't engaged in cognitive or emotional tasks and face no external threats.

"It is critical to have an objective test to confirm PTSD diagnosis as self-reports can be unreliable," said co-author Dr. Charles Marmar, chair of NYU Langone's Department of Psychiatry.
read more here