Second Wind Foundation out to de-stigmatize PTSD

New Recovery Program Created in Response to Epidemic Numbers of Vets Suffering Trauma, PTSD
Grassroots Non-profit's Goal to Provide Model for Recovery Centers Throughout the Nation
By Healing Those Who Serve

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 3 --With the unmet mental health needs of our military men and women reaching critical mass, The Second Wind Foundation, a 501c3, has created a publicly funded treatment program for returning military personnel suffering from trauma and PTSD called Healing Those Who Serve (HTWS). Funded through private and corporate donations, the Healing Those Who Serve pilot program is slated to launch at The Ranch, an internationally renowned recovery center set on 2,000-acres in rural Tennessee, in February 2008. The monies raised will create scholarships to fund Veterans in need of PTSD treatment for the recommended 60 to 90-day stay.

Second Wind Foundation co-founder Lee McCormick explains, "This program is designed to raise funds and awareness, de-stigmatize, and heal the minds and spirits of our warriors. It is unique in that we are experienced in concurrently treating related and often times recurrent disorders, such as alcohol and drug abuse, along with trauma, which has proven to be most effective."
go here for the rest
http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/275441.html

Forgetting fear? Forget about it.

This is worth a read for the idea alone but not for PTSD.

Can Fear Be Forgotten?
If fear really is all in our heads, Joseph LeDoux thinks he can eliminate it. The first step is to block out our memories

By Michael Behar December 2007
When I was nine years old, my family moved into a newly constructed home in a pleasant Seattle suburb. Within a few days, I began to notice an unsettling number of spiders creeping along baseboards, dangling in closets, and loitering under furniture. I convinced myself that the assault could only be because our digs had inadvertently razed some kind of spider civilization, and these guys were out for revenge. I remember being unable to sleep, spooked by the sight of an eight-legged nasty clinging to the ceiling, waiting to pounce. I would insist that my father leave the stairwell light on so I could track its every move, certain that under the cover of darkness the little monster would sneak into my bed and burrow into my ear canal, where it would lay its sticky spider eggs and spawn a whole new arachnid dynasty. I stuffed wads of toilet paper into my ears as a first line of defense.

Fast-forward 30 years, and I find my repulsion firmly entrenched, seemingly for good. On a recent business trip, I glimpsed a spider behind the nightstand in my hotel room. I summoned the concierge, who duly chased the evil critter into the hall with a broom. "No problem," he smirked when I apologized for my wimpiness. "Happens all the time."

There's a proven treatment for phobias called exposure therapy, better known as "facing your fears." I merely have to immerse myself in a bathtub with hundreds of spiders, let the insects crawl freely over my naked body, and voilà! I'll be cured.

Luckily, New York University neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, the world's preeminent fear guru, agrees that this tactic might not be the most efficient remedy. Imagine forcing an aviophobe onto a plane—a severe panic attack could trigger a midair rerouting to the nearest loony bin. But LeDoux may have uncovered a better way. After a two-decade-long pursuit into the depths of the brain, LeDoux has shown that it's possible to eliminate deep-seated fears. All you have to do is remove the memory that created it.

Last year, in a landmark experiment in rats, LeDoux opened a path to doing just that. He showed that it's possible to obstruct the memory of a specific traumatic event without affecting other memories. He also demonstrated that when the memory was stifled, the fear it roused vanished as well.

This sudden ability to produce selective amnesia stunned the scientific community. It also offers unimaginable promise. It could relieve soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or rid sexual abuse and rape victims of haunting memories. My spiders would be fair game, as would LeDoux's enduring aversion to snakes. Other researchers have been quick to adapt LeDoux's findings. One has already begun experimenting on human subjects, and a startup company has emerged that plans to eliminate fears in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a mail-order box of pills and the accompanying DVD.
go here for the rest
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/5c22cc494e617110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Why do I say that? Because I've had fears, just like most people have but I've also faced death a few times and I can tell you that the two things are totally different.

I fear public speaking. I will get up in front of a crowd with something I wrote and my tongue will stumble over my teeth. My hands shake and it's hard for me to read the speech. That's a fear but I overcome it by no longer reading speeches, opting instead to just address the crowd with what is in my heart and head. I'm not afraid to speak to people on a one to one basis spontaneously so I forget that I am talking to that many people all at once.

In this case my life was not on the line, just my pride. There were times in my life that my life was in danger. At 4 1/2, I was pushed from the top of a slide and landed on concrete head first. Talk about brain trauma! My scull was cracked and I had a concussion. This caused a fear of heights. Considering I'm doing a lot of flying since moving to Florida, it's something I overcame. I still don't like to fly but I don't have to get drunk anymore just to get on the plane.

Later in my early 20's I was in a car accident. I was rear ended and my car spun out of control ending up in a guard rail. I saw the car heading into it, held up my arms to cover my face. All I could think about was how pissed off my Mother would be to not have an open casket, aside from totally her car. I shouldn't be here now. Needless to say, saying I hate traffic would be an understatement. I still drive and overcame the fear but I also drive mostly in the center or right lane now instead of in the passing lane.

Physical abuse came from my ex-husband and someone else in my life. My father was a violent alcoholic who quit drinking when I was 13. The last life threatening time came after I delivered our daughter. I had an infection that never went away. My bladder ended up developing an infection that turn septic and I almost died then too with a massive infection and a fever of 105. I really shouldn't be here at all. Telling me to just get over the fear and equating it to the fear of public speaking proves some of these experts never faced their life on the line.

I don't have PTSD but I can fully appreciate how so many do develop it. The traumas I've been through go into who I am and what I am, as well as how I think, feel and function. Of all the nonsense I've heard in the treatment of PTSD, this I think is the one that ticks me off the most. Forgetting fear is not the same as making peace with it. And oh, by the way, I really hate spiders too. One landed in my hair when I was trying to kill it and got trapped there. I had really long hair and it must have taken my mother 15 minute just to find it. There are fears that are real and do change lives but those kinds of fears can be overcome. PTSD can be stopped from getting worse but you cannot cure it.

I get really tired of "experts" trivializing the kind of experiences people with PTSD go through and how it changes every aspect of their life. I wish they would finally get serious about this and rely on experts who know what it is like to have PTSD and survive having their lives on the line. Arachnophobia does not come close to a bullet or a bomb or the carnage of combat. What I lived through does not come close to what they go through. It does not come close to having been beaten or raped, surviving floods like the people in New Orleans, surviving fires or being an emergency responder. It does not make it into the ballpark of being a cop or a fireman and if you asked a combat veteran how close it comes to being one of them, they may be polite enough to not laugh in your face.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Army Still Discharging Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Without Benefits

Army Still Discharging Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Without Benefits, Any Way It Can
by Jesse Wendel, Group News Blog

Sgt. Darren Mischke got hurt bad in Iraq.

A two-tour vet, he was in a wreck tour one, and knocked out. In his second tour, his vehicle was mortared. He has Traumatic Brain Injury.

Like many chronic pain, PTSD, and depression patients, he became a different person, a different "I" from the person his family had always known.

Happens. But the Army, consistently has been taking the easy way out, and shoving soldiers out any way they can, rather than rate them properly.
click post title for the rest

Researchers Investigate Effect of PTSD on Brain Function

Researchers Investigate Effect of PTSD on Brain Function

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Police officers hold the second most stressful job (inner-city high school teacher is first), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This comes as no surprise to John Violanti, Ph.D., associate professor of social and preventive medicine in the University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions and a former member of the New York State Police.

Violanti has conducted several studies on police health, and currently is principal investigator on a pilot study of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in police officers. The purpose of the study, funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), is to determine if symptoms of PTSD in police officers are associated with changes in brain structure and function. Violanti said data from the $26,000 pilot study will form the basis for a much larger project.

He will be working with colleagues in UB's Jacobs Neurological Institute (JNI), which is the Department of Neurology in the university's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and its Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC), taking advantage of the BNAC's advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) capabilities.

"Our aim is to assess the association of PTSD symptoms and changes in brain function and structure in police officers, a group routinely exposed to traumatic work situations," said Violanti.
go here for the rest
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/9014

This should be a great study but I hope they consider that looking at unpleasant images is not the same as living through the event itself.

As part of what I do, I have to look at these images all the time, to see what they see, in order to have a better understanding of part of their lives. Images of mangled bodies and the carnage the soldiers go through is unpleasant but it does not come anywhere close to being there in person.

Although this study involves police officers, again images are not the same as being there and knowing your life is on the line. They need to study veterans and police officers who have PTSD at the moment they are having flashbacks to get an accurate image of the changes their brains go through. These two groups experience trauma, just as all humans do, however they are also participants in them. For these two groups, it is not just having their own life on the line, it is taking another life as well. Their PTSD cuts deeper because of this.

Injured without scars : The hidden wounds of battle from traumatic brain injury, PTSD

Injured without scars : The hidden wounds of battle from traumatic brain injury, PTSD
1A
Pamela E. Walck Sunday, December 2, 2007 at 12:30 am (see enhanced version)

Laboran Pickens sits inside the busy Savannah coffeehouse.

He flinches every time the grinders whine so strangers can walk away with frothy, caffeinated beverages.

He looks nervous. He assures his company he's fine.

He's on medication from Georgia Regional Medical Center.

It helps, but not always.

The Iraq nightmares still come, medicine or not.

Sometimes the spell is prompted by a loud noise or errant thought. It makes him space out. He moves like he's in a dream. He often disappears from his Hinesville home, sometimes for hours.

His wife spends those hours frantic, wondering where he is. She worries each time will be his last. That he won't come back to her and their three children.

He returns, but remembers nothing.

At 30, he is a shell of the man he once was.


'Signature wounds'

It is estimated that up to 20 percent of the 1.5 million men and women who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq since America's War on Terror began may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries, according to the Defense and Veteran Brain Injury Center, which is part of the Walter Reed Medical Center.

And a 22-month study by Veterans for America of all soldiers returning to Fort Carson, Colo., found more than 17 percent of all servicemen and women who had deployed from the installation had some form of traumatic brain injury.

Veterans organizations fear that thousands of soldiers are living undiagnosed.

Many have left the military. Or, like Pickens, were asked to leave.

They carry invisible scars.
go here for the rest
http://www.savannahnow.com/node/407817

After trauma touches life

Several veterans told me that if they ever opened up with what is going on in their heads, they would be locked up in the "loony bin" for the rest of their lives. They talk about feeling as if they let everyone down. They talk about a lot of things but hope. As they try to understand what PTSD is, hope is the furthest thing from their reach. Once they understand what it is and what caused it, hope is within reach. They realize they can be happy, or at least happier again. To live out days with life being sucked out of them is a slow, torturous death. Medication and therapy bring them back to living a life again instead of just existing.


After trauma comes stress that will not let go. It is not just participants in combat.
It is when you watch someone you love die.

Improving Communication With Families Of Dying Patients Reduces ...
By admin Hospitals that use a simple strategy of enhancing communication with family members of patients dying in the intensive care unit can greatly reduce post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression after their loved one dies,

It is being a police officer with your life on the line.

The Effects of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the officer and the family
© 2003, 1998 by Hal Brown, LICSW
The following letter is from an officer who wrote it in the Guestbook and kindly gave me permission to use it in an article in the hope that his experience will help others. He describes many of the classic symptoms of police PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder. In fact, every distressing thought, feeling and behavior he relates below is a symptom of PTSD.
I am a (10 plus)-- year police veteran and (30 plus)-- years of age. I have become seriously concerned with some of the events that have been taking place in my life for the past two years. I have started having nightmares frequently and have great difficulty going to sleep at night. There is always a feeling of uneasiness at night and I have started to develop some unnatural habits associated with these uneasy feelings. At the slightest sound, I have to get out of the bed and check every room in the house.
http://www.geocities.com/stressline_com/ptsd-family.html

Arizona State Trooper WinsPrecedent-Setting Court Caseon PTSD Claim
An Arizona state trooper has won a precedent-setting court case that affects police officers, firefighters, and other emergency services workers throughout the United States.On January 20, 2000, Department of Public Safety Officer David D. Mogel killed a shotgun-toting car thief wanted for bank robbery after the suspect attempted to shoot him.Because of the trauma in taking a human life, Mr. Mogel was diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and could no longer function as a police officer. When he applied for Workers' Compensation benefits, he was denied. The Arizona Department of Public Safety and Workers' Compensation (State of Arizona, DOA Risk Management) claimed that shooting suspects was part of the job, and not an "unexpected" event as required by Arizona law.Mr. Mogel's attorney, Robert E. Wisniewski, says, "The state raised the defense that working in police work everyday was not a substantial contributing cause of my client's post traumatic stress disorder because police are exposed to such hazards everyday so that is routine."In her Findings and Award of December 19, 2002 awarding Mr. Mogel Workers' Compensation benefits, Administrative Law Judge Karen Calderon states, "I find that shooting and killing another human being in the line of duty is an extraordinary stress related to the employment."
http://www.copshock.com/lawsuit.html

Police, fireman and emergency responders

A number of research articles have looked at the rates of PTSD in high-risk occupations. They found:
Law Enforcement Officers who agreed to be in these studies had rates of PTSD ranging between 3% - 17%. A recent research study found that 45% of officers were having sleep difficulties typical of patients seen in insomnia clinics. In this study, stresses related to their work environment were strongly associated with sleep quality; sleep disturbances were associated with symptoms of PTSD. "These high rates of insomnia are particularly alarming, because sleep deprivation can drastically hinder mental and physical performance" (Thomas Neylan, MD, 2002).
In a study by Corneil, et. al., (1999), which compared 203 U.S. Fire Fighters in urban departments with 625 Canadian fire fighters, twenty-two percent of fire fighters in U.S. urban departments were experiencing PTSD compared to 17% of Canadian fire fighters. (The U.S. sample had 9% women and 13% paramedics, not found in the Canadian sample). Other researchers have found 33-41 % of fire fighters were experiencing emotional distress. Rates of PTSD in U.S. fire fighters are similar to those found in a study of German fire fighters, 18.2% and are higher than those generally found in wounded combat veterans, i.e., 20%. These researchers concluded that the high level of PTSD A suggests that this is a serious mental health problem of epidemic proportions in urban professional firefighters in the U.S."
Twenty percent of Emergency Ambulance Personnel have been found to have PTSD. Rates of symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, sleep problems and undue worry rage from 20% - 60%.
Nineteen percent of Rescue Workers serving 9-11 sites have been diagnosed with PTSD in the two years following this tragedy.
http://www.rescue-workers.com/1.html

And it is kids

Bereaved Children of 9/11 Victims Suffered High Rates of Psychiatric Illness
Children's Neurological "Stress-Response System" Also Stayed Highly Active Long After They Lost a Parent, Study Finds
White Plains, NY (Mar 19, 2007)
The rate of psychiatric illness among children who lost a parent in the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack doubled – from about 32 to nearly 73 percent – in the years following the event, according to a new study from researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
More than half (56.8 percent) of the young children studied suffered from some sort of anxiety disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which affected nearly three in 10 bereaved children.

http://www.nyp.org/news/hospital/1107.html

PTSD comes at different levels. From mild cases where they are able to function or "deal with it" to the point where every part of their life is consumed by it.

Understanding, educating the public is life to them and their futures.

To put a monetary price on this we need only look at "success" stories to gauge what the outcome of early intervention would look like.

Instead of being unable to work but receiving therapy and medication, it saves workman's comp and VA disability payments. If they are able to work, even on a part-time basis, they are holding down a job, receiving pay for that job, paying taxes on that income and paying into the Social Security System.

But it does not stop there. Early intervention can prevent a lot of divorces. Living with someone who has PTSD is one of the hardest types of marriages. (I can testify to that personally.) The emotional roller-coaster ride with mood swings, isolation, ambivalence, emotional numbing, short term memory loss, irrational thinking and reactions along with the flashbacks they have and the nightmares, puts an even greater strain on a marriage than what is considered normal. Two incomes in one household contribute to the economy. If you have separation and divorce, you have two people struggling to support themselves. That leaves less extra money to spend on non-essential items.

But it does not stop there either. When you intervene early and eliminate PTSD divorces, you also have people watching over each other. They eat better, see the doctor more often for check ups and enjoy a support structure with people they trust.

It does not even stop there. Then you have the children of a PTSD parent. They grow up knowing that the PTSD parent is acting or reacting the way they are because of PTSD and not because of them. They learn to adapt to things they learn will cause a "strange" reaction from their parent. Like, as most kids do, hiding and popping out to scare their parent or sneaking up on them from behind.

With all of this, please tell me why anyone in this country or other nations, would not be doing everything possible to treat PTSD as soon as symptoms present themselves? Why would anyone not be doing everything humanly possible to educate the public on PTSD so that no one would ever say "what's that" when they hear the term? Public education made everyone aware of AIDS, cancer, ADD. So why is it people still don't know what PTSD is? They surely know what trauma is. Why isn't there a massive TV campaign about PTSD? Why isn't every news station doing documentaries on this?

As you read in the previous post today, a five year old came out with "they forget to be happy" when asked what he thought PTSD was. So why is it a five year old can come to grips with this but the adults of this country are still not understanding this?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Clergy in New Orleans need PTSD counseling

Clergy in New Orleans need counseling

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 31, 5:20 PM ET



NEW ORLEANS - Clergymen struggling to comfort the afflicted in New Orleans are finding they, too, need someone to listen to their troubles.


By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 31, 5:20 PM ET



NEW ORLEANS - Clergymen struggling to comfort the afflicted in New Orleans are finding they, too, need someone to listen to their troubles.

The sight of misery all around them — and the combined burden of helping others put their lives back together while repairing their own homes and places of worship — are taking a spiritual and psychological toll on the city's ministers, priests and rabbis, many of whom are in counseling two years after Hurricane Katrina.

Almost every local Episcopal minister is in counseling, including Bishop Charles Jenkins himself, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jenkins, whose home in suburban Slidell was so badly damaged by Katrina that it was 10 months before he and his wife could move back in, said he has suffered from depression, faulty short-term memory, and difficulty concentrating or sleeping.

Low-flying helicopters sometimes cause flashbacks to the near-despair — the "dark night of the soul" — into which he was once plunged, he said. He said the experience felt "like the absence of God" — a lonely and frightening sensation.

Churches and synagogues have played an important role in New Orleans' recovery, supplying money and thousands of volunteers to rebuild homes and resettle families. But an April survey found 444 places of worship in metropolitan New Orleans — about 30 percent — were still closed 20 months after the storm because they were damaged or their congregations scattered. click post title for the rest.

Even clergy can feel the absence of God after trauma. It is not the only outcome of PTSD but it shows that a strong faith will not prevent PTSD. It has nothing to do with faith, nothing to do with courage, or bravery, education, intelligence, patriotism or anything else other than a human being exposed to trauma.

Think of what this event in New Orleans is teaching us about combat. Think of the results from this one storm and the flood that followed when the waters came rushing in. Leaving politics out of it ( which is very hard for me to do) this event left scars that will last a lifetime that no one else can see with their eyes.

September 11, 2001, is engrained in the soul's of the people from New York more than anyone else in the nation, while the nation feels the heart tug, we were not there. Some felt as if their lives were in danger across the nation, but they were not there witnessing it in real time. We are still seeing the numbers increase from those exposed to this one day's events.

Now add in these traumatic days, acknowledge the wounds the people exposed to them carry, then think about experiencing them everyday for a year or now for fifteen months, and still knowing that when you go home, the safety of home will not last because you will be re-attacked all over again in the next round of redeployments. Some are on their fifth tour.

Then think of the people having to live in Iraq. Those who do not get to go home for a rest because it is their homes being attacked on a daily basis. They did nothing wrong and they lived in relative peaceful neighborhoods before the invasion. The Iraqi people have traumatic events happen daily, horrifically and without end.

Why is it we can understand the effects of Post Traumatic Stress when it happens here but we can never accept it when it happens someplace else? Each time this nation experiences a traumatic event, there are after shocks reverberating for many years and yet this nation still regards PTSD as if it were some kind of personal defect.

The plain simple truth is, you cannot expose a human to trauma and expect them to just get over it. No one ever lives their lives the same way after trauma. A part of them changes. Sometimes it is only slight changes but other times it is truly life altering.

Traumatic brain injury: Common wound of war

Traumatic brain injury: Common wound of war

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Aug 29, 2007 5:42:03 EDT

Sitting in a fast-food restaurant near Fort Belvoir, Va., Army Master Sgt. Jose Santiago, his knee bouncing up and down, asked to switch to another table.

“Since I got back, I don’t like to be around dirty things,” he said, wiping a wet spot from the new table with a napkin.

He then settled in for a five-hour conversation that looped back over things he had already covered, stalled when he couldn’t remember a word he wanted to use and stopped when he tried to talk about how the first day of the Iraq war damaged his family.

“Did I already tell you that?” he asked, dozens of times, wincing when he feared he had.

Santiago, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear operations specialist, said he’s always been “a fast-tracker.”

He spent most of his school years in classes for gifted kids, made E-7 in nine years, and was picked for a special team assigned to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Now, he leaves for medical appointments three hours early — even if he knows the office is only 45 minutes away — because he gets lost easily. An alarm reminds him to take his eight medications. Worse, he forgets he already swallowed his pain or anti-depression pills, and gulps down another handful.

click post title for the rest

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be sneaky

Runnin' Scared
This Is Your Brain On 9/11
Feeling jumpy? Could be that building you watched fall
by Karen A. Frenkel
August 28th, 2007 6:57 PM

If you witnessed the attacks on 9/11 up close and then continually had bad dreams, felt jumpy, kept thinking about what you saw, and avoided the site even several years later, chances are that parts of your brain were altered in subtle ways. According to scientists, such lingering symptoms and physical changes reflect an undiagnosed and long-term toll on mental health resulting from the attacks.

Recent studies at New York University and the New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center show enduring psychological and neurological repercussions in adult witnesses near the World Trade Center that day, and in children who lost a parent in the tragedy.

According to the researchers, adults who appeared hardy and functional—and who weren't diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after 9/11—nevertheless do show some symptoms of PTSD and may be vulnerable to mental disorders in the future.

People afflicted with full-blown PTSD relive their terrifying ordeal through nightmares, flashbacks, and upsetting thoughts, and lose interest in activities that were once important to them. They also feel alone, are unable to relax, and remain on guard. click post title for the rest

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be sneaky. Some can have mild PTSD symptoms for many years. What is not talked about often enough, is that mild PTSD can and does spiral out of control when another traumatic event happens. It's almost as if people just accept the changes in them, adapt to those changes and function adequately enough to get by.

They will go on for years with stings of marriages and countless jobs while not seeing any need to seek help, usually because they don't know what caused the change in them. Then, suddenly, another traumatic event happens. This secondary stressor hits them hard once they have already been wounded.

The secondary stressor hits fast and furiously. It happened to my husband. It happened to a lot of Vietnam vets. Within the last ten years, veterans of the Gulf War, Korea and even WWII, have been showing up at VA hospitals and clinics around the world suddenly finding they cannot cope with what is happening to them.

Max Cleland, reached being a senator and head of the VA. He had been treated for depression since Vietnam cost him his legs and arm but having PTSD was the furthest thing from his mind. It turns out that when the carnage of Iraq made it into the news, Max discovered he really had problems much larger than he thought. He was not able to cope with the changes within him. He was then diagnosed with PTSD. It just snuck up on him without warning.

If we understand what PTSD is and get it into the category of a normal reaction to trauma for some people, then no one will ever dismiss the symptoms of it again. Treatment can begin early and stop PTSD before it becomes an insurgent waiting for the opportunity of a secondary stressor to hit before it attacks from within.



Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com

www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

“I saw his life fall off the face of the earth,”

For a friend, a special way to ask for help

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 22, 2007


The guy has been a friend of John Powers since their middle school days in Cumberland. When Powers headed for the University of Rhode Island, his friend headed for the Marine Corps.

His friend came back from Afghanistan in 2005.

“I saw his life fall off the face of the earth,” says Powers. “He couldn’t get a job.”

It has been two years, and still Powers worries. His friend will be OK for a couple of months, then get caught in that dark, frightening confusion that the Marines never prepared him for. He’ll stop calling.

So Powers did something. He is 23 and he did something extraordinary. He looked at his friend and saw hundreds and thousands of others lined up behind him with the same terrible uncertainty about what’s going wrong and what should be done about it.

“I started reading and writing,” he says.

Katrina victims struggle mentally

Katrina victims struggle mentally
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
Many Gulf Coast residents still feel the wallop of Hurricane Katrina nearly two years later.
Mental illness is double the pre-storm levels, rising numbers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and there is a surge in adults who say they're thinking of suicide.

A government survey released Wednesday to USA TODAY shows no improvement in mental health from a year ago.

About 14% have symptoms of severe mental illness. An additional 20% have mild to moderate mental illness, says Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School, who led the study.

The big surprise: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which typically goes away in a year for most disaster survivors, has increased: 21% have the symptoms vs. 16% in 2006. Common symptoms include the inability to stop thinking about the hurricane, nightmares and emotional numbness. go here for the rest
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-16-neworleans-illness_N.htm

You have got to be kidding! PTSD does not go away in a year. A would like to know where they got that idea from. It gets worse unless it is treated.

How is PTSD diagnosed?
A diagnosis of PTSD is made when symptoms in the main clusters (re-experiencing, numbing, avoidance, and arousal) are present for an extended period and are interfering with normal life. The first step in getting treatment is getting a diagnosis. This can be difficult for a number of reasons:
symptoms may occur months or years after the traumatic event and may not be recognized as being related to the trauma beliefs that people "should be able to get over it" or "shouldn't have such a reaction" or "should solve their own problems" may delay treatment being sought guilt, blame, embarrassment or pain may interfere with a person seeking help avoidance of anything associated with the trauma may result in an inability to recognize the need for treatment
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/post_traumatic_stress_disorder_symptoms_treatment.htm#diagnosis

Hurricanes Puts Countless Americans At Risk for PTSD
As survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struggle to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, the reality of just how much things have changed for them is setting in. While early in the diaster they may have been running on adrenaline and coping well with events, they are now finding it harder and harder to go about their daily lives. Sleep is disturbed and anxiety levels remain high. They may feel depression and deep despair over their losses. As with any survivor of a traumatic event, they are at strong risk of developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

What Is PTSD?
The American Counseling Association, offers us 10 criteria for recognizing PTSD:

Re-experiencing the event through vivid memories or flash backs
Feeling “emotionally numb”
Feeling overwhelmed by what would normally be considered everyday situations and diminished interest in performing normal tasks or pursuing usual interests
Crying uncontrollably
Isolating oneself from family and friends and avoiding social situations
Relying increasingly on alcohol or drugs to get through the day
Feeling extremely moody, irritable, angry, suspicious or frightened
Having difficulty falling or staying asleep, sleeping too much and experiencing nightmares
Feeling guilty about surviving the event or being unable to solve the problem, change the event or prevent the disaster
Feeling fears and sense of doom about the future
http://depression.about.com/od/naturaldisasters/a/ptsd.htm

Psychosocial Consequences of Natural Disasters in Developing Countries: What Does Past Research Tell Us About the Potential Effects of the 2004 Tsunami?Fran H. Norris, Ph.D.
http://depression.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=depression&cdn=health&tm=28&
amp;gps=182_781_869_567&f=00&su=p247.3.140.
ip_p284.8.150.ip_&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_tsunami_research.html

It has gotten to the point where even people trying to help get the word out about people suffering from PTSD, put out false information without even knowing it. I'm glad they did this story on the Katrina survivors, but they really should have gotten the whole thing right.
We have a bunch of humans suffering and dying because people still don't understand what PTSD is. The people in New Orleans suffered from what happened during and after a hurricane. The people, the men and women we call "troops" suffer from the trauma of combat. The people in Iraq, the Iraqis, suffer from what is happening in their country. People all over the world suffer from all kinds of causes but the two things they have in common keeps getting missed. They are all humans exposed to trauma.