Major David Cox, hero on PTSD awareness

I wonder if Major Cox understands what a hero he is to veterans? Just the fact he is willing to talk about this will help countless veterans decide to get help to heal.

Maj. David Cox is seen during his deployment on a rare visit home to meet his first granddaughter, Madison, now 5. Today, Cox suffers from PTSD and can no longer work, watch TV medical dramas or handle his own medications. - Photo provided by Maj. David Cox

Some members of military come home with burdens they cannot shed
Campaign aims to raise doctors' awareness of invisible wounds
By Shari Rudavsky
Posted: June 29, 2010

Indiana Air National Guard Maj. David Cox returned from Iraq and Afghanistan unable to cut grass without fear someone was watching him. He now uses a GPS device when he walks his dog for those times when he struggles to find his way back home. And the injured soldiers he helped treat haunt his sleep -- when he can sleep.

Cox suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, but it took months after his return home before he was diagnosed, months during which he could have hurt himself or others as he wrestled with the problem.

Such a delay in diagnosing PTSD is common, making it difficult for hundreds of returning veterans to receive proper treatment.

That's why the Indiana State Medical Association has embarked on a campaign to raise awareness -- and to try to ensure that returning soldiers like Cox receive the help they need.

As part of that effort, the group recently distributed information about the disorder to 1,300 primary-care physicians across Indiana.
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Some members of military come home with burdens they cannot shed

Woman battles PTSD and climbs music charts

Woman battles PTSD and climbs music charts
June 29, 9:26 PM
Des Moines Homelessness Examiner
Shenica Graham

Contemporary Christian recording artist, Shenica Renee Graham was Born October 14, 1977 in Long Beach, CA. She battles P.T.S.D. resulting from childhood abuse and domestic violence. As early as 1985, Shenica began writing poetry and various manuscripts to release her pain in a non-violent manner. Her first national award was won for a poem she wrote about her parents in a fourth-grade competition. In the eighties, she competed in the America's Kids and Teens pageant and was voted, "Most Potential." This was the spark of her would-be music career. Preparing for the talent competition, Shenica chose a song that was "too mature" - according to her mother. Not allowed to sing in the competition, she performed an oration. The pageant director commented, "You should sing. I can hear it in your voice."
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Woman battles PTSD and climbs music charts

You understand more than you think when it comes to PTSD

You understand more than you think when it comes to PTSD
by
Chaplain Kathie

These are just a few recent headlines

2 wounded in 3 Fort Worth shootingsFort Worth Star Telegram

Seven hours, seven victims in north MinneapolisMinneapolis Star Tribune

Gunfire pelts City Hall, enters officeEl Paso Times

Jersey City man is slain and another wounded as assailant opens fire at Duncan ...The Jersey Journal - NJ.com

Alachua County teen found fatally shot inside homeGainesville Sun

We can read these stories and think only of the people directly involved, yet so many others are changed by these events. The families of the people killed or wounded by violent acts. The witnesses having to cope with the fact one minute they were living in a normal day and the next it all went to hell. They feared for their own lives even if they were out of range. We may think it would have been an unrealistic fear but then when we understand bullets flying through the air were far from normal as it was. Trauma is lives changed in a second.

Here in Florida two Tampa police officers stopped a car and ended up shot. Both of them died.

Wounded Times: Two Tampa Police Officers killed after traffic stop
By Namguardianangel@aol.com (Kathie Costos)

The police department is in shock. The widow of Officer Jeffrey Kocab went into labor after this shooting. Witnesses were also affected by this and so were police officers around the country. One of the most dangerous jobs officers have are traffic stops. They know they can be hit by other cars, shot at, run over and they never know what to expect. When something like this happens, they are all wondering if it will happen to them as well.

Trauma removes our sense of safety as we live our lives. Think of when you lost someone you loved. A family member died suddenly. The shock you felt when you heard of their death was felt deeply. We are also affected when we hear tragic news even if we are far away from the event itself.

People across the world can tell you where they were on the morning of September 11th. They can usually even tell you second by second accounts of how they were reacting to the news. While they are talking about it, there is a deep sadness awakened within them. They are remembering trauma.

We can all understand PTSD when we think of our own lives.

When I do presentations on PTSD, my approach is simple. I make it personal to them, get them thinking about how their own lives are changed by events. Then while they are remembering how they felt, I ask them what it would be like for them if they had that shock over and over and over again.

There is the type of PTSD caused by one event in a person's life. One moment in time when they are forever changed. Natural disasters and crimes along with accidents or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, can in fact cause PTSD. If we as simple humans can be so deeply affected by one event, then it should be easy to understand the men and women serving in combat and what our veterans went through. After all, they are just humans like the rest of us.

The next time you hear someone say PTSD is not real or that they can't understand it, remind them of what happened in their own lives and then tell them to multiply it as if they lived it over and over again. Then ask them if they could just "get over it" or "stuff it" into the back of their minds. With help, PTSD veterans can recover and heal. Without help, it gets worse. We can keep making the same mistakes over and over again or we can make it real to the people refusing to understand.

If you can understand this, you can understand them.

A nation under post-traumatic stress

James Carroll of the Boston Globe did a great job on this. He asked the question about where this will all be a decade from now. The answer is, the same as it was ten years after Vietnam veterans began to show what PTSD looks like after it has been allowed to fester into the veterans' lives to the point where, they don't reorganize themselves anymore. By 1978 there were already 500,000.

What no one seems to want to talk about is that most veterans return home with mild PTSD. In other words, symptoms trying to take over their lives but they are able to fight against most of them. If they had been helped when PTSD was mild, then most would have recovered before their lives were destroyed, marriages ended, kids estranged from parents, careers ruined, crimes committed, homelessness and suicides. Mild PTSD is beatable but when life tosses in more stress and traumatic events, you might as well refer to it as "invasion of the body snatchers" because PTSD takes over that much. It's called Secondary Stressor.

Veterans may be very well capable of doing jobs, having marriages, doing everything they need to do, even pass off the nightmares and flashbacks, calm their nerves with a few beers or a joint or two, but sooner or later, life takes over, one more event out of their control and it all turns to crap.

Just like the late 70's and 80's, we're seeing repeats of mistakes made back then. Medications are great. They are given enough to last a few months and they are expected to show back up at the VA for more. What they are not given is answers, therapy, support or hope. All this leads to a repeat of the Vietnam generation and it isn't good. As of today there are still thousand without a clue what's been wrong with them since they got back home.

Unless things are drastically changed, like thinking outside the box for a change, then we are going to repeat all the mistakes we should have learned from. Society will end up paying for the mistakes it keeps making but above that, we will still lose more after combat than we do during it. The only difference is, we aren't aiming guns at them. We're just loading the bullets. Every day that goes by and we are not doing everything humanly possible to help them heal, we are contributing to their diminishing odds of surviving combat.

US Army soldiers carry a critically wounded American soldier to an awaiting MEDEVAC helicopter near Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Getty Images)

A nation under post-traumatic stress
James Carroll
Boston Globe

IT BELONGS to every citizen to have in mind what the nation’s present wars are doing — not only to US troops, Iraqis and Afghans, and the faceless enemy, but to the American character. We have come to understand that the brutalities of combat can shatter participants psychologically as well as physically.

A psycho-medical diagnosis — post-traumatic stress syndrome — has gained legitimacy for individuals, but what about whole societies? Can war’s dire and lingering effects on war-waging nations be measured? Can the stories of war be told, that is, to include aftermath wounds to society that, while undiagnosed, are as related to civic responsibility for state violence as one veteran’s recurring nightmare is to a morally ambiguous firefight? The battle zones of Fallujah and Kandahar are far away, but how do their traumas stamp Philadelphia and Kansas City — this year and a decade from now?
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A nation under post traumatic stress

Illinois Army National Guardsman retires after 6 decades of duty

Guardsman retires after 6 decades of duty

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 29, 2010 8:06:27 EDT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A member of the Illinois Army National Guard has retired after nearly six decades years of duty.

The guard says Chief Warrant Officer Nelson Blakey of Moweaqua retired June 1 after 56 years.

Blakey joined the guard in March 1953 and first worked at a warehouse in Springfield. His last post was in a personnel office helping enlisted guard members with problems. He says that job was his favorite.

Sgt. Maj. Donnie Parker says Blakey is a humble, outgoing man who will be tough to replace.

Now that he's retired, Blakey plans to continue working on his farm. His wife, Bonnie Blakey, is also a retiree of the Illinois National Guard.
Guardsman retires after 6 decades of duty

Two Tampa Police Officers killed after traffic stop

UPDATE

Florida Police Officer's Widow Has Baby Hours After His Killing

Published June 29, 2010
NewsCore

The widow of a Florida police officer gunned down after making a traffic stop early Tuesday has given birth to their first child just hours after he passed away, CBS News reported.

Officer Jeff Kocab was called to the scene as backup after fellow Tampa police officer Dave Curtis stopped a car about 2:15am Tuesday because the license tag wasn't visible.

Tampa police said the passenger in the vehicle, Dontae Rashawn Morris, 24, had a minor warrant for arrest and opened fire on the two officers.
Florida Police Officer Widow Has Baby Hours After His Killing

Slain Tampa police officers recalled as devoted family men and crime-fighters
Times staff
Posted: Jun 29, 2010 01:31 PM
TAMPA — Police officers Jeffrey Kocab and David Curtis were remembered Tuesday as men who were devoted to their jobs and families.

Both 31 years old, Kocab and Curtis were gunned down early Tuesday morning during a traffic stop at 50th Street and 23rd Avenue. They both worked the midnight shift, and both were relatively new to the Tampa Police Department.

Officer Jeffrey Kocab, center, with Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and former police Chief Steve Hogue.

Kocab joined the department about 14 months ago from the Plant City Police Department.

He was chosen by his fellow Plant City officers as employee of the month four times in three years.

Kocab and his wife were expecting their first child next week but she went into labor just hours after her husband died, said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.

Officer David Curtis, left, with former Tampa police Chief Steve Hogue.

Curtis left behind a wife and four young children: Austin, 9; Sean, 6; Tyler, 5; and Hunter, 8 months, Iorio said.

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Tampa Police officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab

One of two suspects found

Tampa Police officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab were killed around 2 a.m., shot in the head by the side of the road. Police say they have found one suspect, Cortnee Nicole Brantley, as well as the car she was driving at the time. The other suspect, Dontae Rashawn Morris, has not been located.

Veterans for Common Sense warns of need to hire more doctors now

They are right. Too often I'll talk to veterans and find out while they get all the meds they need, there isn't any therapy for them. They are given meds and told to come back in a few months but that's just about it. When you tell a twenty-something year old he needs to be on medication the rest of his/her life, they tend to not find much hope in that. Yet when you tell them what PTSD is, and what they can do to get to the point when they won't need much medication at all, that gives them hope. They need to know healing is possible and how to get there. This is their biggest complaint of all and it's easy to understand why it is that way.

National Security News
Finally, the press starts to wake up to the escalating and shocking human toll nine years of war has had on our military. The L.A. Times reports the number of U.S. military casualties caused by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is more than 500,000. The real total is 537,099, according to VA, because VA also counts veteran patients with TBI, mental illness, and warzone-acquired diseases - categories not counted in misleading and incomplete Pentagon reports.

The Army Times reports on the the military's struggles related to the severe shortage of medical personnel. VCS believes the number of suicides rises, in part, due to the lack of medical professionals, especially mental health professionals (other factors include multiple deployments, the lack of medical exams, and discrimination against veterans with mental health conditions).

Our messsage to Secretary Gates: Hire more doctors now !

Yoga Therapy for Depression, Anxiety, PTSD

It isn't hard to understand but most of the Marines I work with think I'm nuts. Aside from the obvious reasons, they are usually convinced of this as soon as I tell them to go take Yoga. All these young, strong, tough Marines think of is bending their bodies up like a pretzel and they are done with the idea. Then I tell them their bodies know how to calm down, how to stop feeling as if they are going to explode when they have a panic attack or anxiety takes over. It's all built into the body but we all forget how to do it. Yoga instructors teach a lot more than how to twist your body up into un-natural shapes and on this, their help is priceless. They can help you regain the ways your body and mind work. Whenever the body-mind and spirit are all addressed, healing is much greater and faster than addressing one part of "you" at a time.

Yoga Therapy for Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder and …
By randy
Yoga Therapy for Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder and … Posted by randy 28 Jun, 2010. Some studies have shown that controlled breathing, which is an integral part of most types of yoga

A new 'war' to fight at home after Iraqi deployment ends

Guest column: A new 'war' to fight at home after Iraqi deployment ends
Posted: June 28, 2010 - 3:12pm
Madeleine Tavares is a freelance writer for USA Today.

As we took our seats at Starbucks, Sgt. Mark Middlebrook, who recently completed his four-year Army tour, walked to the back and selected a seat with his back to the wall and facing the front door.

Middlebrook, who is 24 years old, has suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since completing his 15 months in Iraq in 2007. You would never know it simply by looking at him.

I have followed Middlebrook's Army journey through his parents, Gayle and Mark Sr., of Ponte Vedra. We participate in a support group for families of deployed military.

At the end of 2007, two friends and I realized our three sons would be in Iraq at the same time and wanted to reach out to others who might be in the same situation.

Since leaving the Army this past summer, Middlebrook has been trying to move on with his life, but worry often gets in the way.
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A new war to fight at home

Veterans' Medallion Available for Order

Veterans' Medallion Available for Order
New Option for Marking Veterans' Graves in Private Cemeteries

WASHINGTON (June 29, 2010) - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki announced today that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is offering bronze medallions to attach to existing, privately purchased headstones or markers, signifying a deceased's status as a Veteran.

"For Veterans not buried in a national or state Veterans cemetery, or those without a government grave marker, VA is pleased to offer this option that highlights their service and sacrifices for our country," said Secretary Shinseki.

The new item can be furnished instead of a traditional government headstone or marker for Veterans whose death occurred on or after Nov. 1, 1990, and whose grave in a private cemetery is marked with a privately purchased headstone or marker.

Under federal law, eligible Veterans buried in a private cemetery are entitled to either a government-furnished grave marker or the new medallion, but not both. Veterans buried in a national or state Veterans cemetery will receive a government headstone or marker of the standard design authorized at that cemetery.

The medallion is available in three sizes: 5 inches, 3 inches and 1 ½ inches in width. Each bronze medallion features the image of a folded burial flag adorned with laurels and is inscribed with the word "Veteran" at the top and the branch of service at the bottom.

Next of kin will receive the medallion, along with a kit that will allow the family or the staff of a private cemetery to affix the medallion to a headstone, grave marker, mausoleum or columbarium niche cover.

More information about VA-furnished headstones, markers and medallions can be found at http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hm/hmtype.asp


VA is currently developing an application form for ordering the medallion. Until it is available, applicants may use the form for ordering government headstones and markers, VA Form 40-1330. Instructions on how to apply for a medallion are found on the VA Web site at www.cem.va.gov/hm_hm.asp


Veterans with a discharge issued under conditions other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent children can be buried in a VA national cemetery. Other burial benefits available for all eligible Veterans, regardless of whether they are buried in a national cemetery or a private cemetery, include a burial flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate and a government headstone or grave marker.

The new medallions will be available only to Veterans buried in private cemeteries without a government headstone or marker. Families of eligible decedents may also order a memorial headstone or marker when remains are not available for interment.

VA operates 131 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico and 33 soldiers' lots and monument sites. More than 3 million Americans, including Veterans of every war and conflict -- from the Revolutionary War to the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan -- are buried in VA's national cemeteries on more than 19,000 acres.

Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the VA Web site on the Internet at www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.