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post traumatic stress disorder

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nowhere within the emotional feelings network of sites is any opportunity for me to make any profit from any of the 28 + sites within this network. this network of sites has been put together as a personal mission to help others by informing those who need information concerning mental health, eating disorders, lifestyle factors, and every other topic listed within.

navigational hint: all underlined link words open up a new window instead of changing your present one, taking you to another site within the emotional feelings network of sites - or to another site referencing the underlined link word!

welcome to the emotional feelings network of sites

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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Quote from Jonathan Davidson, M.D. director of the Anxiety & Traumatic Stress Programs at Duke Univ. Medical Ctr.

"If symptoms from a traumatic event linger for more than 3 months, the chance of them improving on their own becomes less likely. PTSD affects 13 million Americans at any one time Half of all adults will experience a trauma & 20 % of them will develop PTSD."

"Faith can have a profound impact on health. It only requires that one fully embrace possibility, and the ultimate value is in the depth of the embrace."

 

Patch Adams, M.D.

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Additional Information at the newest mental health site in the emotional feelings network of sites! A new site - anxieties 102... it's being constructed just for you. Hang in there & you'll be delighted to find the page links at the top & bottom of each of these pages within the site as soon as they become available for you!

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welcome! to anxieties 101!
 
after looking things over here at anxieties 101, try out "the layer down under," (part of the emotional feelings network of sites) & read a special "i just gotta say it" column concerning porn addiction by clicking here! Be sure to scroll down towards the bottom of the right hand column to find it!

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Making the site work best for you!
 
You'll notice that there are many underlined link words in each article below. The reason for this is that you've reached not only, "anxieties 101," but the emotional feelings network of sites. There are many sites included within the network that will be visited by clicking on these underlined link words. They're all linked together thru the underlined link words to offer the opportunity for a more thorough understanding of whatever problem you're investigating!
 
The reason for this opportunity is very simple & yet you may be unnerved by all those underlined words! I've been in recovery from post traumatic stress disorder, depression & many other dysfunctional ventures & thru it all I've discovered that emotion & feeling work may be the missing link that many people miss when trying to find solutions to their problems.
 
Developing a sense of curiosity about why you feel the way you do, is essential in finding the solution you so desperately are searching for. If you can't find what you came here looking for, visit the homepage for the emotional feelings network of sites by clicking here & read the options on the homepage for the networks index of sites. Try to be specific when looking for an emotion or feeling & click on the site you need!
 
It's very simple & very interesting to follow your way thru the layers of your buried or stuffed emotions & feelings that have accumulated throughout the years!
 
Best of luck & if you're still stuck, send me an e-mail anytime, by clicking here & I'll be glad to send you an immediate personal response!
 
Sincerely,
Kathleen

our soldiers in iraq

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"I've had many horrible things happen to me in my lifetime, but none as serious or extreme as going to war. I can hardly comprehend the extent of the intensity of fear that these soldiers, whether they be men or women must endure. And when I think that their families are so stressed, so fearful, so "on edge" that I can hardly believe that they themselves aren't developing their own case of PTSD. How can they not? I pray that the world will begin to embrace those who are affected by mental illness. For those who are denying it so pervasively are mostly those who are in denial concerning their own well being."
 
kathleen

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Combat's Toll on a Soldier's Psyche

1 in 7 Return From Iraq in Need of Treatment; Many Are Hesitant to Seek Treatment


June 30, 2004 - About 1 in 7 soldiers returning from combat duty in Iraq have major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, or other serious mental health issues.

Yet those most in need of treatment are least likely to seek it, according to the first study to explore the mental health of returning Army & Marine personnel fighting the war on terrorism in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

"Most often, it's due to a perception they have that they'll be stigmatized if they do receive care," lead study researcher Col. Charles W. Hoge, MD, of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, tells WebMD. "Among soldiers who screen positive (for mental health problems), about 65% have the perception they will be seen as weak if they sought care."

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our soldiers in iraq

For his study, published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, Hoge & colleagues surveyed 2,530 members of the armed services prior to their deployment in Iraq & 3,670 within 4 months of returning from combat in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Most Experience Trauma

Most returned having experienced traumatic events such as being shot at, killing someone, seeing bodies, or witnessing civilian injuries they could do nothing about.

Generally, those in Iraq were up to twice as likely to engage in a firefight compared with those fighting in Afghanistan.

Hoge finds that some 17% serving in Iraq met the criteria for mental health disorders requiring treatment - twice as many as before deployment. That compares with only 11% of those serving in Afghanistan. Iraq veterans were also significantly more likely as those serving in Afghanistan to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

our soldiers in iraq

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"We think the difference results from a greater frequency & intensity of combat in Iraq," says Hoge, chief of psychiatry & behavior sciences at the Bethesda, Md.- based medical research facility.

But what's especially worrisome to Hoge & other experts is that even though the armed forces offers several programs to offer counseling & other assistance to returning veterans, those who need them are reluctant to use them.

His study indicates that as few as 1 in 4 soldiers who need mental health treatment are seeking it - largely because of the belief it'll hurt their military careers.

'Not Just a Military Issue'

"Eventually, all of these soldiers will be returning to civilian life, so this isn't just a military issue," Hoge tells WebMD. "Hopefully, this article will raise public awareness in general about psychiatric manifestations of combat duty. This is something the entire medical system needs to look at."

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soldier in iraq

Of particular concern is PTSD, which first came to light following the Vietnam War. This type of anxiety disorder usually develops within months of a traumatic event, but may not manifest until years or even decades later.

Overall, PSTD affects about 5% of American men some time in their life. The rate in members of the armed services returning from Iraq is at least 3 times as high.

"And these are early returns," says Matthew J. Freidman, MD, PhD, Dartmouth Medical School psychiatrist & executive director of the National Center for PSTD in Vermont.

"The men & women surveyed in this study have been back in the states for 8 to 12 months already. So while the duty they saw was quite considerable, most of them were in Iraq before the war really changed in character," he tells WebMD. "At their time, it was still primarily a war of liberation & we were welcome by the Iraqis. It was very different than it is now.

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soldier in iraq

"We don't know if things are going to get better or worse, but there are reasons for concern they'll get worse," adds Freidman, who wrote an editorial accompanying Hoge's study.

Tip of the Iceberg?

"Tours are now being extended & we have data back from World War I that suggest the longer you're in a war zone, the greater the likelihood you'll have psychiatric problems. And those surveyed in this very important study were on active duty & evidence suggests that National Guard Reserve units are more vulnerable because they're less well-prepared & they also have deployment stressors like being uprooted from their families & economic hardships. This may be the tip of the iceberg."

While returning soldiers may be hesitant to seek help, at least one stigma has changed in this war.

"Despite the fact there are major disagreements about this war & justification for it, what's fortunate is that the American public isn't making the same mistake as in Vietnam & we're now supportive to these veterans," adds Freidman, who says tells WebMD he "cut his teeth" in psychiatry treating PTSD in Vietnam veterans who came home to hostility from fellow Americans.

"At least now we've now learned to separate the war from the warrior."

What is the best treatment of PTSD?

Therapy is a very important component of the treatment of PTSD; in particular, a structured form of psychotherapy know as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most widely accepted as effective for PTSD. Sometimes it is useful to work one-on-one with a therapist through individual therapy.

Working together with others who have also suffered traumatic experiences in a group therapy setting may also be helpful. Certain medications may also be very useful in reducing many of the symptoms of PTSD.

Frequently Asked Questions about PTSD

by Harold Cohen, Ph.D.
April 8, 2006

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this is unbelievable...
what can we do? how do we stop this?

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Sending mentally ill soldiers back to Iraq: Reckless disregard for soldiers' welfare & for Iraqi lives

by Stephan Soldz / March 26, 2006

As the US military has difficulties recruiting & retaining soldiers for its never-ending war of occupation in Iraq, the armed services are resorting to increasingly desperate means of coping.

 

The Stop-Loss option in soldiers' contracts has allowed soldiers to be kept in uniform months or years after their term of service has expired.

 

The National Guard has been sent overseas to a previously unprecedented extent. And military standards have been lowered, so that drug or alcohol abuse, pregnancy & poor fitness no longer necessarily lead to dismissal of new recruits.

 

Now word comes that "mentally ill" troops are being sent back to Iraq. [See: Some troops headed back to Iraq are mentally ill] This article refers to "a little-discussed truth fraught with implications," but the implications discussed all have to do with the effects on the soldiers being returned & these soldiers' "effectiveness in combat."

 

In many instances, being returned to combat & to a state of constant tension, will exacerbate the soldiers' problems, the article - correctly - suggests.

 

The article indicates that the military is putting pressure on mental health professionals treating these soldiers to minimize the extent of their problems & to declare them fit for return to Iraq & combat.

 

i.e., some Army doctors are reporting that they're being told to diagnose combat-stress reaction instead of the more serious post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

 

Further, the article reports that professionals treating emotionally disturbed soldiers "are under pressure" to approve their redeployment to Iraq.

 

I've written about the moral issues involved in mental health treatment of soldiers in Iraq [To Heal or To Patch: Military Mental Health Workers in Iraq]. The issues are similar for those treating the soldiers when they return if the professionals play any role in deciding whether or not the soldiers should return to combat.

 

The mental health professionals aren't in a position to make unbiased judgments as to a soldier's readiness to return to combat when their own status & advancement in the military may depend upon how they exercise that judgment.

 

One "implication" not even mentioned in the article is that sending "mentally ill" soldiers back into combat puts not only the soldiers' own mental health at risk, but endangers Iraqis as well.

 

What's the quality of decision-making by highly stressed soldiers, whether they suffer from "PTSD" or only from "combat-stress reaction"?

 

These soldiers are armed with lethal weapons & are often in a position to make split-second life-or-death decisions. After all, "stress" is often used as a defense when other armed authorities, such as police, are caught engaging in abusive or even murderous behavior.

 

Surely the effects of stress can only be magnified on soldiers who spend a year or more being assigned to a country where they can never feel entirely safe.

 

We know from the memoirs of US soldiers in Iraq how alienated from Iraqis they feel. Thus, Colby Buzzell, in his My War: Killing Time in Iraq, describes being "hit with the realization that I'm on the other side of the planet far away from home & that I'm a stranger in a really strange land" (p. 297).

 

These strangers feel so alienated from Iraqis that they have a number of names for them. As Kayla Williams tells us in Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the US Army:

 

"[W]e called them hajjis, but we also called them sadiqis... or habibis.... We called them towelheads. Ragheads. Camel jockeys. The fucking locals. Words that didn't see our enemy as people - as somebody's father or son or brother or uncle" (p. 200; emphasis in original).

 

Of course, it isn't only "the enemy" that terms like these describe & who aren't seen as people. Ordinary Iraqis of all stripes are characterized as the "hajjis" or "the fucking locals."

 

Not surprisingly, in such a climate of alienation combined with pervasive never-ending danger, even mentally "healthy" soldiers have emotional difficulties.

 

i.e., Jason Christopher Hartley, author of the memoir Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq, describes attempting to refuse leave:

 

"[I]n all honesty, I did it because I didn't want to leave Iraq. One of the ways to cope with being in combat is to go crazy just a tiny bit and learn to enjoy the work... I was afraid that if I left, it would be difficult to get back into the 'combat is fun' way of thinking when I returned" (p. 279).

 

If Hartley, by all indications a mentally healthy soldier, was only able to survive by going a bit crazy & in his case, cultivating a love of combat, what happens to an emotionally disturbed soldier returned to that crazy-making environment?

 

Does (s)he cower in terror, perhaps shooting at stimuli little more dangerous than his or her shadow, even if those stimuli happen to be Iraqi civilians?

 

Or does (s)he perhaps cultivate an even greater love for combat, shooting at Iraqis as an expression of a game necessary to transform the pervasive fear?

 

Undoubtedly each of these paths is chosen by some. Either possibility will increase the odds of adding to the massive Iraqi civilian casualties being generated by this war of occupation, estimated at about 100,000 in September 2004 & considerably higher at this point.

 

[See my 100,000 Iraqis Dead: Should We Believe It? and When Promoting Truth Obscures the Truth: More on Iraqi Body Count and Iraqi Deaths and Les Roberts: The Iraq War: Do Iraqi Civilian Casualties Matter?]

 

Soldiers in Iraq routinely make split-second decisions whether to shoot or not, such as at the innumerable checkpoints or when on convoy.

 

We already know from a study published in the July 1, 2004 New England Journal of Medicine [Combat Duty in Iraq & Afghanistan, Mental Health Problems & Barriers to Care: see their Table 2] that 14% of Army soldiers & 28% of Marines returning from Iraq reported "being responsible for the death of a noncombatant."

 

To deploy mentally unstable soldiers [not to mention those with drug or alcohol problems] likely will increase these horrific numbers. This policy of returning potentially unstable soldiers to combat in Iraq is, thus, not only a serious threat to the mental health of the soldiers, but a threat to occupied Iraqis.

 

This policy, already reprehensible because of the danger it poses to the long-term mental health of the US troops, is also in its reckless disregard for Iraqi lives yet another example of the innumerable war crimes being committed against the Iraqi people.

 

Stephen Soldz is psychoanalyst, psychologist, public health researcher, and faculty member at the Institute for the Study of Violence of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. He is a member of Roslindale Neighbors for Peace and Justice and founder of Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice. He maintains the Iraq Occupation and Resistance Report web page and the Psyche, Science, and Society blog.

 

personal note regarding the above story....

Could it be that the United States Armed Forces don't take the issues of mental illness seriously enough? Doesn't it simply come back around to bite them in the butt when soldiers who are in Iraq and other countries suddenly make rash, irrational decisions to kill, rape or incur violence upon innocent civilians while in anticipation of being bombed at any time by the insurgency? Our governement had better get their ducks in a row, for once their personnel get professional advice concerning being sent back into warfare although being diagnosed with PTSD or other mental illness, they must not be held responsible for the outcome should there be an unfortunate incident concerning bad judgments!

 

kathleen

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"Where are the people who thrive in their states of emotional wellbeing? Where are they in our communities? Do we need to beg for these fortunate people to reach out and share their experiences of well being with those who are so hopelessly searching for that same state of mind? What about the children affected by war? What about our soldiers wives and children? It's the responsibility of every American in the United States to reach out in some way to help those in need. It's what they used to refer to as, 'the heart of America.'"
 
kathleen

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Some troops headed back to Iraq are mentally ill - (click the underlined link title to go to the source page)
 
Sunday, March 19th, 2006

The psychotropic drugs are a bow to a little-discussed truth fraught with implications:

Mentally ill service members are being returned to combat.

The redeployments are legal & the service members are often eager to go. But veterans groups, lawmakers & mental-health professionals fear that the practice lacks adequate civilian oversight. They also worry that such redeployments are becoming more frequent as multiple combat tours become the norm & traumatized service members are retained out of loyalty or wartime pressures to maintain troop numbers.

Sen. Barbara Boxer hopes to address the controversy thru the Dept. of Defense Task Force on Mental Health, which is expected to start work next month. The California Democrat wrote the legislation that created the panel. She wants the task force to examine deployment policies & the quality & availability of mental-health care for the military.

We’ve also heard reports that doctors are being encouraged not to identify mental-health illness in our troops. I'm asking for a lot of answers, Boxer said during a March 8 telephone interview. If people are suffering from mental-health problems, they shouldn't be sent on the battlefield.

Stress reduces a person’s chances of functioning well in combat, said Frank M. Ochberg, a psychiatrist for 40 years & a founding member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

I haven't seen anything that says this is a good thing to use these drugs in high-stress situations. But if you're going to be going (into combat) anyway, you're better off on the meds, said Ochberg, a former consultant to the Secret Service & the National Security Council. 

I'd hope that those with major depression wouldn't be sent.

About 25,000 Marines & sailors based in San Diego County are undergoing a major combat rotation that began in January. Their deployments are expected to last 7 months.

Officials from the Defense Dept. & Camp Pendleton, where some units have been to Iraq 3 times, said they don’t track personnel deployed while taking mental-health medication or the number diagnosed with mental illness.

But medical officers for the Army & Marine Corps acknowledge that medicated service members & those suffering combat-induced psychological problems are returning to War. And anecdotal evidence, bolstered by the government’s own studies, suggest that the number could be significant.

A 2004 Army report found that up to 17% of combat-seasoned infantrymen experienced major depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder after one combat tour to Iraq.

Less than 40% of them had sought mental-health care.

A Pentagon survey released last month found that 35% of the troops returning from Iraq had received psychological counseling during their first year home.

That survey echoed statistics collected by the San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. The system has found that about 33% of Iraq & Afghanistan veterans suffer from schizophrenia, depression & post-traumatic stress disorder.

The various studies apparently didn’t consider the effects of multiple combat tours, though psychiatrists agree that the greater people’s exposure to combat, generally the higher their risk of suffering mental illness.

More than 435,000 U.S. personnel have served in Iraq & Afghanistan combined. It's unclear how many have served in that region more than once.

Joe Costello, a mental-health counselor at the Vista Veterans Center, said emotionally scarred troops are routinely redeployed & that most want to go back to the War zone.

I see it every day, said Costello, who mainly treats reservists.

Buttressing the idea that large numbers of service members are medicated, more than 200,000 prescriptions for the most common types of antidepressants were written in the past 14 months for service members & their families, said Sydney Hickey, a spokeswoman for the National Military Family Association.

Hicks said a Defense Dept. official gave her the information during a December briefing. She said the official didn't distinguish between prescriptions for the troops & those for their family members.

In addition, the Defense Dept. hasn't provided prescription totals for such antidepressants from before & after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

The prescriptions were for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, commonly called SSRIs. These drugs are used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, some personality disorders & post-traumatic stress disorder. They include brand names such as Paxil, Cymbalta & Wellbutrin.

The antidepressants work by elevating the level of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Researchers believe that low serotonin levels in the brain could be a biological cause of depression & certain anxiety disorders.

Mental-health care for service members & the Defense Dept.’s efforts to keep the mentally ill in uniform are becoming national issues, said Steve Robinson, director of the National Gulf War Resource Center in Silver Spring, Md.

Robinson said 3 Army doctors have told him about being pressured by their commanders not to identify mental conditions that would prevent personnel from being deployed.

They're being told to diagnose combat-stress reaction instead of PTSD, he said. That does 2 things:

  • It keeps the troops deployable 
  • It makes it hard for them to collect disability claims once they get out of the military

Robinson contends that the Pentagon is trying to control its spending on mental-health disabilities.

Between 1999 & 2004, disability payments to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder rose to $4.3 billion from $1.7 billion nationwide, according to a report by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general.

Overall, service members’ mental health is a hot-button subject because it goes to the cost of the War in dollars & lives, said Joy Ilem, an assistant national legislative director for the organization Disabled American Veterans.

The (Dept. of Veterans Affairs) is very worried about the political implications of PTSD & other mental issues arising from the War, Ilem said. They're talking about early outreach & treatment, but they're really trying to tamp down the discussion.

Cmdr. Paul S. Hammer deals with such issues daily.

Hammer, a psychiatrist, is responsible for the Marine Corps’ mental-health programs during this deployment rotation. He confirmed that Marines with post-traumatic stress disorder & combat stress are returning to Iraq, though he wouldn't say how many.

Hammer said deciding who is deployed is often anguishing.

Sometimes he has to tell Marine commanders that personnel they had counted on will not be deploying. In other instances, he said, We’ll hold some guy’s feet to the fire & say, ‘This is what you signed up for & you have to go.’

Marines are amazingly resilient, Hammer added. You’ve got people exposed to incredible violence, but they do entirely well.

It’s the tough calls that worry Adrian Atizado, a legislative director for Disabled American Veterans.

Currently, the services will deploy a service member if the person is medically stable & it's determined that the deployment won’t aggravate (his) condition, Atizado said. How does one gauge that?

This a gray area; this is asking a medical provider to make a decision based on the future. The medical providers are human beings. I have no doubt that they're looking out for the best interest of the service members, but they're under pressure to check off on their deployment.

Ultimately, much is unknown about the rates of post-traumatic stress disorder among Iraq veterans, especially those who have been thru more than 1 combat tour, said Matt Friedman, executive director of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD in White River Junction, Vt.

Friedman said that with time, one of the things we're going to find out is how well people function who might have been on medication (during combat). This is a very important question & has all kinds of implications.

But remember, they're all volunteers. This isn’t Vietnam, where people were drafted & sent to fight. Think of the ethical questions that would arise from sending draftees back to War on medications.

By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

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Treatment of the Returning Iraq War Veteran

Josef I. Ruzek, Ph.D., Erika Curran, M.S.W., Matthew J. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., Fred D. Gusman, M.S.W., Steven M. Southwick, M.D., Pamela Swales, Ph.D., Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D., Patricia J. Watson, Ph.D., and Julia Whealin, Ph.D.