Tag: PTSD

Freaky Saturday–02Feb19

A new month and a better weather day than we have had in the past week…….

I have been writing about the techniques of treating PTSD……the “magic” treatment is……wait for it …’shrooms.

https://lobotero.com/2018/10/14/those-were-the-days-2/
 
PTSD is a problem especially with anyone who has had deployments in the world’s many wars……and now the researchers have told the world leaders time for a change…..

It’s not the kind of topic you would expect to be discussed at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. It’s when world leaders, business moguls, and economists meet to discuss the pressing issues facing the world.

During an interview with Business Insider, Robin Carhart-Harris, head of psychedelic research at Imperial College in London, said that “the climate’s looking good” for turning psychedelics into approved medical treatments.

The interview took place at a Wednesday session called “The New Science of Psychedelics,” led by Carhart-Harris, that discussed the “untapped potential of psychedelic drugs” according to WEF’s official website.

https://futurism.com/scientist-world-leaders-magic-mushrooms-mdma-medicines/

Hopefully those in the know will be listened to…..PTSD is a killer and treatment all treatment should be available.

And now for your musical enjoyment……

Enjoy your Saturday my friends….peace out

 

We Sent Them To War

This is a lengthy post but PTSD is too important for it to be shortened….please read and understand…..for too long people have looked down on suffers….this is a disease that we have caused because of our countless wars and the task we ask our troops to do.

We as a country have no problem sending our young to war……it is when they return home and are in the grips of PTSD that we have NO idea what to do.

Perhaps only ancient Sparta claimed to support its military more than the United States. From the “soldiers get priority boarding” ritual that happens only in American airports, to elections where a decision not to serve is forever held against a candidate, there are daily reminders that “the troops” are a presence in our society like few others.

The desire to claim a piece of that presence leads to elaborate lies, known as “stolen valor.” People buy regulation uniforms and walk through society showing off medals, telling fake war stories, and accepting unearned thanks. They want the juice without having endured the squeeze. They are out there this Veteran’s Day, and they are to be loathed.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/we-sent-them-to-war-now-its-our-turn-to-pay/

We as a nation need to educate ourselves on PTSD and the whole nation can become part of the solution instead of part of the problem as it is now.

“PTSD is going to color everything you write,” came the warning from a stepmother of a Marine, a woman who keeps track of such things. That was in 2005, when post-traumatic stress disorder, a.k.a. PTSD, wasn’t getting much attention, but soon it was pretty much all anyone wrote about. Story upon story about the damage done to our guys in uniform — drinking, divorce, depression, destitution — a laundry list of miseries and victimhood. When it comes to veterans, it seems like the only response we can imagine is to feel sorry for them.

Victim is one of the two roles we allow our soldiers and veterans (the other is, of course, hero), but most don’t have PTSD, and this isn’t one of those stories.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/moral-injury-modern-war/

A personal story from a father whose son survived war but not PTSD…….

When my son Ricky was in sixth or seventh grade, I got a call from the principal’s office. They said I needed to pick him up because he was covered in mud and couldn’t return to class like that. I thought, Okay, that’s kind of weird. Ricky never got into trouble. Normally when you get a call like that your kid did something, but no, mine was just dirty. My brother picked him up (I couldn’t leave work at the time) and said the dirt was so caked on, Ricky had to ride home in the back of his truck. It had rained the day before and, as it turns out, my son had decided to roll down a hill behind the school. He wasn’t aiming for the mud puddle at the bottom but there it was. When I got home and asked why he would do such a thing, he replied, “Because it was funny.” I couldn’t fault him because it was funny. That’s the kind of person my son was before he deployed to Afghanistan with the U.S. Army — he would do anything to make people laugh.

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a46862/veteran-ptsd-suicide/

Another first hand account about dealing with PTSD and the mental anguish that will accompany the disease……

I don’t go out to parties very much anymore. I can’t remember the last time I was at a party where there was lots of alcohol or drugs, because I know for a fact using either of them would be bad for me. Not because they are illegal, necessarily, but because it wouldn’t be good for me. They would put me in a bad place.

I was never medicated for post-traumatic stress disorder, but I did go through a lot of therapy. I still go back occasionally if I’m in a bad place.

I joined the US army in 2005 and served until 2012. I went from second lieutenant to first lieutenant and then from first lieutenant to captain.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/11/veteran-remnants-unnecessary-war-171111210101769.html

The more we know about PTSD the more we can help those in need as they reach out for our help….please help when you can….our vets deserve a country that is willing to help when they are in need.

A simple thank you is not enough.

Increase The Risk Of PTSD

We have been sending our troops to fight in Afghanistan for 15 years and Iraq for 13 years and in all that tine the one thing that is the most dangerous for them are the IEDs and other assorted explosions.

Once these troops return home they often suffer from PTSD which at times leads to suicide…..mainly because they are not getting the help they need when it is needed.

Then the GOP candidate had this to say about those vets that suffer from PTSD……..

“When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat — and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it,” Trump said. “And they see horror stories. They see events that you couldn’t see in a movie. Nobody would believe it.”

I do hope that he did not mean the way his response sounds……
Speaking of PTSD.

A recent study has shown that part of the problem could be concussions from these explosive devices……

Troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are far more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder if they have suffered a concussion. The reason may be a change in the brain’s fear circuits.

There’s growing evidence that a physical injury to the brain can make people susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Studies of troops who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have found that service members who have suffered a concussion or mild traumatic brain injury are far more likely to develop PTSD, a condition that can cause flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety for years after a traumatic event.

And research on both people and animals suggests the reason is that a brain injury can disrupt circuits that normally dampen the response to a frightening event. The result is like “driving a car and the brake’s not fully functioning,” says Mingxiong Huang, a biomedical physicist at the University of California, San Diego.

Source: Concussions May Increase The Risk Of PTSD : Shots – Health News : NPR

With some more research it is possible that there could be a breakthrough in treating and analyzing PTSD before the person feels it necessary to end his/her life.

PTSD: Silent Killer

I know most Americans have heard of the disease, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)……I have even heard some people accuse soldier of faking such problems as cowards or worse……WW1 had “shell shocked”….WW2 had “combat fatigue….Vietnam forward it has been PTSD or some variation.

PTSD manifest itself in many forms…depression, flashbacks, nerves, suicide etc…..no matter what it causes in the individual its leading cause is….WAR!

There is historic evidence that PTSD is not a modern disease made up to gather in grant money……….

It’s not uncommon for modern-day soldiers to return from Iraq suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. But now it turns out that soldiers who fought there 3,000 years ago did the same, say UK researchers. They’ve found texts dating back to 1300BC in which warriors in ancient Mesopotamia describe symptoms that sound very much like PTSD, reports the Telegraph. The earliest previous account of PTSD-like symptoms came from the Greek historian Herodotus in 490BC, which would make this the first description of the problem, says one of the lead researchers from Anglia Ruskin University.

“They described hearing and seeing ghosts talking to them, who would be the ghosts of people they’d killed in battle—and that’s exactly the experience of modern-day soldiers who’ve been involved in close hand-to-hand combat,” professor Jamie Hacker Hughes tells the BBC. In that era, men were expected to fight every third year, and they were more likely to die of injuries sustained in battle given the lack of medical know-how, he adds. “The risk of death and the witnessing of the death of fellow soldiers appears to have been a major source of psychological trauma.” (One report suggests that only about half of US vets suffering from PTSD are getting the proper treatment.)

PTSD is a SILENT KILLER and should be a top priority for the military to confront and help treat this affliction……

To anyone that thinks this is some how a made of problem……then I suggest that they get off their ass, grab a gun and go face the trials of WAR……OR SHUT THE HELL UP!

Some Things Last Forever

Opinion from the desk of the Editor:

This op-ed will not make me many friends….for you see some wounds last a long, long time…….and there are some wrongs that not even time will heal.

It is well known that I think what the country and the government is doing to our veterans…..there is so much support and then those same supporters will vote against the benefit of our vets……most support is nothing more than lip service and a bit of guilt that these “patriots” are trying to soothe.

I take this lack of concern for the veterans personally.  I am a veteran of the Vietnam War…I was a grunt and on my return I was treated like a social outcast…..once people knew that I was in that war I was avoided like the plague….so forgive me if I sound a bit bitter and there is a good reason for it….I Am Bitter…..STILL!

Ten years after the Fall of Saigon this country decided to do the “right thing” and have a welcome home parade for the Vietnam vet….I was asked to participate but declined….when asked why… I told them what I felt….first, it is too late…second I would not be part of their lame attempt to cleanse their conscience.

I bring this up for a good reason…..we have a chance today to do the right thing for our vets from Iraq and Afghanistan and so far I have seen NOTHING that would lead me to believe that their problems will be treated and once again the country will crap on those that gave their all to do their duty to their country.  Their problems will NOT go away no matter how much spurious concern we show……why would I say something so negative?

Glad you ask!

(Newser) – Post-traumatic stress doesn’t fizzle away after a few years—or perhaps even a lifetime. About 11% of Vietnam War veterans still suffer from the disorder today, according to a new VA study, reports USA Today. It builds off landmark PTSD research conducted in the 1980s and finds that about one-third also battle major depression. The study also found that 18% of vets who suffered from the disorder had died before retirement age, twice the percentage of those without PTSD, reports the New York Times. Minorities, those who enlisted before high school graduation, and those who killed multiple times were also found to be at a higher risk.

“This study shows us what the road ahead is going to look like,” says one of its authors, a psychiatry professor at NYU. “A significant number of veterans are going to have PTSD for a lifetime unless we do something radically different,” he adds, referring to vets from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Along those lines, a doctor at King’s College London finds it “striking” that most of the Vietnam vets with PTSD had discussed their mental health in recent VA visits. “Clearly it doesn’t seem to have done much good.”

That is right……40 years later and the problems remain…..a job well done for an uncaring nation!

As things are today our recent vets have NO reason to feel like the country is going to come to their rescue…..but there is always those charities that help the vets…..that is true and most do excellent work….but then I ask….why should people that did the bidding of their country when called have to depend on charity?  Where is their country?

I am sick of all these bloated toads that we elect screaming about people NOT taking responsibility for their actions and they are the worse perpetrators….and then there are those that run up and thank a soldier for his service……nice gesture but if you want to help make DAMN sure they are not forgotten as were the Viet vet.

Sexual Trauma And The Female Vet

Veterans who reported sexual trauma, such as rape and threatening sexual harassment, were three times more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

A study released in 2007 found that 22 percent of female veterans and 1 percent of male veterans reported sexual trauma in VA health-care surveys conducted in 2003. That study looked at veterans of all types, not just from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The new study found that these men and women were three times more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness than those who didn’t report experiencing sexual trauma.

Among women who reported experiencing sexual trauma, 76 percent were diagnosed with a mental condition, compared to 47 percent of other female veterans. The rates were similar in men.

According to the study, the most common mental health conditions among the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorders (which cause stress and other problems during certain situations), and drug addiction or alcoholism. All were more common in men and women who reported sexual trauma; post-traumatic stress disorder was much more common in women than men in that group.

Learn more about sexual trauma in the military from the VA.

It is truly sad thgat a female vet has more to worry about than some militatnt taking her life.

GI Suicides At Record High

This is a result of the Iraq War that few want to talk about in the media.

The number of Army suicides increased again last year, amid the most violent year yet in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. An Army official said Thursday that 115 troops committed suicide in 2007, a nearly 13 percent increase over the previous year’s 102.

The 115 confirmed deaths among active duty soldiers and National Guard and Reserve troops that had been activated was a lower number than previously feared. Preliminary figures released in January showed as many as 121 troops might have killed themselves, but a number of the deaths were still being investigated then and have since been attributed to other causes, the officials said.

More U.S. troops also died overall in hostilities in 2007 than in any of the previous years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Overall violence increased in Afghanistan with a Taliban resurgence and overall deaths increased in Iraq, even as violence there declined in the second half of the year.

Increasing the strain on the force last year was the extension of deployments to 15 months from 12 months, a practice ending this year.

The increases in suicides come despite a host of efforts to improve the mental health of a force stressed by the long and repeated tours of duty.