Post-Traumatic Stress Troubles
Published: 2/19/2007 5:38:59 PM

According to recent army study, about 20% of the servicemembers returning from Iraq suffer from mental health problems.

One of the most serious problems is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but many local vets are having a hard time getting benefits and treatment for PTSD.

Some servicemembers are worried they'll be stigmatized if they seek help for their nightmares and flashbacks. Others have sought treatment only to be misdiagnosed with a personality disorder, a classification that helps the military avoid paying disability benefits.

Lynn Gonzalez is a counselor with the San Diego Military Counseling Project, which is part of the National G. I. Rights Hotline Network.

According to the Defense Department, more than 22-thousand servicemembers have been discharged with personality disorders since the war began.

Lynn is convinced the military is using this label not only to avoid paying benefits but to also eliminate anyone deemed undesirable.

"I have had several young men that I have worked with that came very close to suicide before we could get them into Balboa Hospital to get help," explained Gonzalez.

But getting help can take months if not years and in the meantime some servicemembers turn to drugs or alcohol to deal with stress from all the red tape and the horrors that haunt them from Iraq.

If you have questions or need legal, medical, or psychiatric help, contact SDMCP for further resources.

PTSD Symptoms and Treatment

From www.helpguide.org

Traumatic experiences can produce feelings of anxiety, depression, despair, hopelessness, reoccurring anger, self-blame, guilt, and shame, as well as sexual dysfunction, compulsive or aggressive behaviors, sleep disorders, and concentration problems.

In This Article
Symptoms of PTSD Diagnosis
Consequences Cognitive, emotional and sensory/motor experience therapies

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a medically recognized disorder that occurs in normal individuals under extremely stressful conditions. Its symptoms affect people from all walks of life, including soldiers, victims of natural disasters or serious accidents. PTSD can affect people who provide emergency services for others. Some individuals who survive a traumatic event are affected so strongly by the experience that they are unable to live normal lives.
What are the symptoms of PTSD?

There are four main types of PTSD symptoms. A diagnosis of PTSD requires the presence of all categories of symptomatic responses:

* Re-experiencing the trauma: flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive memories and exaggerated emotional and physical reactions to triggers that remind the person of the trauma.
* Emotional numbing: feeling detached, lack of emotions (especially positive ones), loss of interest in activities
* Avoidance: avoiding activities, people, or places that remind the person of the trauma
* Increased arousal: difficulty sleeping and concentrating, irritability, hypervigilance (being on guard), and exaggerated startle response.
Why do some people have stronger reactions than others to similar situations?

Anyone exposed to a severely traumatic experience is likely to have symptoms of post-traumatic stress. However, one person's symptoms may appear soon after the event, while another's may not surface for several months or maybe even for years. One person may have relatively minor difficulty adjusting and returning to a fairly normal state, with mild and occasional flare-ups, while another might be debilitated for years to come. Even if two people are exposed to the same situation at the same time, they will have different levels of reaction.

While there is no scientific way to predict or measure the potential effect of a traumatic event on different people, certain variables seem to have the most impact:

* the extent to which the event was unexpected, uncontrollable, and inescapable
* perceived extent of threat or danger, suffering, upset, terror, and fear
* source of the trauma (human-caused is generally more difficult than event of nature)
* sexual victimization, especially when a sense of betrayal is involved
* actual or perceived responsibility
* prior vulnerability factors (such as genetics, early onset and extent of childhood trauma)
* negative social environment (shame, guilt, stigmatization)
* lack of appropriate social or emotional support
* concurrent stressful life events

The Soldiers Project
Southern California Area
Call 818-761-7438

Nat'l Veterans Foundation Help Line
1-888-777-4443
(M-F 9-9 Pacific)
Email help also available from NVF

Suicide Hotlines
1-888-649-1366
1-800-SUICIDE
1-800-784-2433

Suicide Help Online http://www.hopeline.com
http://www.spanusa.org

Miles Foundation - Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, Child Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault by Military Personnel
1-877-570-0688

National Coalition for Homeless Vets
1-800-VET-HELP

Veterans of the Vietnam War
1-800-843-8626

More PTSD information...

United States Department of Veteran Affairs

PTSD Blogspot

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

How is PTSD commonly treated?

Symptoms of PTSD are commonly treated by:
Psychotherapy

Because PTSD has so strongly affected the brain itself, treatment often takes longer and progresses more slowly than with other types of anxiety disorders, and is most effective with a specialist in trauma recovery. It is most important to feel comfortable and safe with the therapist, so there is no additional fear or anxiety about the treatment itself. Depending on the extent of the symptoms, it may be more effective to see the therapist several times a week, if possible.

* Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), often including exploring personal history as well as history of the event, challenging beliefs and thoughts that lead to distress, learning to recognize and manage "triggering" episodes, and exposure or desensitization (gradual re-introduction to the event that caused the trauma)
* Psychotherapy may include relaxation techniques (deep breathing, muscle relaxation, positive imagery, meditation, neurofeedback, prayer, etc.) There are documented instances where relaxation was counterproductive—triggering rather than relieving symptoms.
* Psychotherapy may take place in a group setting.

Medications

* anti-anxiety medications or anti-depressants to calm anxiety and stabilize mood while other self-care tools are learned

* used most frequently in conjunction with standard psychotherapies

There are also newer effective approaches to healing PTSD that integrate cognitive, emotional and sensory motor experience.
What therapies treat PTSD symptoms by integrating cognitive, emotional and sensory/motor experience?

Noted trauma authority and author Bessel van der Kolk has written, "... re-living trauma often occurs in the form of physical sensations that precipitate emotions of terror and helplessness. Learning how to manage and release these physical sensations from trauma-based emotions is an essential aspect of the effective treatment of PTSD.”

There are now a number of schools of what has come to be known a somatic psychotherapy which utilize cognitive, emotional and sensory/motor experience to treat PTSD. These include:

* EMDR therapy combines a somatic therapeutic approach with eye movements or other forms of rhythmical stimulation, such as hand taps or sounds that stimulate and integrate the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

* Somatic experiencing is a therapy developed by Peter Levine that incorporates observations of how animals treat themselves following traumatic events and focuses on restoring normality to the stress response. According to Levine, the symptoms of trauma result from highly activated incomplete biological response to threat. Wild animals have the ability to “shake off” this excess energy. By enabling humans to do the same, trauma can be healed.