Healing Combat Trauma

Kenny Carnes' One Man Show, Three Generations of Soldiers: "Pieces of War"

Kenny Carnes is a unique individual.  A New Englander and former Army attack helicopter pilot, now with a masters in holistic counseling, he has a one-man show, currently touring the U.S., that talks about three generations of soldiers, called "Pieces of War." (It's also available in book form from Amazon.com).

From the promotional material about the show:

No words can relay the experiences endured while in a combat environment. But, through public performance and open recognition we attempt to capture meaning in order to mend the wounded warrior.

Written largely in rhapsodic verse "Pieces of War" is a one-man show delivering a rapid fire cadence of rhyme and rhythm to weave a portfolio of stories from three generations of American war fighters. As a son returns home from Iraq his grandfather recalls his victories at Normandy while a father becomes lost in his voiceless shame trying to forget Vietnam. Inspired by true stories, Carnes live theatrical performance makes meaning through conflict, captures understanding through provocative contemplation and unites audiences in common dialogue surrounding the universal journey of the hero in all.

Our post-show interaction forum invites soldiers to dialogue with audience and artists so theatre can become a gateway to community recognition, healing and personal reintegration. Our partner programs in attendance offer unique training options helping soldiers and their families to reunite and read just upon home coming.

During a recent post show discussion a Vietnam Veteran ("Sgt. Jon Doe") was able to disclose his traumatic wartime experience for the first time in 35 years! "Sgt. Jon Doe" was so physically shaken from the catharsis energized by "Pieces of War" that it marked the beginning of his therapeutic process. Thanks to the well trained staff like those at Brown University, men and women like "Sgt. Doe" begin to heal from the embracing support of a caring, listening community.

"We do not fight to end the war."
"We do not fight to bring them home."
"Our fight begins when they get here."

Many of our war veterans experience an often silent, but always serious readjustment process upon their return home from the warfront. This workshop provides a unique opportunity to reestablish oneself back into the fabric of family, the workforce and the social position. Participation in intensive workshops, trainings and extended programs provides veterans, soldiers and family members an alternative to the traditional combat decompression process. Designed by combat vets for combat vets as an effective training and experiential retreat, facilitators bring those enrolled to a new level of managing life, career and family roles. Working with other combat veterans soldiers will strengthen coping skills, secure re-alignment and foster leadership for post-war recovery periods. 

For a link to Carnes' veteran readjustment workshop, click here.

Carnes' book, Pieces of War, is available on Amazon.com, and is linked here.

http://kennycarnes.com/video_warpeace_6mins_dialup_WMA.WMV

Editor's note: For more information about Kenny Carnes, see below:

Kenny Carnes (SAG, AFTRA) is a theatrical artist, story teller and performance poet who stages an array of original solo-plays to create thought provoking arts-based dialogues built upon current events. As a “Master of the Monologue” his theatrical creations act as sharp instruments that examine the human condition shape-shifting himself through a portfolio of archetypal characters that transport audiences on an existential journey toward their own richer understandings and internal truths.

Carnes has been called, “…a powerful messenger” by NY-Theater.com and praised for his oral poetry which artfully unites polarities and diversities. Appearing on hundreds of notable stages such as the Woodstock Historic Theatre, The Carnival Center for the Arts, The Admiral Theatre and St. Michael’s Playhouse his solo performances touch thousands each year. “His provocative playwriting has an enormous capacity to heal and transform us,” Brown University and his rapid fire rhapsodic verse deemed him "the EMINEM of Theater” by The Providence Journal.

Since training at the American Conservatory Theater his original monologues have gone on to educate, enlighten and heighten social awareness at universities, theaters, performing arts centers and on corporate campuses. With a Master of Arts in Holistic Counseling with a thesis concentration on Expressive Arts Therapies from only one of three graduate programs of its kind in the United States, Carnes meets the growing need for integral solutions through his action-based workshops for students, executives and artistic leadership. Kenny Carnes recently received united praise from southern New Englanders for his radio show “Voices of Freedom” on WPRO News Talk 630, has appeared on National Public Radio and has worked as creative talent for Twentieth Century Fox, NBC-Television, Citadel Communications, Clear Channel and KLRU-PBS. He lives in New England where he develops, writes and produces new works for the stage.

Investigative Report on Desperate Troops with PTSD Who Go AWOL

Seattle's KOMO-4 television station broadcast an investigative report on the 11 o'clock news about local troops with active PTSD who chose to go AWOL because of concerns their PTSD was not being addressed.  For a link to the story, entitled "Shattered Soldiers Say There Was No Help When They Needed It," click here. It sounded better (as in, more interesting) than it actually was.  It's a brief segment, mentioning three soldiers, and focusing on one's case who may or may not have PTSD.  The other soldiers, whose stories are less dramatic, do seem to have PTSD.  Hmmmn. This might be a case of a story that could have been more effective as a national story than as a local one, in part because there could have been more individuals covered, across a broader spectrum of people.  Maybe that will happen. 

In the News: Scientific American on PTSD

This month's issue of Scientific American has a long article on PTSD, called "Soldiers' Stress: What Doctors Get Wrong about PTSD."  Go here to read it. The key takeaways from the article, the authors say, are the following:

• The syndrome of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is under fire because its defining criteria are too broad, leading to rampant overdiagnosis.
• The flawed PTSD concept may mistake soldiers' natural process of adjustment to civilian life for dysfunction.
• Misdiagnosed soldiers receive the wrong treatments and risk becoming mired in a Veterans Administration system that encourages chronic disability.

Commentary to come. 

Reality Check: Every Warrior Affects 50 Other People Around Him or Her

I was privileged to get to go to the Roxie Theater in San Francisco yesterday and see the world premiere and kickoff of the national tour for "Broken Promise," part of the "In Their Boots" documentary film series that focuses on veterans issues.

The Northern California location was appropriate, because the "Broken Promise" segment focuses on the Pathway Home, at the California Veterans Home in Yountville, and follows the lives of three Iraq War veterans who are residents there, part of an innovative treatment program for PTSD, run by longtime veterans advocate, Fred Gusman, M.S.W.

The documentary is interesting -- I'm still mulling over what I think about it -- and it was neat both having gone to the Pathway Home before to visit with some of the residents, and then seeing some of them there at the screening (including one whose story was featured in the film).  However, the best part of the movie for me was this particular quote of Gusman's, which drives home the importance of both seeing -- and treating -- vets with PTSD in community.

Said Gusman, 

"For every one person that's affected (by PTSD), there's generally 50 others attached to them, when you start looking at family members, employers, educational systems -- all the different folks who are affected by just one warrior."

While Gusman (in the film) goes on to make the argument for including vets' families in the treatment of the vets, the point here is a separate one.  That a single vet who's suffering -- or for that matter, overcoming -- is not a single vet.  He or she is the center of a number of concentric circles of effect that ripple outwards, affecting many others.  All the more reason to not neglect, or ignore, or put aside the struggles of veterans with PTSD.  Each one has 50 people he or she is affecting -- by his or her failures, and, over time, by his or her successes as well.  They're not just individual struggles: they're the center of a social web in which many others play a part, either directly or indirectly (by compassion and concern, for example, or neglect and indifference).

Editor's note: For more on the "In Their Boots" documentary film series, click here.  For more on Fred Gusman, M.S.W., click here.  For more on his work as Executive Director of the Pathway Home, click here.  For more on the Pathway Home residential treatment center for combat veterans with PTSD, click here.

Upcoming Seminar: The Warrior's Journey: Healing PTSD (with Edward Tick)

The Warrior's Journey: Healing PTSD (6 CE hours)
Tuesday, April 28, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuition: $150 general public; $130 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff

War's violence is so severe that it can cause the true self to become distorted or lost for life. Untold numbers of veterans from old and new wars suffer Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Newest estimates are that 20-40% of Iraq returnees come home with PTSD and its multitude of disabling symptoms. Countless more return with severe, disabling wounds to body and mind. Contemporary society and the institutions meant to serve veterans are in crisis and at a loss as to how to respond to this massive wounding.

In this workshop, gain insight into the psycho-spiritual approach to healing from war. Learn how PTSD is not just a stress and anxiety disorder. It is also an identity disorder, soul wound, interrupted initiation and social wound. Examine various forms of psycho-spiritual interventions and community activism that rebuild veterans' identities, shrink trauma and restore wounded dimensions of soul. Develop a deeper understanding of PTSD treatment philosophies and strategies that can bring hope and healing to veterans and their families. Explore the spirituality inherent in war and learn how to use it to heal veterans and society.

Instructor: Edward Tick, Ph.D., is a holistic psychotherapist, writer, educator, journey guide, activist and veterans' advocate. He has been working with veterans and survivors of war, violence and trauma since the late 1970s. He specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural and international reconciliation practices to help veterans, communities and nations heal. He is founder and executive and clinical director of Sanctuary: A Center for Mentoring the Soul, and of Soldier's Heart: Veterans' Safe Return Programs. Tick is adjunct professor in both Communication and Global Studies at the Sage Colleges. Tick is the author of War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

Editor's note: for further information about the program, click here and scroll down until you see this particular seminar.

Study Shows Young Adults with PTSD More Likely to Commit Suicide

On the one hand, this sounds like fairly self-explanatory science.  So why the inclusion on this blog?  Because of the (young) age of many active duty military, and even recent veterans -- news like this is relevant.

Young Adults With PTSD May Be More Likely to Attempt Suicide

"Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—but not exposure to traumatic events without the development of PTSD—may be associated with subsequent attempted suicide in young adults, according to a report in Archives of General Psychiatry.

Approximately 421,200 to 842,400 Americans aged 15 to 24 attempt suicide every year, according to background information in the article. Holly C. Wilcox, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Baltimore, and colleagues studied 1,698 young adults of a group of 2,311 who had been tracked since entering the first grade in Baltimore public schools. Fifteen years later, 90-minute interviews were conducted with the participants (average age of 21) to assess the occurrence of traumatic experiences, suicide attempts, and the development of PTSD.

Of the participants interviewed, 1,273 (81%) had been exposed to a traumatic event and 100 (6%, or 8% of those exposed to trauma) developed PTSD. Suicide had been attempted by 10% of those with PTSD, compared with 2% of those who were exposed to trauma but did not develop PTSD and 5% of those who had never been exposed to traumatic events.

“The mechanisms involved in the association between PTSD and suicide attempts are not known,” the authors wrote. “There could be a common pre-existing predisposition to PTSD and suicide attempts that was present before the trauma occurred. Studies of early trauma and suicidal behaviors have implicated depression and impulsivity as possible mediators or possible pre-existing susceptibility traits.”

— Source: American Medical Association

Pulling the Pin: Combat Vets, PTSD and Troubled Personal Relationships

Combat veterans with PTSD often have tremendous difficulty with their closest personal relationships: marriages and families.  Divorces, multiple marriages, and short-term relationships that end unhappily are very common: All situations that compound the pain and suffering that already exists with PTSD.

While there are a few books out there that provide some helpful advice about the difficulty of combat vets with PTSD sustaining good relationships, some insight is also in order.  While many obstacles could be mentioned, we'll stick to just a few important ones.

1.    Needing to have a constant enemy. Combat veterans will tell you that their training requires a constant enemy for alertness, vigilance, what amounts to staying alive. Once combat ends -- or between episodes of combat -- that "role" needs to be filled by somebody.  The most obvious candidate to fill that role?  The combat veteran's usually unwitting, and unwilling, partner. If the spouse or partner isn't available, the next best candidate is a child. The combat veteran is often unaware that he or she is using this tactic at all, and the one victimized by it can often tell "something is wrong," but isn't always clear on exactly what that is.

2.    Pestering and teasing doesn't feel like love, but it does feel like irritation. Let's say the coast is clear.  It's a sunny day, everything seems (temporarily) all right in the combat veteran's world. But he or she teases and pesters a spouse, partner or family member (e.g., a child) incessantly, until that person gets fed up and walks away.  "But I was just teasing!" says the combat veteran.  Yes, but the frictional nature of the allegedly good-natured teasing has a predictable effect: it drives close others away, much like bad behavior also does. Now the combat veteran can be left alone: But is that what he or she really wanted?  Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  The main thing, combat vets say informally, that inspires this strategy, even on an unconscious level, is that too much peace and calm is off-putting, and creating (or re-creating) a little "chaos" in interpersonal relationships puts the combat vet with PTSD back where he or she is more likely to be comfortable.

Now factor either (or both) of these two behavioral patterns (among several others that could have been discussed) with the combat veteran's periodic desire for intimacy -- and imagine the realistic toll that such behavior, even if unintentional, takes on the spouse or partner's desire for intimacy.  More likely, either one or both of these behaviors is more likely to shut down or numb the spouse or partner, who then is more tempted to resist attempts at intimacy.  Is turning down intimacy the problem?  Is it the only problem, or even the central problem?  Probably not, if either of these fairly typical behaviors are an issue.

The Ongoing Struggle for Combat Veterans

"I know I have to deal with it (PTSD): Because I'm either going to destroy it...or it's going to destroy me." -- Vietnam combat veteran.

EFT: "Emotional Freedom Technique" for Combat Veterans

If you know anyone who's watched "The Secret," with its emphasis on "the Law of Attraction" -- heck, if you know anyone who's watched Oprah, who promoted "The Secret" extensively on her shows -- you know someone who's probably heard of EFT.

What you might not realize is there's a body of work developing that shows its effectiveness with PTSD.  And some of its biggest fans are the veterans themselves, who've tried it.

"EFT," or "Emotional Freedom Technique," is a form of what's known as "energy psychology," or "energy work."  It was developed by a Stanford engineer -- note, not a psychologist -- Gary Craig, who calls it accurately "a needle-free form of acupuncture."

Craig and EFT practitioners have done some remarkable work with PTSD veterans.  If this subject interests you, or you've looked into various forms of treatment before, and you're even slightly open-minded about trying something with a large upside and very little (or nonexistent) downside, this video in particular is worth watching.  Here's the link. 

The most moving part of the video, in my opinion, is the obvious before and after shots of the veterans themselves, going from visibly struggling, to visibly coping, in very short amounts of time. The excitement of a family member, shown later on the video, is also palpable.  A few studies have also been done on EFT and PTSD -- a book has also just been published -- with more studies to come.  The results are refreshingly impressive, though, for such a low-tech technique.  According to the video, veterans report symptoms drop 63% after treatment, according to a self-reporting scale used by the military.  Symptoms of depression and anxiety reduced by 50%, on average. Cortisol levels -- we've talked about their significance here, here and here -- drop 25% after one hour-long treatment.

Watch the video first, to orient yourself as to what EFT is and how the sample of combat veterans from various wars -- Vietnam, the Gulf War, and Iraq -- responded to it. Then, to learn more, here's an article from the Scottish press about a combat vet and his experience with it.  Here's a story about a Vietnam vet and his experience with EFT. There's a new book by Gary Craig on EFT for PTSD. If you're a veteran, there's a study you can be part of that we blogged about the other day, and that study includes several sessions of EFT. (That post is linked here.)

But if you're intrigued -- after watching the video -- and you want to know more, you probably want to find an EFT practitioner to try it out with.  There's a subset of practitioners listed on the Web, linked  here, who are interested in working with veterans, including -- gasp! -- some who already work at the VA.  If there's no one in your area, you could try this link instead, to find an EFT practitioner who may not have a special interest in veterans, and yet could introduce you to the practice.  It seems to be something low-tech, affordable, simple to learn, and an after an initial introduction, very much DIY (Do It Yourself).  Practitioners may also be willing to negotiate or lower their fees for veterans: Ask.

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Editor's note: Talking about EFT, or any other technique, should not imply or be misread as an endorsement. In any case, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

 

Combat Veterans Behind Their Personal Walls -- "It Would Be Weird for Me to Say I Was Happy..."

There are probably better ways to title this post but the point is to connect with veterans WHO do feel this things, and who have SAID these very things, to themselves or to others. 

The word "compassion," as we've talked about before on here, is from the Latin, meaning "to suffer with" (another).  Here's a full definition: "Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it."

You can't, or shouldn't, get to know much about combat veterans without developing some of this. And you might need to, because -- while they hold this for each other -- they often distinctly DON'T have it for themselves.  "Why did I deserve to live when others died?" "I don't deserve to be happy." "I should go back..." All these phrases, and thoughts, are common among combat veterans with PTSD.

As we've talked about before here, the goal is going to be...find some way to achieve catharsis with these feelings.  Don't invalidate them ... they're real, they're true, and they DESERVE to be there.  They're a very "natural" reaction to a very abnormal situation (combat).  But what also needs to happen, while acknowledging these feelings, is somehow to bleed the toxins out, to be at peace, or reconciled, or achieve some "normalcy" with these powerful emotions, but without letting them control your life, or dictate your decisions.  That's a pretty tall order, it would seem, depending on how badly things are going, on a given day: but let's hold that hope out there, it's still real.

As one hardened combat vet told me the other day, there really is a severe dichotomy -- the academic world would call it -- or a "split" -- the rest of the world would call it -- in the mind and behavior of a vet with PTSD.  On the one hand, he (or she), deeply wants to believe they can overcome, and see a brighter day -- somehow be reconnected to the self they dimly remember, but have functionally lost (and who they mourn, as beyond being able to be accessed anymore, except in memory).  At the same time, breaking away from who they've become with PTSD can be exceptionally hard. Not necessarily by anyone's ever wishing it to be so, the shell, or the mask, of PTSD has started to feel like a part of who they are.  It's both "not me" and "me."  Or maybe, a very undesirable outcome, who has nevertheless become me, without wanting this to happen.  And it can be very, very hard to contemplate breaking away from this person you've become...because the shell has somehow gotten comfortable.  Or manages to keep people away -- or the demons at bay -- or whatever it is.  There is some payoff here, as grotesque as the experience can be. And considering breaking free of this, and leaving this mask or this shell behind, as no longer serving you?  Tough, very tough.  Because it's become familiar...and in familiarity, there is a certain amount of safety.

Odd that there would be such a struggle here, but it's true.  "I want to get well..." or "I want to get better" -- and "I desperately want to believe that I can" -- versus, "I wonder what the world is like beyond this wall I've erected..." "I wonder if I can handle it..." "I wonder if I'm safer not even trying."

Heavy questions.  Very hard, very difficult, very real.  But even when you're struggling with this, you're still acknowledging that there is some tiny shred of belief here that things can get better.  On some level, find a way to give yourself credit for that.  And keep the hope, however miniscule, unlikely, or fakey it seems, alive.  Because it just might be the eternal flame (old reference to JFK's grave...look it up) that never goes out...and ends up lighting the way to something that DOES help you.  Let's hope.

Helping Vets with PTSD: Rolling up Your Sleeves vs. Keeping an Arm's Length Distance

We've talked before on this blog about Paul Tillich's fabulous quote, that "the first duty of love is to listen." 

Here's a story that neatly conveys the polar opposite of that; or at least how someone, a VA provider, got actually PUNISHED for doing that (thanks to Ilona Meagher for noticing the story). But first, an aside.

I was at a dinner a while back that concluded a week's worth of focused training for health care providers, mostly psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers -- many of whom dealt with combat veterans.  Seated across the table from me was a VA provider, a Ph.D. psychologist who, to his credit, was of the Vietnam era but hadn't served, and who had gone into working with the VA so that he could "help" his generation of veterans, who he saw as being tremendously underserved.  True and good, so far.

As we sat at dinner, he told the private practice psychiatrist to one side of him, and the veterans service officer (and Iraq War combat vet/single mom) to the other side of him, about something "new" called "EMDR," that neither one had ever heard of, and that he had just learned about, and  was fairly enthusiastic about himself.  EMDR, for "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing," for one thing, is NOT new.  It's been in existence for years -- since the 80s, when it was developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D..  Something like 16 clinical trials have shown its efficacy. Heck, we've got several blog posts about it, from two years ago. So it's not really great news that the provider was "just learning about it" recently.  EMDR was one of the first quasi-"alternative" treatments offered in the psychological community for PTSD.  It's been widely studied and fairly widely recommended for PTSD ever since.  It's also something I've personally tried, so my ears perked up when I heard it.  "This stuff is so great," the VA psychologist enthused, warming to his true point: "You can treat people, and you don't even have to hear their stuff!"

Ohmigoodness.  If that isn't just the gold standard of what we want to be doing.  I'm holding out hope we'll find an arm's' length cure for healing combat trauma (kidding, absurd).

In this article, a VA provider who seems like a serious, intense, and concerned practitioner -- as well as a favorite among the veterans who were her patients -- gets fired and reprimanded for "talking an Iraqi vet down off the ledge," so to speak.  It's a pretty shocking story.  The provider has yet to be re-instated, and the OIF/OEF veteran who narrowly survived killing himself, thanks to her intervention, also has been left scarred by the situation, and more antisocial/less trusting than before.  Ugh.  Is this the kind of care we really want to be delivering?

The VA, particularly now (as in, these days) is supposed to be "very concerned" about its reputation, and really adamant about "no more bad PR."  If that's the case, maybe it's time to examine some of the decisions that get made, and why they get made -- from what happened in this story, to the psychologist above who was so thrilled to learn about a treatment mode that he could practice without having to get too involved.

Somehow, this seems to be the EXACT OPPOSITE of the care and concern and COMPASSION that someone like Sarah Haley exhibited, herself a VA psychiatrist, through whose landmark work the shame of My Lai was able to come forth and be addressed, etc. A true hero in the pantheon of those who addressed PTSD at its roots -- and, coincidentally, ALSO someone very well loved by her patients.  Hmmmn.  There might be a not-so-subliminal message in that. 

Here's what Gerald Nicosia, author of Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement, says in part about Haley (to whom he devotes more than a dozen pages of narrative):

"The other horn of this troubling dilemma was that the traumatized person, especially if he was a Vietnam veteran, would almost never come in and spill his guts to a perfect stranger.  Trauma patients need to establish trust with a therapist, and the Vietnam veterans coming into the VA clinic were never being given the chance to do this.  It was by the merest lucky chance that the My Lai veteran had seen something in Sarah Haley that made him believe he could confide in her, thereby opening the door not only to his own dark secrets, but also to possible help for a whole generation of trauma victims."

 

And, separately:

 

"What Haley did not realize was that John [the aforementioned patient, who spilled the beans on My Lai] had come to her initially because he had been told she was trustworthy by his friend Mike, whom she had treated previously.  A year later, John showed up in her office again under the pretext of bringing Mike back for further counseling.  At this time, John confessed to her that "he had needed to believe that just one person cared, that one person could be trusted to know what he had done, and not reject him.""

 

Hmmmn.  Food for thought, all the way around: but most especially for the VA, and their apparently quite shabby treatment of psychologist Sidney Ornduff, and by extension, the other veterans whose lives she could have been helping.

 

Deep Survival -- Turns Out, It Can Be Due to "What's In Your Heart"

I read the most interesting book lately, having nothing to do with combat trauma and PTSD, yet everything to do with human beings' abilities to fight tenaciously for their own survival, and outmaneuver both death and chance, occasionally.  The book's title says it all: "Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why" -- and it's by a risk junkie author who is himself the son of a genuine WWII battle hero, who survived some spectacular near-death experiences (including a fall 27,000 feet out of an airplane he was piloting, only to land in a German field and have a farmer nearby then try to shoot him to death, until that guy's gun misfired.  Unbelievable...). 

The book is riveting -- it follows the stories of well-prepared experts who perish needlessly, while under-prepared or un-prepared neophytes sometimes make it out alive -- and the author takes a look at recent brain research as well as in-depth accident reports to draw his conclusions about why sometimes the most unlikely types beat the odds and survive. 

The author's conclusion at the end of the prologue, introducing the rest of the book, is that often it's an unseen factor that accounts for who inexplicably beats the odds.  His book isn't at all about combat trauma or PTSD, of course, but I'm going to offer up what he says anyway, because I think (in a different, yet related context) it might give some people hope, who are struggling mightily with circumstances seemingly far beyond their control.  The message remains that there is still hope for them, too.  In the words of the author:

"It's easy to imagine that ... survival would involve equipment, training and experience. It turns out that, at the moment of truth, those might be good things to have but they aren't decisive. Those of us who go into the wilderness or seek our thrills in contact with the forces of nature soon learn, in fact, that experience, training and modern equipment can betray you. The maddening thing for someone with a Western scientific turn of mind is that it's not what's in your pack that separates the quick from the dead.  It's not even what's in your mind.  Corny as it sounds, it's what's in your heart." -- Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, by Laurence Gonzales.

We've talked about hope recently; and the reality is, sometimes you just know you're going to get better, even when it feels like no one else believes in you, or the evidence seems to point completely to the contrary.  Sometimes you just know, and it's only a question of time before that comes true. Here's "hope"-ing that many, many veterans survive and thrive, despite combat trauma and PTSD, even when initially it seems like there might be little realistic "hope" for doing so, whether the struggle has gone on for months...or decades. 

This blog isn't about me, in the slightest, but I do have a story to tell that somewhat relates.  Years ago, when I had chronic fatigue syndrome -- which at the time, as now, no one really understood well or unfortunately recovers from -- I went through a "state of the art" multidisciplinary program for treating chronic fatigue, covered by insurance.  Hmmmn.  No one really got better through that program either -- some people, including me, actually got sicker from reactions to the medications, etc. -- but, there was one odd moment in the program that stuck with me afterwards.  As part of what we had to do, we had sessions in biofeedback and hypnosis, among other things.  The psychologist who led those sessions was someone who at one point had been the team psychologist for a very competitive sports team.  After one hypnosis session, he came up to me, out of the blue, put his hand on my shoulder, and just said, warmly -- to me, and not to anyone else -- "I just know you're going to beat this..." -- and I thought to myself, how on earth does he "know" that?  I'm totally sick as a dog here.  So I put that moment completely out of my mind.  A few years later, when I WAS fully recovered, a complete rarity, it's sad to say -- almost all the people who were sick when I became sick still are, if not quite a bit worse -- years later -- suddenly that memory came back.  And someone he must have been able to tap into what was inside me, which definitely was a fighter, after all. Hmmmn. Even I didn't know that at the time, but he was able to figure that out.  Cool moment, even after the fact.

It's great to see when spouses and family members fight and never give up, for injured veterans they love (with TBI, for example, or amputation injuries from IEDs).  There are some spectacular stories out there of love, support, courage and tenacity.  But not everyone has people who can pull for them; and sometimes, veterans with PTSD have actually worn the most likely candidates out.  Even so, it may be possible for them to get better, "against all odds" -- because, who knows, it may turn out to be like the stories of survival from the book.  It may come down to something ineffable that never gives up, even when circumstances appear to be completely against you. Something like...what's already in your heart. 

Happy Blog-a-versary! -- We're Three Years Old

Just a quick note to observe an anniversary in passing.  This blog turned three at the end of February.  Almost 600 posts in three years, on the various therapeutic issues and considerations for treating combat trauma and PTSD.

When we started this blog / website three years ago, there seriously wasn't much attention being paid to this topic.  There was information out there, but you had to really look for it.  And much of it was "legacy" information, relating to combat veterans of previous wars -- as though the problem could also be relegated to the past, and not the present.  Yet as one Marine officer said, on his return from Iraq, "Frankly, we will be dealing with the human casualties [here] for the remainder of our professional lives." 

Today, fortunately, the tide has been turning.  There's greater public awareness of the problem of PTSD, and an increasingly compassionate sense, especially over the last several months, that we not neglect veterans after they've served their country.  More grass-roots efforts are starting up, and organizations here and there (Give an Hour, Yoga for Vets, etc.) are encouraging their members to donate services to deserving veterans and their families.

Three years later, the landscape is changing.  Just since the beginning of this year, we've seen generals begin to speak up about the reality of PTSD in their own experience -- something that would have been unthinkable, even three years ago.  Yet the number of suicides among recent combat veterans and deployed servicemembers continues to increase, joining with the astronomical number of Vietnam veterans who have and continue to take their lives.  So the problem, as such, is far from over; far from solved.  Indeed, we are just beginning to pay the type of attention we need to in order to make some progress. Veterans still have misgivings about the type of care they're receiving at the hands of the VA, and while this has improved some in recent years, stories about the shredding of claims, etc. continue to underscore the need for much greater, wholesale change to the organization. And the VA, while theoretically open to other solutions, continues to rely on pharmaceuticals and talk therapy as the "gold standard" of treatment, and yet boasts very few "success stories" based on this model.  Lasting success stories, we should clarify...

Going forward, two things are certain. One is that the "need" -- the demand for services -- will only continue to grow, and most likely, dramatically so, over the next few years and continue for years to come.  The other is that there is no obvious "treatment" that seems to work from within the confines of mainstream medicine and psychiatry.  There are ways to improve the problem -- suppress the symptoms, temporarily -- but not really to "solve it -- heal the patient -- in any more thorough-going, comprehensive way.  Or so it would seem.  Unless and until you start thinking outside the box, and taking a look at what else is out there.  It'll be interesting to see what the future holds.  The "demand" -- combat veterans who need help -- is huge; the "supply" -- treatments that work, really work, and don't do more harm than good -- are few and far between.  We've done our best to cover what those are, to give combat veterans and their loved ones hope.  We'll continue to do so, this year and beyond.

If you want to know more about the problem, read the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)'s special mental health report, released at the end of January, entitled "Invisible Wounds: Psychological and Neurological Injuries Confront a New Generation of Veterans," That report, in PDF form, is linked here.

One, Two, Now Three Military Generals Discuss Their PTSD Candidly

Here's something you don't see every day -- military generals sharing openly about their struggles with PTSD. 

CNN has a very brief story on their website today about two generals doing just that -- and if nothing else, the generals' refreshing candor should raise the profile of healing combat trauma and PTSD just because of who they are.  Says Brig. Gen. Gary S. Patton, tellingly, "We need all our soldiers and leaders to approach mental health like we do physical health. No one would ever question or ever even hesitate in seeking a physician to take care of their broken limb or gunshot wound, or shrapnel or something of that order. You know, we need to take the same approach towards mental health." Absolutely. This should be very helpful towards combating the stigma that exists about admitting there's a problem, or countering the somewhat prevalent "blame the victim" notion that servicemembers who do struggle with PTSD were somehow already "broken" -- previously unfit,or otherwise "less than" other combat veterans because they suffered in this manner.  Hmmmn.

In November of 2008, we discussed another Army general, this time Major General David Blackledge, coming forward and talking about his own experience with PTSD.  At the time, it seemed like possibly a one-off, once in a lifetime experience.  (That blog post, entitled "Army General and PTSD -- the Courage to Admit All is Not Well," is linked here.) 

Now, with two more generals -- Brig. Gen. Gary Patton, and Gen. Carter Ham (pictured) -- coming forward and self-disclosing about their own experiences with PTSD, there's even more hope that PTSD can be seen as a genuine consequence of combat, and not an opportunity for continuing silence and shame.

For a link to the story on CNN, click here.

An Aesthetic Break - War Poetry for Springtime

Poets make the attempt to reconcile raw experience with abstract thought.  War poets are an interesting subset, because their observations can be an attempt to "make sense of" that which fundamentally is hard to ever understand, at least neatly (war).  Here's an "ode to springtime" of a sort, by a British World War II poet, Henry Reed.  The illustration is of "japonica," which is referenced in the poem. (Other poetry by Reed is linked, here.)

 

NAMING OF PARTS

 

A Poem from the Forces

 

“To-day we have naming of parts.  Yesterday
We had daily cleaning.  And to-morrow morning
We shall have what to do after firing.  But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts.  Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.

 

This is the lower sling swivel.  And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see of,
When you are given your slings.  And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got.  The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

 

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb.  And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger.  You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb.  The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

 

And this you can see is the bolt.  The purpose of this
Is to open the breach, as you see.  We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring.  And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

 

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb:
Like the bolt,
And the breach, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got, and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens, the bees going backward and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.”

 

-- Henry Reed.  First published in “The New Statesman and Nation, The Week-end Review, Incorporating the Athenaeum,” August 8, 1942.

 

Free Yoga Sessions for Veterans - Of Any War

This is a nice gift, from the yoga community to veterans of any war.  Four free sessions.

Yoga has been shown to have some benefits for PTSD, and is often part of a good, stress-reducing lifestyle.

From their website: "Yoga For Vets was launched and is directed by registered yoga teacher and former Navy diver Paul Zipes in 2007. The yoga community is very concerned about our returning troops and prior war vets.  Giving 4 free yoga lessons  is a small way of saying welcome back to America.  At best, some vets are finding yoga helps symptoms of PTSD and trauma.  At the least,  yoga is fun and healthy.  If you are a war veteran from any era and have been helped by yoga or just want to share a positive yoga story, please go to our testimonial page.  Finally, we are always looking for ways to tell more military vets about yoga.  Please help spread the word and let us know if you want to help."

Read up on the actual offer to learn more, linked here.

For previous posts we've done on yoga and PTSD, click here.

Veterans Sought for National Clinical Study on EFT and Combat Trauma

Veterans sought for combat stress study

Veterans from wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan may be eligible to participate in a clinical study investigating the effectiveness of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) at releasing combat-related stress, trauma and memories.

Qualifying veterans will receive six free private sessions of EFT with a professionally trained coach, including follow-up assessments after 3-6 months.

Combat-related conditions include insomnia and/or nightmares, drug and/or alcohol dependencies, anger, anxiety, depression, paranoia, obsessive compulsive behavior, panic attacks, phobias, rage, grief, survivor’s guilt, feelings of isolation or jumpiness around people.

The study is organized and sponsored by the Iraq Vets Stress Project (http://www.StressProject.org), a project of Soul Medicine Institute, a nonprofit research corporation.

For more information contact Susan Maloney, an integral life coach and EFT practitioner, at (707) 888-0246 or susan@susanmaloney.com.

Shocking Statistics and Veterans: When "9" Is Not So Lucky a Number...

Here's a shocking statistic I ran across today, in some material online provided by the veterans' charity, Swords to Plowshares:

"It took an average of 9 years post deployment for Vietnam and prior era veterans to fall into homelessness. Today, Swords to Plowshares and our homeless veteran service colleagues throughout the nation are seeing an alarming influx of homeless OIF/OEF veterans, sometimes just months after separating from the military..."

As you can well imagine, the 9 years must have involved a steady deterioration of resources and ability to cope.  Unfortunately, today the problem is taking place at an even more accelerated rate -- hence the need for more awareness and more care to be taken with the topic.

As the foundation says, "We prepared the following paper for the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans to help decipher why this new generation are becoming homeless so quickly in the hope that, by understanding the issues, we may prevent or at least mitigate the kind of long suffering our older clients have endured. The paper looks at bureaucratic, social, economic, and physical and mental health issues impacting our new veterans. It is up to us, as providers, as neighbors, and as citizens to prevent homelessness and truly support our military and veterans with the services and support they have earned."  The link to the presentation, in PDF form, is here.

Editor's note: For more posts where we've covered the topic of homelessness and veterans with PTSD, click here, which takes you to an index of posts on that subject.