Healing Combat Trauma

Two Retreats for Veterans This Summer and Fall in Upstate New York

For our 650th post -- my, how time flies! -- an item about two upcoming retreats that may be of interest to veterans and their families -- both to be held in upstate New York later this summer and early fall.

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For women veterans only, in mid-August, The Adirondack Women Veterans’ Reintegration Retreat 2009 will be held from Monday, August 10th to Wednesday, August 12th, 2009, at the Wiawaka Holiday House (a retreat center for women) on Lake George, New York.

Their program says, "The Adirondack Women Veterans’ Arts & Reintegration Retreat is open to any woman who has served our country in any branch of the military at any time. The retreat will focus on reintegration issues arising out of military service. We will provide a safe space to share experiences, learn from others who have served our country, gain skills that will enhance quality of life,  enrich a sense of self and sense of community and build a network with other women who have served our country.

Our retreats have become known as a place where women can connect with others and their inner selves. In many sessions, we have had people from the same community meet each other for the first time and discover new friends and support that they can maintain after they leave."

Click here for a link to that program or to register. Scholarships are available -- hurry! -- and the campus is drug- and alcohol-free.

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In mid-October, the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York will be hosting "The Costs of War, Violence and Denial" -- subtitled "A retreat open to veterans and their families" -- with Claude Anshin Thomas, who we've written about on this blog frequently.  Thomas is a Vietnam combat veteran, now Zen Buddhist monk, and the author of "At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace," linked here. The retreat runs from Wednesday, October 21st through Sunday, October 25th. 90% of the cost is being underwritten for veterans and their families; the remaining 10% is the price of registration, and in some cases that may also be able to be waived.  The Institute asks that you register for the retreat by September 25th.  Click here for a link to information about the program and registration.

The Omega Institute notes: "This 5-day retreat with Claude Anshin Thomas is substantially funded. Scholarships cover up to 90% of tuition, meals, and accommodations. No one will be turned away. Complete scholarship details are available online or call 800.944.1001."

Editor's note: We've talked about Claude Anshin Thomas and his book before on the blog, here, here, here, here, and here. And thanks to all who let us know about these events -- Susan, Sue and Frances.

Social Support a "Powerfully Protective Factor" Often Not Available to PTSD Sufferers

A quote about PTSD and its impact on the individual sufferer's ability to receive support from those around him or her:

"Social support is a powerful protective factor (Brewin, Andrews & Valentine, 2000) that includes the capacity of an individual to accept or utilize social support when it is made available (Benight & Bandura, 2004). This may be especially problematic in PTSD where symptoms such as avoidance, alienation and detachment impair affected individuals from benefiting from available marital, family, and social support."

Source: Oxford Handbook of Anxiety and Related Disorders, by Martin M. Antony, Murray B. Stein, linked here.

Recent Women Vets with PTSD Use Mental Health Services Differently, Not Enough -- Study Says

According to a recent item published by Boston University's School of Public Health, younger women combat veterans with PTSD under-utilize specialized mental health treatment programs provided by the VA. Just why this is the case hasn't been determined yet, but the study highlights some interesting results  -- and in any case it's progress that the needs of this special population (women combat veterans) are being studied. From the press release:

"Younger women veterans with substance abuse problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health diagnoses were significantly less likely to utilize specialized Veterans Health Administration (VHA) mental health services in 1999, after the first Gulf War, than their male counterparts, a study led by BUSPH researchers has found.

Veterans of recent conflicts have been shown to have significant mental health needs," says the study, published in the journal Women's Health Issues. "Examining the effects of gender on disease burden and health care utilization in this growing group of veterans is important."

The study found that younger women (under 35) were significantly less likely to use mental health services in comparison to men. However, middle-aged and older women were more likely to use the services than men."

In terms of specialty mental health services, women veterans under the age of 55 were significantly less likely to use PTSD or substance abuse services. The authors speculated that women with substance abuse problems "may be averse to using male-dominated therapeutic groups," may seek treatment in general medical settings or may not seek treatment at all, as described in prior literature on women and substance abuse.

If underutilization of [substance abuse] services continues in newer women veterans, a significant percentage...may remain untreated," the authors cautioned.

The researchers said the underutilization of specialized PTSD services by younger women could be due, in part, to the fact that a significant proportion of PTSD in female veterans is associated with a history of military sexual abuse: "Women with a history of military sexual trauma may not feel comfortable either in mixed-gender groups or using services in which treatment is oriented primarily toward combat-related PTSD.

Overall, a higher percentage of women veterans than men utilized outpatient mental health services, other than the specialized PTSD and substance abuse programs. The study also found that women veterans who used VHA services had a higher prevalence of mood/anxiety disorders and bipolar or psychotic disorders than their male counterparts.

The researchers said that, if the utilization trends found in the study persist, an increasing number of women veterans with significant mental illness and comorbidity could be expected to rely on the VHA for care.

They said their findings highlight the complexity involved in crafting mental health services for the new wave of women veterans."Further research is warranted as to how to address the complex needs for specialty mental health services in this newly emerging group of veterans," they said.

They noted that examining gender differences alone, without taking age, diagnosis and other factors into account, may not provide an adequate picture of women veterans' mental health service needs."

Source: "The Insider," from Boston University's School of Public Health, June 29, 2009. Submitted by Lisa Chedekel.  Link is here.

Understanding Trauma: Exposure to The Darkest and Most Violent Forces of Human Nature

Periodically we run across a quote that seems worth sharing, to create a larger understanding of what those who experience trauma have gone through. Here is such a quote, directed in this case to practitioners.

"The examination of PTSD patients can be very stressful to clinicians. As Blank (1985) notes:

PTSD is caused by contact between the individual and the darkest and most violent forces of human nature. War, murder, rape, floods, etc. take the victim over the edge of life into serious confrontations with death or uncontrolled violence. Some individuals are therefore transformed and become, at some level, bearers of the traumatic experience. The (examiner) with whom they come into contact is thus inevitably exposed to war, rape, flood, etc. (p. 88)."

Source: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, by Kirtland C. Peterson, Maurice F. Prout, Robert Alan Schwarz

Rudy Reyes Has a New Book -- Hero Living -- Coming Out

Rudy Reyes, former Marine recon, multiple tours of duty, and consistent inner warrior, has his first book out, called "Hero Living: Seven Strides to Awaken Your Infinite Power."  You can pre-order it now on Amazon, here.

Editor's note: We've talked about Rudy Reyes before on the blog, here and here. To his credit, as a warrior who's seen intense combat, Rudy understands that not all wounds are physical -- and he's done what he can, throughout his life, to strengthen and balance his inner self with his outer. You can find Rudy's own web site, here. (The slideshow of his life is really quite striking. That's linked here.)

For One Veteran, Writing His Story is "An Act of Spiritual Renewal"

If you're a combat veteran and in the Buffalo, NY area, you might enjoy checking out the writers group at the VA Western New York Healthcare System.  Led by a Vietnam vet, "participants can share their stories and offer each other suggestions to improve the readability of their experiences. The group meets on the first and third Monday of every month from 1:30 to 3:30 p. m. at 3495 Bailey Avenue, Room 422b, Buffalo, NY 14215." All veterans "interested in writing their story" are encouraged to attend.

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We've talked about writing as catharsis before on this blog, many times, but the above item comes from an opinion piece called "Recording War Stories Allows Spiritual Renewal," published July 5 in the Buffalo News, and linked here.  In it, the unnamed veteran (maybe the print version of the story contains his name; the online version does not) says plainly, "We veterans should break our silence and write about the unspeakable events. I’ve written my stories and they’re more than just about me."

In the short opinion piece, he talks about the deaths of three of his friends in Vietnam, and how "documenting unspeakable memories" like these, "labeling those events and feelings with words and closing the cover" on those stories "is cathartic. The result is a spiritual renewal, a freedom that allows me to choose when to open and close the past while trying to live in the present."

Writing sounds like it's cathartic for this veteran, but it's also a concrete way for him to give honor to the lives of those he loved, and misses.

Traumatic War Experiences Predict Future Health Woes, Study of Civil War Vets Shows

In some medical news that you might have missed, a study came out that was published in the February, 2006 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry that studied historical records pertaining to Civil War veterans, the amount of trauma they experienced in combat, and what the after-effects were in later years to their health.  Fascinating stuff, of course.

According to the article, "An archival examination of military and medical records of Civil War veterans was conducted. Degree of trauma experienced (prisoner-of-war experience, percentage of company killed, being wounded, and early age at enlistment), signs of lifetime physician-diagnosed disease, and age at death were recorded." Additionally, "The US Pension Board surgeons conducted standardized medical examinations of Civil War veterans over their postwar lifetimes. Military records of 17,700 Civil War veterans were matched to postwar medical records."

The conclusion?  "Greater exposure to death of military comrades and younger exposure to war trauma were associated with increased signs of physician-diagnosed cardiac, gastrointestinal, and nervous disease and more unique disease ailments across the life of Civil War veterans." In other words, younger soldiers were at greater risk; and the more brother (or today, also sister) soldiers who died, the harder it was for the combat veterans.  Makes sense, doesn't it?

Editor's note: The study's citation is: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006 Feb;63(2):127-8, and it's linked here.