Web Wisdom On PTSD

When I worked for the church, I was presenting the information on the fantastic documentary, When I Came Home, about a homeless veteran, it was a hard sell. Imagine that people at a church would be so unaware of the plight of our veterans they had no clue. After all these years being involved with all that goes into making them homeless, this documentary put it all together. What I heard from some of the members of the church were exactly what Thomason heard. Very hard to believe people can be so disconnected from what they go through.

Every time I hear a story about a homeless veteran, talk to one, try to help one of them, I see my own husband in their eyes. He was almost one of them. When it was getting too hard to live with him as PTSD was killing him slowly, I got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. All the years of research and advocacy couldn't prepare me to take the emotional assault that came. I know how hard it is to live with them as everything you loved about them is being eaten away by PTSD and self-medicating.




Thomason must be getting emails from the same people I do. If you take a look at some of the comments on this blog, you will begin to wonder if this pathetic attitude is contagious.

Opinion Columnist Ricky Thomason
» E-mail this columnist

Even homeless veterans can make some folks mad
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Huntsville Times
I was enraged, still am, that our government spends less per year helping homeless vets than it spends per day in that Haliburton Hellhole money pit called Iraq.

I received many letters from people who want to help. I received letters of thanks from veterans and active duty soldiers.

That said, I also received a number of the usual hemlock-inked "you bleeding-heart liberal SOB" kinds of hate mail that a small number of the "The Clintons are the Anti-Christs" crowd live to write. Never mind that I don't care for "ol' turn tears off and on at will" Shrillary either. Some people clearly see whatever they want to believe and it's never clouded by the truth.



Curiously, a number of the nastiest letters I received were from vets. Those "homeless" vets "choose" to live that way. "They like it." Most of them are "drunks and take drugs," ergo, they deserve whatever they get - other than help. And many of them "aren't really vets," or "served less than honorably."
go here for the rest

http://www.al.com/opinion/huntsvilletimes/
rthomason.ssf?/base/opinion/1202638545211330.xml&coll=1

When I hear someone say things against them, I just want to scream "idiot" because their ignorance is astonishing. They get treated for alcoholism and drug addiction. The problem is most of them are not addicted to the chemical but are using it to kill off feelings they don't want to feel. They get misdiagnosed with a long list of mental illnesses because of the symptoms that come with PTSD.

Obsessive compulsive disorder because they latch onto something and can't let it go. They go around the house constantly checking doors and windows while on patrol in nightly rituals.




Here are just some of the stories you don't hear about on the 24/7 cable "news" shows. When you know how easy it is to misdiagnose these veterans, you can get a better idea of what they are up against. The symptoms of PTSD can look like a lot of other illnesses. The key is when those symptoms show up. If it's after a traumatic event when they showed no signes before, it's PTSD.



From National Institute of Mental Health

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD, is an anxiety disorder and is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Repetitive behaviors such as handwashing, counting, checking, or cleaning are often performed with the hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away. Performing these so-called "rituals," however, provides only temporary relief, and not performing them markedly increases anxiety. More about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder »
Signs & Symptoms
People with OCD may be plagued by persistent, unwelcome thoughts or images, or by the urgent need to engage in certain rituals. They may be obsessed with germs or dirt, and wash their hands over and over. They may be filled with doubt and feel the need to check things repeatedly. More about Signs & Symptoms »

They get misdiagnosed as being Bipolar

Bipolar disorder causes dramatic mood swings—from overly “high” and/or irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again, often with periods of normal mood in between. Severe changes in energy and behavior go along with these changes in mood. The periods of highs and lows are called episodes of mania and depression.
Signs and symptoms of mania (or a manic episode) include:
Increased energy, activity, and restlessness
Excessively “high,” overly good, euphoric mood
Extreme irritability
Racing thoughts and talking very fast, jumping from one idea to another
Distractibility, can’t concentrate well
Little sleep needed
Unrealistic beliefs in one’s abilities and powers
Poor judgment
Spending sprees
A lasting period of behavior that is different from usual
Increased sexual drive
Abuse of drugs, particularly cocaine, alcohol, and sleeping medications
Provocative, intrusive, or aggressive behavior
Denial that anything is wrong
A manic episode is diagnosed if elevated mood occurs with three or more of the other symptoms most of the day, nearly every day, for 1 week or longer. If the mood is irritable, four additional symptoms must be present.
Signs and symptoms of depression (or a depressive episode) include:
Lasting sad, anxious, or empty mood
Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed, including sex
Decreased energy, a feeling of fatigue or of being “slowed down”
Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
Restlessness or irritability
Sleeping too much, or can’t sleep
Change in appetite and/or unintended weight loss or gain
Chronic pain or other persistent bodily symptoms that are not caused by physical illness or injury
Thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide attempts
A depressive episode is diagnosed if five or more of these symptoms last most of the day, nearly every day, for a period of 2 weeks or longer.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder/symptoms.shtml

The soldier from Fort Carson who was pulled out of the hospital to be sent back, was diagnosed with bipolar instead of PTSD.

The 28-year-old specialist spent 31 days in Kuwait and was returned to Fort Carson on Dec. 31 after health care professionals in Kuwait concurred that his symptoms met criteria for bipolar disorder and "some paranoia and possible homicidal tendencies," according to e-mails obtained by The Denver Post.

The soldier, who asked not to be identified because of the stigma surrounding mental illness and because he will seek employment when he leaves the Army, said he checked himself into Cedar Springs on Nov. 9 or Nov. 10 after he attempted suicide while under the influence of alcohol. He said his treatment was supposed to end Dec. 10 but his commanding officers showed up at the hospital Nov. 29 and ordered him to leave.

"I was pulled out to deploy," said the soldier, who has three years in the Army and has served a tour in Iraq.

But it's not new. This is from VAWatchdog

Christopher Gearhart served 13 years in the military. He would have put in more time were it not for a hospitalization, a diagnosis and a discharge last year.While on duty last December, Gearhart, 35, of Cape Coral fell into a state of mania.

He doesn't remember much, only that he was going nonstop, 24 hours a day. It was worse than being drunk, Gearhart said. Colleagues would recount what he did or said, and Gearhart could recall none of it.

The soldier was sent to a private psychiatric hospital and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a chemical imbalance that causes his emotions to swing wildly — from mania to depression.His discharge came soon after, and with it, the military washed its hands of him, he says.Gearhart is receiving no Veterans Administration benefits.

He has no job, no disability pay, and most critically, no health benefits. He is managing his illness with whatever drug samples doctors at Lee Mental Health are able to find for him. The drugs otherwise cost $2,000 a month, Gearhart said.He said U.S. Army officials reclassified his bipolar disease as a "personality disorder," which covers such things as antisocial, obsessive or histrionic behaviors.http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfSEP07/nf092407-2.htm

And then we have the Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder
Raising questions, finding answers
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual's sense of self-identity. Originally thought to be at the "borderline" of psychosis, people with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation. While less well known than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), BPD is more common, affecting 2 percent of adults, mostly young women.1 There is a high rate of self-injury without suicide intent, as well as a significant rate of suicide attempts and completed suicide in severe cases.2,3 Patients often need extensive mental health services, and account for 20 percent of psychiatric hospitalizations.4 Yet, with help, many improve over time and are eventually able to lead productive lives.

Symptoms
While a person with depression or bipolar disorder typically endures the same mood for weeks, a person with BPD may experience intense bouts of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last only hours, or at most a day.5 These may be associated with episodes of impulsive aggression, self-injury, and drug or alcohol abuse. Distortions in cognition and sense of self can lead to frequent changes in long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships, gender identity, and values. Sometimes people with BPD view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. They may feel unfairly misunderstood or mistreated, bored, empty, and have little idea who they are. Such symptoms are most acute when people with BPD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone.

People with BPD often have highly unstable patterns of social relationships. While they can develop intense but stormy attachments, their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great admiration and love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike). Thus, they may form an immediate attachment and idealize the other person, but when a slight separation or conflict occurs, they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse the other person of not caring for them at all.

Even with family members, individuals with BPD are highly sensitive to rejection, reacting with anger and distress to such mild separations as a vacation, a business trip, or a sudden change in plans. These fears of abandonment seem to be related to difficulties feeling emotionally connected to important persons when they are physically absent, leaving the individual with BPD feeling lost and perhaps worthless. Suicide threats and attempts may occur along with anger at perceived abandonment and disappointments.

People with BPD exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex.

BPD often occurs together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/borderline-personality-disorder.shtml

Yet there have been over 20,000 discharged under "personality disorder" instead of PTSD.

Joshua Kors, a journalist that been reporting on Personality Disorder for the last ten months, stated that a Personality Disorder discharge is a “contradiction in terms. Recruits who have a severe, pre-existing condition like a Personality Disorder do not pass the rigorous screening process and are not accepted into the Army.” Kors interviewed soldiers that passed the first screening and were accepted into the Army. “They were deemed physically and psychologically fit in a second screening as well, before being deployed to Iraq, and served honorably there in combat,” said Kors. “In each case, it was only when they came back physically or psychologically wounded and sought benefits that their pre-existing condition was discovered.”
The committee also reviewed the recent report by the Institute of Medicine on VA Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) claims and discussed the VA’s plan for implementation of recommendations in the report. Current estimates show that approximately one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans may show signs of PTSD.
http://veterans.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=111

While this is what NIMH has on PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops after a terrifying ordeal that involved physical harm or the threat of physical harm. The person who develops PTSD may have been the one who was harmed, the harm may have happened to a loved one, or the person may have witnessed a harmful event that happened to loved ones or strangers.
PTSD was first brought to public attention in relation to war veterans, but it can result from a variety of traumatic incidents, such as mugging, rape, torture, being kidnapped or held captive, child abuse, car accidents, train wrecks, plane crashes, bombings, or natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes.
People with PTSD may startle easily, become emotionally numb (especially in relation to people with whom they used to be close), lose interest in things they used to enjoy, have trouble feeling affectionate, be irritable, become more aggressive, or even become violent. They avoid situations that remind them of the original incident, and anniversaries of the incident are often very difficult. PTSD symptoms seem to be worse if the event that triggered them was deliberately initiated by another person, as in a mugging or a kidnapping. Most people with PTSD repeatedly relive the trauma in their thoughts during the day and in nightmares when they sleep. These are called flashbacks. Flashbacks may consist of images, sounds, smells, or feelings, and are often triggered by ordinary occurrences, such as a door slamming or a car backfiring on the street. A person having a flashback may lose touch with reality and believe that the traumatic incident is happening all over again.
Not every traumatized person develops full-blown or even minor PTSD. Symptoms usually begin within 3 months of the incident but occasionally emerge years afterward. They must last more than a month to be considered PTSD. The course of the illness varies. Some people recover within 6 months, while others have symptoms that last much longer. In some people, the condition becomes chronic.
PTSD affects about 7.7 million American adults,1but it can occur at any age, including childhood.7 Women are more likely to develop PTSD than men,8 and there is some evidence that susceptibility to the disorder may run in families.9 PTSD is often accompanied by depression, substance abuse, or one or more of the other anxiety disorders.4


Individual differences in these genes or brain areas may only set the stage for PTSD without actually causing symptoms. Environmental factors, such as childhood trauma, head injury, or a history of mental illness, may further increase a person's risk by affecting the early growth of the brain.7 Also, personality and cognitive factors, such as optimism and the tendency to view challenges in a positive or negative way, as well as social factors, such as the availability and use of social support, appear to influence how people adjust to trauma.8 More research may show what combinations of these or perhaps other factors could be used someday to predict who will develop PTSD following a traumatic event.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-research-fact-sheet.shtml

What are the symptoms of PTSD?

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be terrifying. They may disrupt your life and make it hard to continue with your daily activities. It may be hard just to get through the day.
PTSD symptoms usually start soon after the traumatic event, but they may not happen until months or years later. They also may come and go over many years. If the symptoms last longer than 4 weeks, cause you great distress, or interfere with your work or home life, you probably have PTSD.
There are four types of symptoms: reliving the event, avoidance, numbing, and feeling keyed up.
Reliving the event (also called re-experiencing symptoms):
Bad memories of the traumatic event can come back at any time. You may feel the same fear and horror you did when the event took place. You may have nightmares. You even may feel like you're going through the event again. This is called a flashback. Sometimes there is a trigger: a sound or sight that causes you to relive the event. Triggers might include:
Hearing a car backfire, which can bring back memories of gunfire and war for a combat veteran
Seeing a car accident, which can remind a crash survivor of his or her own accident
Seeing a news report of a sexual assault, which may bring back memories of assault for a woman who was raped
Avoiding situations that remind you of the event:
You may try to avoid situations or people that trigger memories of the traumatic event. You may even avoid talking or thinking about the event.
A person who was in an earthquake may avoid watching television shows or movies in which there are earthquakes
A person who was robbed at gunpoint while ordering at a hamburger drive-in may avoid fast-food restaurants
Some people may keep very busy or avoid seeking help. This keeps them from having to think or talk about the event.
Feeling numb:
You may find it hard to express your feelings. This is another way to avoid memories.
You may not have positive or loving feelings toward other people and may stay away from relationships
You may not be interested in activities you used to enjoy
You may forget about parts of the traumatic event or not be able to talk about them.
Feeling keyed up (also called hyperarousal):
You may be jittery, or always alert and on the lookout for danger. This is known as hyperarousal. It can cause you to:
Suddenly become angry or irritable
Have a hard time sleeping
Have trouble concentrating
Fear for your safety and always feel on guard
Be very startled when someone surprises you
What are other common problems?
People with PTSD may also have other problems. These include:
Drinking or drug problems
Feelings of hopelessness, shame, or despair
Employment problems
Relationships problems including divorce and violence
Physical symptoms
http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_what_is_ptsd.html

From the Mayo Clinic

Signs and symptoms
Signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder typically begin within three months of a traumatic event. In a small number of cases, though, PTSD symptoms may not occur until years after the event.
Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms may include:
Flashbacks, or reliving the traumatic event for minutes or even days at a time
Shame or guilt
Upsetting dreams about the traumatic event
Trying to avoid thinking or talking about the traumatic event
Feeling emotionally numb
Irritability or anger
Poor relationships
Self-destructive behavior, such as drinking too much
Hopelessness about the future
Trouble sleeping
Memory problems
Trouble concentrating
Being easily startled or frightened
Not enjoying activities you once enjoyed
Hearing or seeing things that aren't there
Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms can come and go. You may have more symptoms during times of higher stress or when you experience symbolic reminders of what you went through. For example, some people whose PTSD symptoms had been gone for years saw their symptoms come back again with the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.
When you have PTSD, you may relive the traumatic event numerous times. You may have upsetting memories. Or you may see reminders wherever you go. You may hear a car backfire and relive combat experiences, for instance. Or you may see a report on the news about a rape, and feel again the horror and fear of your own assault.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/DS00246/DSECTION=2

As you can see, this is what they are up against. They end up without income of a low disability rating instead of a just one and cannot support themselves. This does not just happen when the wound is PTSD, but physical wounds preventing them from working are also under rated.

PTSD veterans end up being homeless and labeled anything but what they are. A wounded veteran. Most of the homeless veterans have PTSD. Some people in this country would rather call them names than wounded veteran. Some would rather close their eyes to the reason these veterans end up homeless, pretending they deserve to be that way instead of doing the honorable thing a truly grateful nation would do for them. Take care of them.

The next time you come up against a blogger who wants to blame the veteran, remember what you read here. Then you will read the post as one coming from an ignorant, ungrateful moron with no common sense or decency. Maybe you found some information here that infuriated you. I hope so. That was exactly what I intended. Maybe it's enough for you to contact your congressman, your state representatives and your local ones to actually do something about all of this. The years are ticking away as we are losing too much time when they could be treated appropriately. They have wasted enough time re-studying what we already knew. Our veterans are dying for your attention.
Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington