Those with PTSD try to restore normalcy

Seeking answers, they find no easy ones
Those with PTSD try to restore normalcy

By Daniel Kittredge - News Staff Writer
Published On Friday, August 08, 2008



(Editor’s note: this is the second in a two-part series on post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD)

GARDNER — Their experiences are different, said Joe Bykowski, but their stories almost always follow a similar pattern.

One of those stories belongs to a Marine from central Massachusetts , who returned home from overseas with a “pretty severe” brain injury. Like so many others, the young man knew something was wrong, but the injury prevented him from working, driving or doing much of anything.

Many young veterans return home hoping to work as a policeman or in another civil service job, said Mr. Bykowski, and thus “sit and suffer” with their ailment — be it an injury or post-traumatic stress disorder — to avoid the stigma that comes with admitting a problem and getting help.

Others, like the young Marine, are left unable to function because of the scars they carry, and as a result sit at home collecting pension or disability checks. As in the case of the young Marine, said Mr. Bykowski, being left with nothing to do results in substance abuse, and the potential for a downward spiral grows from there.

In the case of the young Marine, Mr. Bykowski —a veteran of the Coast Guard and one of six outreach coordinators with the state Department of Veterans’ Services — worked with the Marines Corps’ Wounded Warriors program to give him a chance. They brought the young man to a treatment center, hoping for the best but understanding that the assistance has limits.

“Some of these guys just aren’t ready for the treatment,” said Mr. Bykowski. “They have to be ready to get help.”

‘They came to find answers’

At the El Paso , Texas shelter where former Marine Jim Ball volunteers as a counselor, most of the veterans that come seeking help are from the Vietnam era.

“They’ve reached the end of their rope,” he said, after grappling for years with substance abuse and its consequences. “They came to find answers.”

Some of the newest generation of returning soldiers — those coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan — have come seeking help, but their numbers have remained relatively small. Most of those young men and women, said Mr. Ball, have either not been identified as needing help or have not yet reached the point where they are ready and willing to come forward.

The small group that Mr. Ball does counseling with includes men and women. One of the women, a veteran, cuts herself, a behavior that is sometimes associated with psychological stress and disorders. Each of the group’s members, he said, deals with “different types of complexities they have in their life,” be it something they developed before, during or after their days in the service.

A former member of the Marines Corps, Mr. Ball said he was inspired to begin working with veterans after meeting a group of Vietnam-era soldiers at a veteran’s center in Ohio .

He never saw combat during his service days, but Mr. Ball said the men “opened up to me” because of his military background. That veteran center eventually lost funding and closed, but he was inspired to return to school and pursue his long-standing interest in psychology, hoping to make a difference in the lives of former soldiers.

“I wanted to do something,” he said.

A year ago, Mr. Ball began volunteering. A self-described “computer nerd,” he’s worked to provide interactive tools and is creating a library of books aimed at providing resources and support for those with post-traumatic stress and other issues.

Building resiliency

There is no cure for post-traumatic stress.

Various treatment techniques are being studied, including eye movement desensitization and reprocessing — a newer method focused on altering physical reactions to memories without the use of drugs — as well as various forms of therapy, including 12-step programs. Medication can also play a role in treatment, largely through the use of antidepressants.

“It’s still in its infancy as far as the sciences go,” said Robert Stair, an Air Force veteran, chaplain and counselor with Montachusett Veterans Outreach Inc., of treating post-traumatic stress. “It’s an art and a science.”

At the outreach center, said Mr. Stair the focus is on “building resiliency” — providing veterans with life skills needed to overcome the cycle of substance abuse and homelessness. The center offers a variety of in-house and referral services, from a food pantry to counseling, and much of the center’s mission revolves around expanding the support network available to veterans in need.

“There’s a lot of people that want to help,” he said.

J.L. Vallee, a local author who has detailed her struggles with post-traumatic stress in the book “Severed Soul,” said controlling “triggers” — the external stimuli that lead to the anxiety and isolation that comes with post-traumatic stress — has played a pivotal role in her learning to cope with the disorder. Her triggers — including loud noises — may differ from those of veterans or others with the disorder, but she said the shared goal is learning to overcome fear and remain conscious of situations that allow symptoms to surface.

“I was afraid for a long time,” she said.

Among the challenges facing outreach and treatment professionals, said Mr. Stair, are the injuries — and, subsequently, the psychological scars — that veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are returning home with. Improvements in battlefield medical and security, he said, have resulted in young men and women at war surviving wounds or attacks that would have taken their lives in earlier wars, meaning more and more soldiers are now coming home in need of assistance that has never before been needed.

Faith plays a significant role in Mr. Stair’s counseling, given his background as a chaplain. Part of his initial interest in working with veterans in need, he said, was driven by his own years of trying to personally reconcile “why things happen as they do.”

Ms. Vallee said faith has played a significant role in her own recovery and outreach efforts.

Through the Internet and her book, she has reached out to a broad and diverse array of post-traumatic stress sufferers — from children to veterans — and said just knowing there are others who understand is of enormous help in dealing with the disorder.

“We all feel a connection,” she said. “We need to put our hands out with these people.”

Community

On the grounds of Mount Wachusett Community College, veterans with post-traumatic stress and their families with soon have access to a unique treatment facility.

“It’s fantastic,” said Leslie Lightfoot, CEO of Fitchburg-based Veteran Homestead Inc., of the planned Northeast Veteran Training and Rehabilitation Center.

Designed specifically for returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the center will offer treatment for traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress and those with amputations, severe disfiguring burns or other crippling and disabling injuries. Gov. Deval Patrick Thursday signed legislation approving a 10-acre lease for the center, and major financial assistance recently arrived through a $4.5 million grant from the Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund, which is a program of the California Community Foundation.

Among the most unique aspects of the new facility, said Ms. Lightfoot, is that the families of veterans will be able to stay with them during the recovery process. Essentially, she said, the center will provide under one roof the services offered through veterans affairs.

Those who have experience dealing with post-traumatic stress agree that involving families in the process of identifying and treating the disorder is critical to success. Ms. Lightfoot noted that the divorce rate among veterans is much higher than the civilian population, and attributed that to the difficulties spouses have in recognizing and understanding the issues their husband or wife is dealing with.

“It’s so incredibly individual,” she said of post-traumatic stress, noting that the new center’s treatment program will focus on providing for those case-by-case needs.

Mr. Stair said a veteran’s family is “the first line of defense” in identifying post-traumatic stress, and said his organization often depends on a tip from a husband, wife or child to begin the outreach process. The outreach center also makes a strong effort to provide information to family members, he said.

Ms. Vallee and Mr. Ball — who began communicating through the Internet, and both of whom have started pages on the social networking Web site Myspace to help spread awareness and information — agreed that a family’s involvement in critical.

“Husbands, wives and family members are the ones that are looking,” said Mr. Ball, whose Web site can be found at myspace.com/veteransptsdportal.

“There’s so much information on the Internet,” said Ms. Vallee, who operates myspace.com/author_jlvallee. “You have to seek it out.”

Commitment

In some rural areas, said Mr. Ball, enclaves of veterans with post-traumatic stress or other psychological disorders gather and live together, finding security and comfort in a community of shared suffering and understanding.

There are other veterans — like an autistic man he once knew — whose post-traumatic stress and psychological issues have gone untreated because institutional assistance has either failed to identify their needs or is unavailable when the veteran is ready.

That, Mr. Ball, is the primary problem with the military’s approach to post-traumatic stress — not extending its assistance to veterans who have been out of the service for a period of time.

“That’s what needs to be established,” he said.

Mr. Bykowski described post-traumatic stress as a “significant issue,” and said the staff of the veterans’ services department is “very proactive” in being a presence at veterans events throughout the state.

The staff is limited, he said, and while “there could always be more” resources his agency does its best given the difficulties inherent in finding those who need help.

Having served in Iraq, Mr. Bykowski said he has experienced some symptoms of post-traumatic stress, although he described them as “not very severe” and, in some ways, typical of any service member returning home.

“I think everybody that goes over there is going to come back different,” he said.

Mr. Stair said the Mount Wachusett rehabilitation center will become part of a community that already exceeds much of the nation in terms of its care for veterans. He cited the Memorial Day parades that take place in even the smallest towns each year, and the large number of veterans that either return or relocate to the area because of its resources and favorable climate.

“This is a very strong, veteran-friendly community,” he said. “There’s a strong tradition of veterans.”

The problem remains, though, and a new generation of veterans continues to return home with scars that will never completely heal. At the veterans’ services department, said Mr. Bykowski, staff are just beginning to deal with those who took part in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Mr. Ball said he is concerned that as veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to reach the point in their lives where they require support and assistance, that help will have disappeared. Once those conflicts draw to a close, he said, the likelihood is that post-traumatic stress disorder will fade from the public consciousness and become a lesser priority for veterans affairs and other governmental entities.

“That’s what I’m afraid of ... that the public will forget, that (veterans affairs) will forget,” said Mr. Ball. “How long is that commitment to these guys?”

dkittredge@thegardnernews.com


J.L. Vallee
Westminster Info Press
PO Box 62
Westminster, MA 01473
JLVallee@SeveredSoul.com
www.severedsoul.com
http://www.myspace.com/author_jlvallee