The price of ignoring the oracle

In ancient times oracles were sought out and listened to. Anything important enough to wonder about, was important enough to know about.

oracle
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin oraculum, from orare to speak - More at - oration
Date: 15th century
Results

1 a. 1 aa person (as a priestess of ancient Greece) through whom a deity is believed to speakb. ba shrine in which a deity reveals hidden knowledge or the divine purpose through such a personc. can answer or decision given by an oracle

2 a. 2 aa person giving wise or authoritative decisions or opinionsb. ban authoritative or wise expression or answer

People often regretted ignoring the wise council of the oracle. Just as now this nation is filled with people scratching their heads wondering what to do about PTSD, pretending they have been inventing the answers only to find out none of them really work.

The problem is, the oracles in this case have not only lived in the past, they see clearly where it is all leading to today because nothing has changed. Mistakes will be repeated with deadly consequences. People will still search and a few of them will snag some media attention as if they are the only people on the planet paying attention to PTSD, but that's because the reporters just don't have a clue about what they have refused to listen to all along. Give me an oracle if you really want answers because finding out that the answers have been there all along, will leave a lot of people really, really pissed off no one told them.

The BBC did a report a few years about with our troops in Afghansitan talking about how little time they had to understand PTSD. The subject back then was Battlemind. No one is really doing anything if there are any colonels still out there saying they didn't have any training at all. Give this, looks as if my worst fears have been brought to life. The people with the power to listen wouldn't. The people who sought advice, did but had no power to make the changes.

PTSD: An Army colonel’s quest for answers

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 7, 2009 14:51:58 EDT

Army Col. Rich O’Connor does not mince words when he talks about the amount of mental health training he had before he took a squadron in the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment to war in Iraq’s Diyalah province in 2006.

“What kind of training did I receive on post-traumatic stress?” he said. “Zero. How much did our soldiers receive? None.”

O’Connor told a room of high-ranking officers and enlisted soldiers at the annual Association of the U.S. Army convention that he was too busy training for war to even think about post-traumatic stress disorder. And he said that after talking to other battalion commanders and command sergeants major, he realized nobody else had, either.

Then a military psychiatrist told him she didn’t believe commanders cared about PTSD.

“I can tell you that’s probably true,” O’Connor said. “We’ve got an issue here.”

As he returned from the battlefield, more and more of his men were diagnosed with PTSD, and he began to wonder if he was doing enough for them. The issue struck even closer to home when his son, Pfc. Ryan O’Connor, was diagnosed with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury after serving in Iraq during the same time period as his father.

He realized people needed to be educated about the issue, and he began with himself. He decided to write a paper about the history of PTSD, its definition, how soldiers see the issue, what therapists believe needs to be done, what research has shown and what needs to happen next.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_ausa_ptsd_100709w/

The problem is they also didn't listen to the people I listened to in the beginning.

Aphrodite Matsakis Ph.D.
Licensed Counseling Psychologist

Dr. Matsakis is an internationally recognized trauma specialist in areas such as post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders, clinical depression, addiction and related issues and their impact on relationships and the family. She has authored twelve books self-help books for clients and therapists and two professional text books; three book chapters; and a book on the Greek-American experience.

Dr, Matsakis has over twenty five years experience counseling individuals, couples, and families and six years experience teaching at the university level. She has conducted trauma-processing, pain-management anger-management, self-esteem, and guilt processing groups and has presented seminars on these and other topics nationally and internationally to both professional and lay audiences. Following the bombing in Oklahoma City , she was called upon to assist survivors and professionals She's also presented at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial on Memorial Day and at national conferences on sexual assault and anxiety management.

Most of her forensic work has involved vehicular accidents, personal injury, medical malpractice, murder, family violence and sexual assault. She has also testified on traumatic and stress reactions, addiction, mood disorders and issues pertaining to racial discrimination

Dr. Matsakis received a BA in history from Washington University in St. Louis , MO ; a MA in Secondary Education from Stanford University ( Palo Alto , CA ) and a MA and Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Maryland in College Park ( College Park , MD ). See also resume.


Areas of Expertise:
Women's Issues Depression
Sexual Trauma Combat Civilian Trauma
Relationships Stress Management
Family Violence Eating Disorders Addictions
Divorce Parenting Contracts
Chronic Pain Medical Disability
Bereavement Midlife-Evaluation
Minority Issues Cultural Assimilation Issues
Services:
Individual Couples Family Counseling
Psychological Evaluation Expert Witness
Professional Lay Seminars Professional Supervision
Telephone Consultation Forensic Consultation: Records Review

With over 17,000 posts on my two blogs, there are only a few posts with her name even mentioned.


They didn't listen to Dr. Jonathan Shay either. While there are more posts on him, there is very little about his opinion being sought out. It didn't matter that he was already an expert when I started to learn about PTSD and why my husband was dying a very slow death in front of my eyes. I actually had a lot of communication with him because his book was so good and so true to life. Try reading Achilles in Vietnam sometime and you'll know what I mean.



Need I remind you, dear gentle reader that my husband and I just had our 25th wedding anniversary on Sept. 30th? The marriage that was supposed to fall apart before 5 years managed to thrive because of people like Shay and Matsakis. A lot of other people managed to stay alive, keep families together and find hope because of the work I was able to do, because other people did what they did first. Now do you get it? See, we're here, have been here, all along no matter how much others want to keep making their own wheel instead of using the ones already built. I may have tweaked the way I say things but Shay and Matsakis, among others, started to say it all first. I came up with putting this suffering into videos, but I had to learn what I was talking about first. While what I learned from them helped me to cope with my own marriage, living in my own marriage helped me help other people.

Maybe it's time old oracles were heard once again so that more lives can be saved instead of letting our hearts get broken watching the wreckage we couldn't have prevented. I'm not talking about just me, or Matsakis or Shay, but all the others out there all along. After all, skipping over what we've already learned has been a lesson in disaster.