Healing PTSD does not come exclusively from pills

One of the most troubling pieces of news not making the news is the fact most of the veterans going to the VA are not receiving therapy at all. Too many are simply seeing a psychiatrist, getting a wallet full of prescriptions to fill and sent away. When they complain they are not getting any better, they get their dosage increased or a another drug is added to the mix. Pills should be part of the healing to rewind the way their minds work but without therapy, pills do very little good.

What the military has gotten right is the Buddy Program, so that no one is alone, without someone watching over them and having someone to talk to. This however is not carried on after discharge when they return to their home states, more often than not, back to a family unable or unwilling to step in and help them heal.

Sporadic parts of the country are stepping up with programs to help provide the therapy these veterans need just as many new groups have formed on the Internet. The problem is there is no monitoring of the groups on the web and even less monitoring of the groups attempting to provide what the VA has not been doing. It would be a wonderful day if experts within the VA treating PTSD would step in and help these groups to make sure that the help is actually helping instead of harming. Good intentions are not enough when you are dealing with life and death.

If you have twenty volunteers helping, fully up to speed about PTSD and doing great work, that can all be undone by one hack giving the wrong information or taking the wrong approach. Since most of the work being done is done in private, how can anyone know what is being said behind closed doors? Do these groups have someone checking on what is being provided?

We make a huge mistake when we assume people are experts on what they are supposed to be dealing with, but the truth is, psychiatrists and psychologists may not be experts on PTSD even though they are treating it. Many chaplains report they know very little about PTSD but are supposed to be able to provide spiritual care/council to soldiers with it. Most of the misdiagnosis being reporter are not done for any other reason than the providers are not experts on PTSD because no matter what they may suspect, if they look for it, they will find it in PTSD.

Bipolar, paranoid, schizophrenia, personality disorders, alcoholism, drug addiction, you name it, the symptoms can all be found in PTSD. The provider won't know for sure unless they are looking for the key words "suddenly changed" and then back that up to looking for a traumatic event. PTSD comes only after trauma. A person does not change drastically for no reason at all. Instead of the providers looking for the source of the changes in the first place, they hunt around for the usual suspects. Medications even for the wrong illness can mask what is at the root of the illness, or in the case of PTSD, the wounding.

Most veterans view events with tunnel vision, unable to take in the whole picture of what brought on the event eating away at them. They cannot change their focus because the pull is too strong and no one is helping them to see beyond the event. If they are allowed to continue to feel "evil" holding onto the pain, the pain gets stronger and they get weaker. Medication is increased in response instead of talking them thru it.

Can there be any more telling evidence of this than this article? They are trying to fill in the gaps anyway they can. They want to heal, not be just medicated into numbness. They want to feel good things again. They can't get there from here unless they receive the help they really need instead of just what is the easiest to provide.

Soldiers find comfort at tattoo shops, churches and other refuges
Service members at Fort Hood battered by war and last month's shootings.
By Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, December 13, 2009

KILLEEN — In the ink embedded in his arms, Army Sgt. Ryan Witko carries the scars of war. The Cincinnati native did two tours in Iraq, providing security for ambulances in Baghdad. He's cleaned out body parts and blood from damaged Humvees. He's watched fellow soldiers arrive at the hospital he worked at in the Green Zone shattered and stunned by attacks. And in 2007, Witko was in a Humvee that was blown apart by a roadside bomb.

The 27-year-old now walks with the assistance of a curved black cane and gets through the day thanks to a cocktail of medications prescribed for his degenerative disc disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and sleeplessness. He says he's "floating around" Fort Hood until his scheduled medical discharge next month.

For Witko, comfort and solace now come from an unlikely place: La Rude's Tattoo Studio, on a gritty avenue filled with pawn shops and convenience stores in downtown Killeen. On his right arm, Witko has the words "Only God Can Judge Me," a phrase, he says, meant to "cleanse me of the guilt of the things that I had to do while in Iraq."

"When I can't find relief anywhere else, I come here and get a tattoo," he said on a recent evening. "There are three or four guys here on a regular basis who are going through the same thing, and this is like a meeting spot."

With Fort Hood soldiers routinely serving multiple tours in two wars and still reeling from the Nov. 5 shootings that left 13 dead and dozens injured at the post, their mental health is being taxed in unprecedented ways. Since the shooting, Army officials have increased services available to soldiers, but some are still reluctant to talk to a therapist. For soldiers like Witko, help comes from a phalanx of informal counselors — tattoo artists, coffee shop owners and clergy members.
read more hereSoldiers find comfort