When PTSD articles fail to tell the whole truth, suffering goes on

When PTSD articles fail to tell the whole truth, suffering goes on
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
November 2, 2012

I just read an article "Does PTSD Cause Violence?" that appeared to have a lot to offer in the discussion involving the different type of PTSD veterans and police officers are hit by than what civilians end up with. While civilians can suffer from traumatic events that happen once in their lives, usually they do not have to face it happening over and over again.

Abuse is different from other traumatic "events" in a person's life. Abuse is a continuing cycle with the constant fear of repeated threats to their lives and wellbeing. For abuse victims, if they live with the abuser, events feed what living with trauma has already done to them. Victims are told to get away from the abuser but until that person is in jail or has died, the fear remains until the survivor can be sure they are no longer in danger. They cannot begin to heal until the threat is gone.

In attempting to remove the idea that PTSD veterans are dangerous the article misses too much that needs to be discussed. Apparently the authors have not discovered what a flashback is or they would know what happens if a veteran is having a flashback and some decides to yell at them or touch them, especially a spouse. Nightmares, well they are just as bad if someone goes about waking them up the wrong way. They put "flashback" in the list along with hyper-arousal but while attempting to eliminate the fear some people have they cut out some really important details.

Does PTSD Cause Violence? Article from Badge of Life
By Andy O’Hara, Sergeant (ret.) California Highway Patrol and Founder, Badge of Life,
and
Richard L. Levenson, Jr., Psy.D., CTS, Vice Chairman, Badge of Life

Are veterans (or police officers) with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) a danger on the streets? Are combat veterans with PTSD returning home as “trained killers?”

We have all read these newspaper headlines: “PTSD made him a Murderer!” “Psychologist: Killer has PTSD!” “War damaged vet kills girlfriend; PTSD to blame?” “Officer uses PTSD defense for strangling, battering his wife.”

These are the kind of headlines making the rounds as thousands of military veterans return from our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not only is society fearing them, but some police departments are warning their personnel to “be on the watch” for veterans in general (as if you can tell them apart), with the implication that military service alone carries the threat of having the “PTSD germ.”

Defense attorneys are always open for a ready-made opportunity to suggest that a suspect was conditioned by the military into responding to any stress situations with violence—and thereby commit a murder. The media, of course, sees a story guaranteed to generate both interest and controversy throughout the extended length of a trial, and the headlines, as we have seen, inflame and arouse a variety of passions.

The unfortunate consequence of this sensationalism, sadly, is to stigmatize not only veterans with PTSD, but all PTSD sufferers, as being potentially dangerous.

This is not really new. To begin with, society has always tended to view the mentally ill as “dangerous.” Mental Health America reports that characters with mental illnesses are depicted in prime time television shows as the most dangerous of all demographic groups: 60 percent were shown to be involved in crime or violence. Also, most news accounts portray people with mental illness as dangerous. The vast majority of news stories on mental illness either focus on other negative characteristics related to people with the disorder (e.g., unpredictability and unsociability) or on medical treatments.

Simply put, PTSD is “fear” based, not “aggression” based. The DSM-IV-R (Diagnostic Statistical Manual, Revised) is clear. In brief, the primary features of the this illness are:
· flashbacks
· withdrawal
· numbing
· hyperarousal
· and isolation.

Violence is not included. In fact, not one single research study exists linking violent behavior with the diagnosis of PTSD. While, anger and agitation are common symptoms of PTSD, these feelings tend to be turned inward, contributing to making it the terribly painful disorder it is. Combined with depression, it is not unusual for the sufferer to become suicidal. But a diagnosis of PTSD, in itself, does not make a person violent towards others. Again, the concern should be more that they will be a danger to themselves, not others. There is a possibility, of course, that unintentional harm could come to others as the result of a suicide attempt, not only by gunshot, but though an intentional automobile accident, jumping from a building, or any other number of self-destructive acts. John Violanti, Ph.D., in his book, “Police Suicide: Epidemic in Blue,” points out the interesting phenomenon of “suicide by suspect,” in which an officer consciously or unconsciously wishes to die and willfully involves himself in situations of extreme danger or confrontation with a criminal, thereby increasing the risk of death. Even so, in these situations the danger to others is indirect and unintentional.

Here are just two of them the authors said do not exist.

VA research shows that male vets with PTSD are two to three times more likely than veterans without PTSD, to engage in intimate partner violence and more likely to be involved in the legal system.

Veterans with PTSD are two to three times as likely to be physically abusive of their wives and girlfriends as those without the diagnosis. They’re three times as likely to get into fistfights when they go to college. One study showed they are especially prone to “impulsive aggression,” but that “premeditated aggression” — the kind of act Bales is accused of — was far more common in veterans without PTSD than in those with it.

They are in fact more likely to harm themselves than anyone else and this blog proves that. There are more posts about suicide than crimes and Wounded Times Blog tracks these stories across the country everyday. Few news reports are missed.

The reason is simple. Police officers and combat veterans "serve and protect" but because they are required to use violence as well as face it, the type of PTSD they end up with is much different than what civilians go through. They are not just survivors of traumatic events, they are participants in them. For them it is not just once, over and done with, but they live in a daily fear of something happening when they will once again risk their lives.

Now, think about what it takes for them to be willing to and able to do what they do everyday. It requires a deep level of core beliefs they can make a difference. They do not risk their lives to kill someone else, but they do risk their lives to save someone else.

When they have PTSD, the moment they had to take a life is frozen in their minds and they forget the events leading up to it unable to see "rest of the movie" in their own minds. If they begin to think it was an "evil" act then they think they have become evil as well. Their thoughts end up struggling to take over the core of their character. Emotional debriefing (when done right) allows them to view everything leading up to what they had to do. Once they remember their primary motivation was to protect someone else, they begin to forgive themselves for what they had to do.

They get survivor's guilt when they were not able to save a victim or their buddy. They blame themselves. Again this feeds into the "evil" thoughts because "they didn't deserve" to survive.

Most of the reaction we see is tied to if they get help or not. If the families know what to do and understand that how they react has a lot to do with how they all cope and heal.

We also need to think about side effects from medications they are given, if they use street drugs or alcohol to "get numb" along with a very long list of everything else including getting proper treatment and compensation. A lack of income when they can't work anymore adds to the stress they are under and there is nothing worse than finally admitting they need help but find no support in healing. This replaces the threat to their lives from combat with a threat of not being able to keep a roof over their heads and food for their families.

Trying to set the record straight avoids the reason Veterans Courts have been established across the country.