Get help for PTSD before your mind changes you

I agree on the thinking about PTSD has to change in the below article, but it has to happen fast.

Vietnam veterans proved it is never too late to get help and live a better life even if you cannot be cured. There is healing going on for them no matter how long they have had it.

That said they are also a great example of what can happen when help does not start soon enough. Their brain scans show changes. Without getting into too much detail, this is the basic on this.

Grafman is one of the scientists behind the Vietnam Head Injury Study (VHIS). This study is a 30 year analysis of Vietnam veterans that measures a whole host of outcomes. Among the myriad of unfortunate effects of combat on soliders, two things occur frequently; brain injury and, especially in Vietnam, PTSD. The VHIS analyzed 245 Vietnam combat veterans, of whom 193 had some permanent brain damage. The remaining 52 had experienced combat but not suffered lasting brain damage. As part of the VHIS, the location and extent of brain damage was determined in each subject using brain imaging. Koenigs and colleagues then asked a simple question of each veteran; have you ever experienced PTSD? Around 45% had. They then grouped patients into PTSD+ and PTSD- groups based upon their responses and re-analyzed the results from the brain scans to see if damage to particular parts of the brain correlated with the occurrence of PTSD.

There is a growing group of researchers saying that PTSD changes the brain and that could be behind the fact that if therapy starts early, then most of what PTSD does can be reversed. That is also one of the reasons why when something really traumatic happens to a large group of people, crisis intervention teams rush in. Like what is happening in Boston right now after the bomb blasts.

So if you need help, get it before your mind changes you.

GUEST EDITORIAL: Thinking on PTSD has to change
Apr. 15, 2013

Linda Fletcher thinks it’s time to start thinking differently about post-traumatic stress disorder — how it is defined, diagnosed and treated.

Given the huge numbers of military veterans suffering the horrors of PTSD and the limited success the medical profession has had dealing with its debilitating symptoms, the sooner the better.

Fletcher is uniquely qualified to talk about PTSD. She is a retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. and a 22-year veteran of the Army Nurse Corps. Her father was a career Army officer who, she believes, suffered from PTSD most of his adult life after his combat experiences in Italy in WWII, where he was awarded the Silver Star.

Fletcher’s concerned about the long-term effects PTSD will have on veterans, their families and society.

“What we are doing doesn’t work,” she said. “We’re still treating people from World War II and Vietnam. It’s incredibly expensive and there is a lot of collateral damage — drug and alcohol abuse, inability to hold a job, homelessness, suicide, fractured homes. … It’s a huge problem and it’s just getting bigger.”
read more here