PTSD Specialist doesn't want to talk about feelings and combat? Really?

Well she has the first part right anyway. She's right about the body response to traumatic events with the part of the brain associated with animal studies they've been doing. The "flight or fight" response that is automatic. So read this first.

PTSD specialist simplifies stress science
By Senior Airman Whitney Tucker
27th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
Published August 14, 2013

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS)
Tania Glenn, who has a doctorate in psychology and is a licensed clinical social worker, delivered a feelings-free, scientific analysis of the human body's physiological response to high-stress situations during a briefing Aug. 5, to help Airmen here understand their biological processes downrange.

Glenn, who specializes in post-traumatic stress disorder in service members and first responders, described the chemical reactions that take place within the body when it experiences stress, as a state of physical or emotional activation. The Airmen learned about the biological cues that trigger phenomena such as the fog of war and fight-or-flight syndrome.

In years past, fight or flight was believed to occur in seven- to 10-minute spurts very sporadically throughout the adult life. More recently, researchers and clinicians have discovered that individuals engaged in combat situations are able to maintain a state of fight or flight for months on end since it is a naturally engineered survival mechanism.

"The core element of stress, the very foundation of stress, is fight-or-flight syndrome," Glenn said. "Without fight or flight we would not survive as a species. For members of the armed forces, this is how it works: you learn of an upcoming deployment and your energy begins to shift; you start to ramp up mentally, you disengage from your family little by little and you adopt an aggressive mindset to prepare for the hostile environment you're going to be immersed in. As you adopt that mindset and your energy shifts, you begin to produce more adrenaline, glucose and cortisol, which are the very basis of the fight-or-flight response."

Glenn went on to explain that cortisol is the key factor of PTSD. Therefore, individuals who are exposed to high-threat situations that require their bodies to enter into a no-holds-barred state of fight or flight for an extended period of time are more likely to experience unpleasant symptoms, similar to withdrawal, upon returning to an environment with nonthreatening conditions.

Though based out of Austin, Texas, Glenn travels cross-country providing respite to service men and women who bear the physical and emotional scars that accompany more than a decade of war. Though she is an accomplished psychologist, Glenn is clear on one point: the "F-word:" Feelings. Feelings shall be referred to most sparingly and only when completely necessary, she said.

"I'm a boots-on-the-ground kind of person and we don't use the F-word," she joked. "I talk about the brain and the body and what happens during trauma and stress. These reactions have nothing to do with feelings, they're about survival. I work every day to help men and women recover from trauma and PTSD because if there's one thing I can't stand, it's seeing warriors suffer."
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I have a feeling they will not allow my comment on this article so here is what I wrote.

Not part of the answer but part of the problem. Just as doing a study in rats to "prevent PTSD" when emotions are left out of it when we're talking about military folks, that is a huge mistake. Being willing to die for someone else is tied to the emotional part of the brain, not the animal part they always seem to talk about.

This is the biggest problem I have with "experts" addressing PTSD in humans when they cannot manage to begin to comprehend the difference between human emotions and animals.

We know that dogs can get PTSD and we also know they feel guilty but as with my dog Harry, he's over it really fast and looking for a snack. Take a combat veteran after they were forced to open fire on a family resulting in their deaths and feelings are a huge part of what they have to address, not ignore.

We've seen videos on elephants reacting to the death of one of their own along with many other species, but this reaction is different than humans on so many levels again "feelings" cannot be ignored.

The worst thing is this goes to show that the people in charge really don't have a clue what they are talking about with combat PTSD. On one hand they are trying to prevent PTSD by addressing their emotions and making them "mentally tough" with "resilience" training even after real experts said this training does not fit with military culture and you cannot train someone to become resilient. They still push it even though the result is more death by suicide.