Mental health worker get crash course on Combat PTSD

Soldiers and health professionals focus on PTSD
Florida Today
Written by
R. Norman Moody
September 6, 2013

COCOA BEACH — Cortney Butler wants to help spread the word about mental-health issues faced by troops returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Butler, an Air Force master sergeant, said military medical personnel told her she suffers from adjustment disorder. However, Butler said she is experiencing the anxiety, depression and anger that comes with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It’s almost as if PTSD is a new thing,” said Butler, a reservist with the 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick Air Force Base. “An incredible amount of my peers are coming back with this.”

Local mental-health care providers got a crash course in PTSD Friday at Warrior’s World: Understanding the Mental Health Care Needs of Veterans, an effort to improve the care that the men and women returning from war receive.

More than 50 mental health care professionals came together for the symposium Friday at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront Hotel. Sessions covered military sexual assault, military culture and assisting military families, in addition to PTSD.

Bill Vagianos, a psychologist and a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, told the audience that part of PTSD is feeling like you are not useful. He spoke as a panelist on one session on PTSD, telling participants about how he was affected after his best friend and many other fellow Marines were killed in the war.
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UPDATE
Bill Vagianos opened up his heart and told his story about how he became a Psychiatrist after Vietnam. If you want to know what it takes to really be the best at what a person does, here's the best clue possible. It is not just his career. Combat PTSD is his life!