Frustrating PTSD veterans with searches

Frustrating PTSD veterans with searches
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 16, 2014

How much more simple can it be? To think veterans survived combat but find it so difficult to survive being back home says something about what they come home to. Why do they lose the will to live after combat? What is it they lose inside of themselves that taking their own life seems to be their only way out of the pain they carry inside?

I was just reading an editorial on the Bismarck Tribune about North Dakota National Guardsmen. It has a lot of good points from pointing out that PTSD is not new to the fact that seeking help does require courage.

The article ended with "PTSD can be as real as any physical wound, and equally as debilitating. A little help can be a very good thing."

That is not exactly true. While it is true that as soon as veterans seek help for PTSD, it stops getting worse, it is not true that "any" help can be a good thing. The wrong help can me much worse.

When Vietnam veterans came home and even when Gulf War veterans returned, the World Wide Web did not really reach the general population until 1994.

By the end of 1994, while the total number of websites was still minute compared to present standards, quite a number of notable websites were already active, many of which are the precursors or inspiring examples of today's most popular services.

I was online in 1993 and there were sites dedicated to veterans, most geared to Vietnam veterans searching for each other like Army Lost and Found from 1994.

Now if a veteran searches for help or information on PTSD they discover this as a result of a Google Search http://www.google.com/#q=post+traumatic+stress+disorder, About 17,300,000 results (0.52 seconds)

If they search for PTSD http://www.google.com/#q=ptsd About 5,860,000 results (0.33 seconds)

Think of how many results they would miss if they just used the term they know all too well PTSD instead of spelling it all out.

If a veteran searches for a more defined category http://www.google.com/#q=combat+post+traumatic+stress+disorder, they find About 2,450,000 results (0.57 seconds) but if they search for http://www.google.com/#q=combat+ptsd they find more, About 3,390,000 results (0.53 seconds)

Already it is easy to understand how they can miss a lot out there just by how they search for information, support and help.

Searching for a support group is just as tricky. http://www.google.com/#q=combat+ptsd+support+groups About 3,090,000 results (0.35 seconds) but a search for general http://www.google.com/#q=ptsd+support+groups produces About 7,720,000 results (0.54 seconds)

http://www.google.com/#q=post+traumatic+stress+disorder+support+groups, About 2,640,000 results (0.40 seconds)

http://www.google.com/#q=combat+post+traumatic+stress+disorder+support+groups, About 1,360,000 results (0.43 seconds)

It is information overload no matter how you define it.

Some of the sites are really good but they won't find them if they are using the wrong search terms.

These are the top links for Combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Support Groups

While these are the results for Combat PTSD Support Groups

A search for charities helping veterans with PTSD http://www.google.com/#q=charities+helping+veterans+with+ptsd About 764,000 results (0.44 seconds) and for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder http://www.google.com/#q=charities+help+veterans+with+post+traumatic+stress, About 416,000 results (0.43 seconds)

Think of all the places they miss if they use the wrong terms. Think of how easy it is to just give up searching. Then think of what "a little help" actually means.

I was even pretty shocked with the results because most coming up on the top search results are groups I have not heard of before. By the time I put this together I had a headache! If I am this frustrated when I track news reports everyday, how frustrating do you think it is for them? They do not do well in with other people with PTSD. PTSD after combat is different from what other survivors end up with. Just as a survivor of a crime will not get what veterans went through, they won't get what the crime survivor is dealing with.

Do you think that someone, anyone of the brightest minds online can come up with a Google search that will put all veterans need in one place so they won't miss help because of a different search term?