Stop calling PTSD Veterans Victims and Worse

Here we go again! Treat veterans as if they are only interested in a monthly check and then we get to dismiss their suffering.

THEY ARE NOT VICTIMS! THEY ARE SURVIVORS!

The VA unwittingly scares PTSD victims
The News Journal
Marketta Davis and Rob Johnson
October 13, 2014

Doctors and mental health counselors face several frustrations in treating PTSD besides the malady itself, including government bureaucracy and the stigma surrounding the disease.

Doctors and mental health counselors say there are several effective treatments for the post-traumatic stress disorder that plagues military veterans, but a breakthrough to ease their fears about stepping forward to actually get therapy is elusive.

"I know I have had veterans ask us if they are at risk for losing their benefits if they undergo treatment," said Dr. Candace Drake, a psychologist at Pensacola's Joint Ambulatory Care Center, where hundreds of PTSD patients are treated. "And yes, I have to tell them, ethically."
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BULL! Ok, there are a few fakes interested in getting the paycheck and most of the time they are faking PTSD. You won't see this type going for treatment. Most don't go because they don't want to be doped and numbed out of their minds. They don't want to deal with the red tape of trying to have their claims approved. Those are the folks, almost half of the veterans needing help, not even trying to get it including filing a claim.

Then you have the folks doing all they can to make it day to day on this side of the earth instead of under it.

If you know any Vietnam veterans, they have been in treatment for decades. The goal for them is to keep from getting worse.

When we talk about healing it is a matter of making things less bad. Making sure that as PTSD spreads out into the nervous system and hearts, it does not take over. To show them how to calm down again, how to control their mood swings and reduce the power of nightmares and flashbacks.

We work on the spiritual part of them by helping them understand that their PTSD is different than what other people end up with. There is the trauma from the event that hits the psychological and the spiritual that hits their souls.

PTSD isn't one size fits all but some "experts" want to pretend it is all the same. It is far from it.

Great experts say that the nature of the trauma must be treated differently just as the cause came from different events.

If you ever wanted to understand why so many veterans are committing suicide it is because they have lost hope of healing. Plain, simple truth. The job of the therapist is to restore that hope, not slam the veterans.