Have PTSD APP On Phone? Forget About It!

PTSD The Quick and Easy Nonsense
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 15, 2015

Before you get PTSD, you need to understand a lot of stuff.  The first one is surviving should never be easier than dealing with the trauma itself afterwards.  It is only harder if you don't kick the crap out of it right away.

I did.  Each and every time.  The thing is, when my life was threatened the first time I was only 5. That was when I knew what trauma could do to a person, even a little kid. The rest of my life was one thing after another including TBI. I am stubborn, refuse to give in to anything so I hit back right away. I know I was changed by what happened but the events did not destroy me.

Crisis Intervention Training taught me why it worked.  The "thing" that had my life on the line stopped trying to end me when I started to talk about it in a "safe place" where I usually lived, free from fear of it following me.

There is a 30 day window after trauma and in that time you may try to do all kinds of things to try to feel more "normal" but if you are not feeling better within that time, get professional help.

We are hard wired to live with normal stuff but unprepared to deal with the freak events that are not supposed to happen.  Believe it or not, there are millions of Americans with PTSD.

Here are some facts (based on the U.S. population):

• About 7 or 8 out of every 100 people (or 7-8% of the population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives.
• About 8 million adults have PTSD during a given year. This is only a small portion of those who have gone through a trauma.
• About 10 of every 100 (or 10%) of women develop PTSD sometime in their lives compared with about 4 of every 100 (or 4%) of men. 

We talk about combat PTSD and what happens to police officers and firefighters but then the rest of us have to follow the lead on the major causes of PTSD especially when considering that the government tends to focus on military needs first.  That is where all the research on PTSD started and oh, by the way, that started over 40 years ago.

The DAV started major research in the 70's.

DAV and PTSD

"In 1977, DAV was approached by Dr. John Wilson of Cleveland State University concerning a doctoral thesis he had titled “The Forgotten Warrior Project.” His thesis was to clarify and provide a diagnosis for what we now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Vietnam veterans. Dr. Wilson had previously approached all the major service organizations and they declined any assistance. However, DAV saw the value of this research and agreed to fund and publish the study.

The study resulted in the creation of the DAV Vietnam Veterans Outreach Program, which was implemented in six cities. Within six months, DAV witnessed the benefit of these counseling centers were having on Vietnam veterans—they now had a place to talk to others like themselves. DAV expanded the program to 63 cities, one of which was Boston."

The National Vietnam Veterans' Readjustment Study (NVVRS) was conducted in response to a congressional mandate in 1983 for an investigation of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other postwar psychological problems among Vietnam Veterans 

After that it all trickled down to the rest of us.  When they got it right, the rest of us did better but when they got it wrong,  everyone paid the price, from survivors to our family members and everyone else in our lives.

If you think for a second that none of this matters to you, understand that very simple fact because you never know when something will happen to you.

Ok, so coming later on for the rest of us are a lot of things that are being sold as the answer to everything.  There is "no one size fits all" so don't believe half the things you hear.

PTSD service dogs, great for some, help in some way but are not the only thing needed. What if you don't like dogs? What if you are afraid of them? What if the only help you've been offered is something that scares you more?

Equine Therapy, also good for some, but again, not for everyone.  Ever stand next to a horse? They are huge! I happen to love them almost as much as I love dogs but they are not for everyone. What if the only help you can find is tied to horses?

Medications help some but not all medications are good and cannot be viewed as a "cure" since most of them will only numb you.  Same thing with substance abuse.  Numbing is not healing.  Just because you stopped feeling pain doesn't mean you are feeling better and just because you drink to pass out that doesn't mean you are falling asleep.

Therapy has to treat all of you. Not just your mind or your body or just your spiritual needs.  The best way is to treat all of those parts of you equally.  Otherwise you may get by a little easier but you are not healing.

It seems everyone wants quick and easy on living with PTSD but none of that stuff works.  Your life changed but folks kind of forgot to tell you that you can change again for the better.  Just like all the "awareness" folks out there collecting your money to tell you veterans have a problem.  They leave out how to be aware of how to live a better quality of life.

Here is another quick and easy "fix" for you.

Just one more case of laziness and greed. They used to have to prove something worked before they claimed it did and got lots of money for it.

Bummer: No Evidence That Anti-Depression Apps Really Work

England’s publicly funded health care system, the National Health Service (NHS), has endorsed more than a dozen depression treatment apps, but there’s no proof that most of them actually work, according to a report published this week in the journal Evidence Based Mental Health. The authors of the report examined each of the fourteen depression apps the NHS lists in its app library and found that only two of them had been clinically validated using standard metrics.

In the same article it seems the US doesn't really approve of them and has oversight over them.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) so far hasn’t taken much of an active stance on validating mental health apps. The agency published guidance in February this year, noting that apps that are intended to help with coping skills for people with depression and other psychiatric conditions may be subject to FDA oversight.

So if you have a APP that isn't doing you much good either, it isn't you. Just more of the same stuff that has been going on for decades dressed up in a new package.