Civilian with PTSD hired, then fired because of PTSD

Wounded Times continually points out how employers do not want to hire veterans because they may...or may not have PTSD.

The following is a great example of the fact that civilians can have PTSD too, but employers never wonder about the other 8 million Americans with PTSD they hire all the time.

Woman Says She Was Fired As Gas Station Cashier Because Thorntons Couldn’t Accommodate Her PTSD

CBS Chicago
Tim McNicholas
January 17, 2020

CHICAGO (CBS) — A South Side woman says a major gas station chain fired her because they can’t accommodate her disability, even though she didn’t ask for any special accommodations.

CBS 2 Morning Insider Tim McNicholas has the story, including her questionable conversations with human resources.

“I asked her (the human resources employee) three times, ‘Why are you firing me?’ She said, ‘Because of your disability,’” she said.

Jamerson then got in touch with another human resources employee, and this time she recorded the call.

JAMERSON: “It stands as I’m terminated.”

HR: “Yes, ma’am”

JAMERSON: “Because of my disability.”

HR: “Not because of your disability, but because we can’t accommodate. And..”

JAMERSON: “You can’t accommodate my disability?”

HR: “Right.”

JAMERSON: “Okay.”

“I didn’t ask for any accommodations, or anything. So I didn’t understand,” she said.
PTSD patients sometimes struggle with interacting with the public, but Jamerson said she learned coping skills through months of therapy, and she was ready for the job.
read it here

It also shows that too many employers do not understand what PTSD is...or what the law is.

#TakeBackYourLife from trauma. I did!

Crossposted from PTSD Patrol
Special post for PTSD Awareness Day I cannot think of a better day to explain why I do what I do. I am a survivor! Not once, twice or even five times, but this will give you an idea of why I work as hard as I do, devoted so much research and get so pissed off!

It is the reason for this site, Combat PTSD Wounded Times, all the books, videos and articles, training, research and yes, my marriage that has lasted over 3 decades!

If you have PTSD, no matter what caused it, you need to hear this. If nothing else, this is the one message you need to get today of all days, because all the bullshit out there has been blocking what could change your next day.

Yep! #TakeBackYourLife from trauma. I did!

This may shock some of my friends but, if you read the book, FOR THE LOVE OF JACK, HIS WAR MY BATTLE, then you already know all of this. (PS original book was in 2003 before this became a billion dollar industry for people making a lot of money off our suffering.)

Assholes among us

What is the difference between a PTSD advocate and an asshole? An advocate knows why you feel like crap and an asshole wants to make sure you feel worse.

Hey, if it is ok enough that Merriam Webster has it up, I can use it too.

Definition of ASSHOLE
1 usually vulgar : anus
2 a usually vulgar : a stupid, incompetent, or detestable person
b usually vulgar : the worst place —used in phrases like asshole of the world

If you talk to assholes, you get wrong answers that make you feel worse. If you talk to advocates, you usually walk away feeling a lot better.

Asshole will say "You were messed up before you went into the military."

Advocate will say, "Your lifetime struggles were not enough to stop you from risking that same life for someone else. You were able to overcome all you went through before the military but then needed help because of the military part of your life." In other words, since you were not too messed up to join and make it past their mental health evaluations, blaming your past doesn't make much sense.

An asshole will say, "Man up" "Grow a pair" and try to make you as "tough" as they think they are.

(Like to see them try that on some of the veterans with a Medal of Honor around their neck and the list of MOH heroes talking about their own battles with PTSD grows all the time.)

An advocate will say, "The pain was not caused by being back home. It was caused by being there. You had all that pain inside you but still managed to do your duty, watch out for those you were with until you all made it back home.

We can keep doing this all night but you get the point. All the crap you've been hearing lately about how your PTSD was not caused by the military but your past, isn't anything new. They used to shoot soldiers for being cowards when it was clearly PTSD. Now they just make sure you feel about as bad about yourself as possible so you stop blaming them and spend your own money on the bullet.

Got dumped by someone? Well that's why you're F'ed up. Why bother pointing out that your relationship was fine until you started to experience what PTSD does?

Got trouble sleeping? Well that's why you feel like crap all day. Why bother explaining why you have nightmares and flashbacks? Easy on that one. Helping you work through what is going on inside of you takes time. Slogans happen fast.

Want to share something with someone you hope will help only to end up feeling worse? Assholes don't care about what you want to say. They only care about what they want you to hear. This is happening all over Facebook in groups where veterans pour out their hearts only to get nonsense back like "I'll pray for you" while you don't have money to eat, have a gun in your hand or had everyone in your life walk away from you.

Same thing with charities. If you ask them for help for what they keep claiming they do and they don't, that means their mission has become getting money and fame for themselves and not about you.

Too many conversations lately about veterans reaching out for help and not getting the right kind of help just shows during a time when there have never been so many people out there claiming to help, it gets worse for veterans for a reason. There are assholes among us and when it comes to PTSD, refer back to #2 "stupid, incompetent, or detestable person"

Why would Fort Carson ban people from helping soldiers?

Soldiers' advocates say Fort Carson banned them
Associated Press
BY DAN ELLIOTT
May 15 2014

DENVER — Two veterans who advocate for injured or mentally ill soldiers filed a lawsuit saying they have been illegally barred from Fort Carson.

The lawsuit, filed in Denver federal court, says Robert Alvarez and Andrew Pogany were told in November 2012 their presence disrupted "good order and discipline" on the post. They say they were given no specifics.

The men said they had been on Fort Carson several times before the ban and had experienced no problems.

Alvarez and Pogany said Fort Carson later falsely accused them of physically interfering in a personnel proceeding and of coaching a soldier to fake mental illness.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Denver federal court. Officials at Fort Carson, an infantry post outside Colorado Springs, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
read more here

Troubled vet helps others seek help

Troubled vet helps others seek help

BY JULIAN MARCH - Star-News
WILMINGTON -- Sgt. Peter Linquist rides an elevator down from his Carolina Beach apartment, his bulldog leaping out into the summer afternoon.

Linquist limps into the sun, lights a Camel cigarette and steps back into the shadows of the garage. On his Operation Iraqi Freedom hat, the word "veteran" stands out in gold letters.

He snaps his wrist, watching a string of smoldering black ash fly off his cigarette.

"I've slipped through the cracks," he said. "I have not gotten the help I deserved."

He finishes the cigarette and calls the dog back in, limping back to the elevator.

"I'm really not supposed to be walking around," Linquist said. It's been a little over a week since he had surgery on his left ankle for an injury caused by a blast.

Living with pain has become a central part of his life since he left Iraq in 2005.

He's only 27 years old, but he's on multiple medications. He takes antidepressants and mood stabilizers to treat symptoms from post-traumatic stress disorder. Because of injuries from a roadside bomb, he takes painkillers and muscle relaxants.

He said he has fought for adequate care from the Department of Veterans Affairs for nearly four years.

Recent news that the VA will make it easier for veterans to file PTSD claims may come too late for him. The VA said the changes would reduce the evidence needed for a veteran to say PTSD was connected to military service. Linquist, who had to outline specific dates of traumatic experiences, said making that process easier will be good for other vets.

He's also making a personal effort to make sure others don't suffer as he did by launching an advocacy organization to help veterans. It's called We Can Do This Together.

Read more: Troubled vet helps others seek help

PTSD:Mental health professionals need to listen

by
Chaplain Kathie
When a choir sits listening to the sermon each and every week, they are often surprised when they hear something new but often they hear something they had not thought of before. The saying "you're preaching to the choir" comes from this experience.

When it comes to mental health professionals it's time they began actually listening to the choir and stopped being offended by what they could learn if they got their egos out of the way. Advocates are not your enemy. We cannot diagnose conditions and we cannot treat psychological illnesses. We can however assist you in doing both. Most of us live with what you are trying to take care of.

When it comes to PTSD you can study all of it until you believe there is nothing more you need to know but unless you are living with it on a daily basis, there is much you will never learn in a book.

Often veterans are stunned by what I have to tell them and they will respond with "My psychologist never told me that." leaving me to respond with "They don't know because they don't live with it." but personally I want to add in "they will not listen either."

What you miss is that most of the veterans with PTSD were always sensitive people, caring about others more than themselves. They walk away from horrific events in combat taking away the pain of others along with their own. You need to treat them for the pain they feel inside but first you need to understand them and what made them different. This answers their most usual question of "Why me?"

What you fail to point out to them is that they showed great bravery when they kept on doing their duty, facing more and more traumatic events after they were wounded by PTSD and kept on doing it until they and their friends were out of danger or back home and then collapsed. They feel as if they are weak or cowards because the military tells them they can prepare their minds to be "tough" enough to take it.

What you fail to address is their soul. PTSD did not attack their mind first. It attacked their soul. It is an emotional wound setting off changes to the rest of the warrior. You need to find out if they believe God is judging them or they believe God abandoned them. This weighs heavily on their lives and cannot be dismissed. When they survive the horrors of war wondering where God was is often eating away at them and research has shown the faith of the "patient" does have a lot to do with the healing of that patient. Reconnecting them with their faith and God offers one more thing science cannot deliver on and that is hope. The loss of hope is one of the primary reasons many veterans commit suicide.

What also fail to understand is often they are not addicted to the chemicals alcohol and drugs offer but are seeking to kill off feelings, good and bad, they do not want to feel. There are times however you are dealing with both PTSD and addiction. If you misdiagnose either, the treatment will not work. If they have both then both need to be addressed. Ask if there is a history in the family of addiction and then take it from there. Do not assume it is an "either or" when it very well could be both.

What many of you are doing is talking to the family members to have a better understanding of what is going on. They know the history of your patient but they will not often know how things connect. Listen to key words like "suddenly changed" and then find out what happened before they "changed" to know what you are dealing with. Remember that family members are not mental health experts and will not think of things you need to know unless you ask them and listen carefully to what they do say. You also need to acknowledge that often the veteran will hide facts you need to know because they are either in denial or afraid to admit it. The spouse often can supply what they are not telling you.

In the process you also need to inform the spouse of things they can avoid to keep confrontation at a minimum. Often family troubles escalate because of their reactions to the veteran. If they do not understand what PTSD is and what it does, they will react as if they are dealing with the same person instead of a changed person. They react out of frustration and anger instead of reacting with knowledge. All the knowledge you give them will not only help them cope but will assist in treating the veteran as well.

Advocates can help you to help them. We are not in competition with you and we are not trying to take away your jobs. We're trying to make you better at doing your jobs so that you send back our warriors to us in the best possible condition so that we can live with them as well as possible.

And yes, you guessed right. I had another argument with another "expert" pointing out that they have a "Masters degree" but I pointed out I live with what they had to go to college to learn. Big difference.

Senior military spouses offer lessons learned

Good Lord! I feel like I should be posting this on my other blog, Screaming In An Empty Room because it feels like that's what I've been doing for 26 years! Is anyone listening to anything I have to say? Can't an advocate some attention by someone who can actually do something with what I've been screaming about?

We have IFOC Chaplains all across this country and they are fully trained, licensed, insured, FBI background checks done, and most of us are ordained. We're good enough for the police and fire departments but not good enough for the military or the VA to turn to in this crisis. What's wrong here?

I am not only a Senior Chaplain, but I belong to NAMI, on the veteran's council and I'm also a lifetime member of the DAV Auxiliary. I've passed the test with the IFOC and passed the test on Military Cultural Competence. Everything I say about veterans with PTSD comes from living with one and studying them for 26 years as well as talking to them, emailing with them and holding them when they crash. I haven't just talked to the wives of PTSD veterans, I am one!

Here we have General Casey' wife saying there is a shortage of mental health help and no one is asking us to help. This is a crisis and has been for a long time. Families are falling apart, kids are suffering and veterans are committing suicide. Domestic violence is going up and most of it does not need to happen if the wives know what PTSD is, understand it and then they can prevent the escalation of arguments turning into life or death situations. Who's in charge here and how do you get past people who do not want to listen?

Senior military spouses offer lessons learned

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 19, 2008 16:02:09 EST

Prolonged, continuous deployments and their effects on military families need to be seriously addressed in the coming year, said the wife of the Chief of Naval Operations, the wife of the Army chief of staff, and other senior spouses who participated in a panel discussion Nov. 18.

“It’s also long-term effects — we do not know the effects of these deployments on our children,” said Sheila Casey, wife of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, noting that little research has been done to date in that area.

“You do a study, and you are already there. The effects are already there,” she said.

“The Air Force is the newer service to commit to longer deployments,” said Bev Fraser, wife of Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. William Fraser. “We’ve learned from our sister services, but we’ve learned it’s still difficult.”

One things the Air Force is beginning to see, she said, is that retention is not always a positive thing these days. For some, it’s about “being bitter because you have to stay in” due to the faltering economy and civilian job market.

One thing Casey said she hears everywhere she travels to talk to Army families is difficulty in getting access to medical and mental health care.

“Doctors are deployed, and staff levels are down. It’s hard to get appointments. And you have to get an appointment to get a referral,” she said.

The military has been working to get more mental health doctors in its network, she said, but there is a shortage of mental health providers nationwide.
click link for more

PTSD stigma is over for us

After 26 years of doing outreach work, the stigma of PTSD is finally over for my husband. It was up to him when I started to use my married name because our story has been so personal. It took a long time to get here but from now on you'll see the name DiCesare on my posts and videos.

When I started to write, I was still in high school. The newspaper back home was used to seeing my name and when we got married, they had a hard time adjusting to the new name. I kept it. Back then it came in handy so that I could write about living with PTSD when the stigma was overwhelming the veterans and their families. Trying to get people to understand that living in silence should have never been necessary was nearly impossible. I tried to get people to understand that until they began to talk about this wound, the stigma would live on and they would suffer needlessly.

My husband is a private man, a quiet man and without a doubt one of the most magnificent I've ever met. Out of respect for his need for privacy, very few people knew my full name. While the work I do is because of him, veterans have claimed my heart because of him, this has never been about him. It's been about all of us. The men and women serving this nation and all the ones who came before them. It's been about the families trying to cope and understand what this wound does, not just to the veteran but to the entire family.

While I have responded to emails with full disclosure so that verifying my background can be done, many have not even bothered to ask. If you have any questions, please email me at namguardianangel@aol.com

There are still some things I do want to keep private but our lives have been pretty much an open book and that can be read from this blog on the side bar under Free Book, For the Love of Jack.

We will always run up against people who refuse to understand. We will always come in contact with people who refuse to become educated. It takes courage to talk about this but the more we do, someday, we will get to the point where the shame is laid at the feet where it belongs. Not on the veterans and not on their families, but on the judgmental people too closed minded and hard hearted to listen and learn. Over 7 million people are living with PTSD in the USA alone. Millions more across the globe. We have plenty of company.

We need to do this for the Vietnam veterans, still trying to heal and we need to do this for the new generation so they do not have to suffer in silence anymore. We need to be their voices until they can find their own.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
407-754-7526
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Shaking your dust off my feet

LUKE 9:5-6

5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.

I've been doing outreach work with Veterans since 1982, long before some of my readers were born. In 2000, my book, For The Love Of Jack, was finished and in 2001, I tried to find a publisher. This was long before all the press coverage of PTSD. No one was really interested in what Vietnam veterans were going thru, almost as if they had nothing to learn. When September 11, 2001 came, I knew there would be a lot more veterans suffering from PTSD, who up until that point, coped with it. 9-11 brought a "secondary stressor" far too few psychologists address. I gave up trying to find a publisher, realizing the urgency of providing the information in my book, I decided to self-publish. I received very little help but if you look online there are a lot of links to this book still up. The book is online for free from this blog on the side bar. It opens in Adobe.

Think about how much this book could have helped families back then, before the media finally decided that it was an important story. 18 years of our life are that book covering how my husband's PTSD was mild when we met, but the secondary stressor sent him over the edge. A secondary stressor is like giving un-addressed PTSD a shot of steroid. It happens that quickly. It also contained 18 years of researching what I had learned. Most of the studies they are doing right now, have already been done. What if the researchers had bothered to check with the families already living with it, coping with it and used their experiences to help the new generation? Think of how many lost years could have been spent on new research.

I am not a powerful person. I am not a rich person. I am just like every other average American trying to make a difference to a lot of hurting people. While I know a lot of powerful people, very few of them had faith in me, my knowledge or my experience. I asked them to help me help the veterans and their families. While they said they would, they never did.

I was asked to become certified with the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists years ago but I said I wanted to stay right by the side of veterans and their families as one of them. In my mind there were enough professionals at the time but the veterans needed someone to show them the way on a equal level. I knew I would be able to charge people for what I did had I opted to become certified, but that was not what the veterans needed. So I worked a regular job and did the outreach work in my spare time.

As the numbers of veterans were growing and too little was being done, no one with the power to address it was listening to people like me. Letters to Senators and Congressmen were responded to with a form letter telling me they cared about the issue but they did nothing. I was never asked to speak to them, inform them or offer all those years of experience with my own husband and hundreds of veterans at that point. I was screaming about the growing need, but no one heard me.

In 2006 I came up with the idea to reach veterans the way the new veterans where they were, on Google and YouTube. I started doing videos on PTSD, combining music, pictures and a message, so they would not have to read too much but get the point that PTSD is a wound, is a normal reaction to abnormal events and that there was hope in healing if they reached out for help.

Over twenty videos later, thousands of hits on videos covering all forms of trauma, videos for Vietnam veterans, veterans families, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, along with others living with the aftermath of trauma, still these powerful people will not listen. I've traveled with these videos but considering the need out there to share information with the veterans and their families who still don't know what PTSD is, especially the National Guards and Reservists, I've been turned down on doing presentations. People will watch the videos, come up to me and ask me if I would be interested in doing another presentation and when I agree, I never hear from them again. Churches have turned down my offer to help their congregations understand what PTSD is so they can help the veterans and their families.

What I do, which is taking up 16 hours a day, I do for free. I ask for donations but the people who can afford to donate, use my work without feeling any need to donate, yet the people who have very little money will donate what they can. With this, there is no money to spend on advertising my work. I have to trust word of mouth to spread the videos and the kindness of strangers who value it enough to pass it on. I deeply appreciate everyone who has taken the time to help me with this work.

For a long time, I could not understand why the people with the power to help me wouldn't. I've never been wrong because I pay attention to all of this as if my life depended on it, simply because it does. All the warnings I tried to give have been proven to have come true yet leaders of many different groups would not provide me with the time of day to share the information before it all came to pass when something could have been done to prevent the suffering of thousands and their families.

Now I think I finally figured it out. It's not that I don't know what I'm talking about or have trouble articulating any of it. It's not that any of the information is wrong, because it's all supported with research and links. It's because they are blind to it all. The VA only sees what they are shown. They are dedicated people but they will not spend this kind of time researching any of this. They do not talk to people across the country and the world. They only talk to the people who come to them or read whatever the VA puts out. The service organizations also know they have a problem but they are reluctant to act to address it and when it is presented to them, they take offense as if they are being attacked. I've had many arguments with them over the years and when I do, I tell them that what I do would not do anyone any good unless they were there to treat, diagnose and assist the veterans with their claims. I need them where they are but I also need them to open their eyes and know what is coming and what they can do to get ahead of it for a change.

I know that if I happened to be a Republican, I would have all the support in the world. This is not a baseless claim. I've seen it when someone will watch one of my videos, call me a hero online one day and then slam me the next when they find out I'm not one of them. I've tried to help out on message boards and get involved with some of the military groups online, but have been turned down.

None of my PTSD videos are political but politics constantly plays into this. I help all veterans no matter what political party they happen to be in because they have my heart and tug at my soul. I fully support them because they are willing to risk their lives for the sake of this nation and it's not up to them where they go. They all need help and to avoid someone who happens to be a Democrat who can help them with this devastating wound is an injury to them. It would be one thing if they disagreed with my political view but supported my work but they will not even bother to notice that when I address PTSD, there is nothing political involved because PTSD does not care what political party they happen to be in.

When I come out and slam a politician it is not because of their political party, but it's because there is an assumption only Republicans support veterans, when their voting records prove that to be a false assumption. I slam John McCain because he claims he supports veterans but his record proves he does not whenever he's had the chance to prove it. He made the claim that he doesn't need lessons on what veterans need because he is such a supporter of them. This claim was allowed to just stand when he has an abysmal record on proving it.

What the Republicans do not see is that I will slam anyone who does not do the right thing for veterans, just as I did when Bill Clinton was president and would not address the backlog of claims or the issue that congress passed a stupid law that allowed the VA to collect for "non-service connected" treatments never once considering that any claim not approved was tagged as "non-service connected" even if the veteran had lost a leg to a bomb. No approved claim meant they would have to pay until a claim was approved. The ramifications of this rule had such far reaching affects that veterans have been suffering not just financially but feeling betrayed by the very same country they were wounded while serving.

As I said, I know a lot of powerful people who will not give me the time of day when it comes to this. They look at me as if I am not worthy of their help to help veterans, as ironic as that sounds. So now I'm shaking the dust off my feet when it comes to all of them. I'm done trying to get them to put politics aside and focus on what the veterans need and what can be done. I'm tired of acting as if they are more important than I am in this just because they have received the support to get them into the positions they are in. When people put politics first someone suffers. The veterans have been suffering needlessly because of this.

I will still go where I'm asked to go, but I'm done trying to be invited. I will no longer send updates on videos that I do to help to organizations who have failed to share them. I will no longer contact anyone or support any organization that cannot put the needs of the veterans above what political party I happen to belong to. I will no longer put up with being viewed as someone who is less patriotic or of lesser value than they are.

Above all I am done being hurt by people who question my faith because I take the words of Christ so seriously that I cannot take the easy road agreeing with people who are not following His word and treating people the way He said they should be treated. I am so serious about being a Christian that I was the head of Christian Education for a church for two years and became a Chaplain so that I could be of service the way Christ was. He helped all people no matter what faith they belonged to. Chaplains are not supposed to be about evangelizing. That is the job of the clergy and it's high time the evangelizing got out of the military and they returned to taking care of the spiritual needs of all no matter what faith they hold or if they hold no faith at all.

This also gets me slammed by the far right as well as other Christians who cannot understand that if one branch of the Christian faith is allowed to evangelize, that leaves them out. Do they ever stop to consider how many branches there are of Christianity? Do they notice that all Christians do not hold the same doctrine? If they noticed these glaring facts, they would have a problem with evangelizing in the military as well. It's also another reason why I'm asked to help a certain group one day and the next ignored.

I know this was a long rant but it's taken me a lot of years of frustration to reach this point. After 26 years doing this, you'd think that I would have had a lot more support than I do and I'm tired of fighting them wasting time I could have been just fighting for veterans.

NOTE: You know who this is addressed to and you have only yourself to blame. You would not help me to get the information I have to the veterans needing it, so all the veterans who contacted me when they are suicidal, remember there are many more who never found my work in time.
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

Don't deprive veterans of Montrose facility

Comment sent into Lower Hudson Journal news - West Harrison,NY,USA from member of NAMI

• September 29, 2008


Don't deprive veterans of Montrose facility
The decision on the part of the Department of Veterans Affairs to turn over 100 acres of the 184 acres of the Montrose VA facility to developers is quietly "moving too fast and in the wrong direction," according to Cortlandt Town Supervisor Linda Puglisi and advocates for veterans rights. As the sister of a Vietnam veteran, I saw first-hand the devastating effects that war has on the human mind and spirit. I also believe that these facilities built to serve the needs of our veterans stand on sacred land bought and paid for with profound human suffering.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, approximately 500,000 veterans have a service-connected disability due to a mental illness. Other than orthopedic problems, mental health is the second largest area of need for veterans.


Understanding the crippling effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and the disproportionate percentage of substance abuse and suicides among veterans, it would seem that the Montrose VA would be expanding access to inpatient and outpatient treatment, housing, and supportive services that would enable these wounded warriors to partake of the American ideal that led them to serve in the first place.

Castle Point is not an acceptable alternative. How many Washington bureaucrats would sit still if their doctors expected them to travel 25 miles further from home for treatment?

I urge every citizen of Westchester County to speak out at the forum at the Montrose Complex on Oct. 14. Contact Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer and your local representatives.

Brigid E. Kenney

Ossining

The writer is a board member, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Westchester.
http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080929/OPINION/809290303/-1/SPORTS

Those with PTSD try to restore normalcy

J.L. is a friend of mine. A few years ago she contacted me about what happened to her and her deep desire to help others. Her book, Severed Soul is not just a story about trauma and aftermath but it's what she did with all of it. She decided to help others and has been very active with veterans.

J.L. sent me the article that appeared in a local paper and it's very well done. It says a lot about what people can do when they have suffered. We either feel sorry for ourselves and focus only on ourselves, or we can reach back to help others stand next to us. It's a choice we all face. J.L. held onto God's hand and with her other hand is reaching out to pull people out of the depth of despair.

Seeking answers, they find no easy ones
Those with PTSD try to restore normalcy

By Daniel Kittredge - News Staff Writer
Published On Thursday, August 07, 2008



(Editor’s note: this is the first in a two-part series on post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD)

GARDNER — For those who live with it, post-traumatic stress disorder is an experience virtually impossible for others to understand.

The form the disorder and its symptoms take varies from person to person, but the initial traumatic event that causes it always involves death or violence — be it a near-death or violent personal experience, bearing witness to the death or physical injury of another or learning of the sudden or violent death of a loved one. It affects soldiers and civilians, men and women, children and adults, and spans generations..

And while each experience is different, the questions those living with it ask themselves are the same.

“When will the fear stop?” writes local author J.L. Vallee in “Severed Soul,” an account of her own struggles with the disorder. “Could it be when heaven calls my name? ... Please, someone understand and help! I feel numb! I feel dead!”

“You don’t meet many people that really get it,” said Ms. Vallee. “You never get over (the disorder), no matter what.”

Invisible

One of the walls in the main lobby of the Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center Inc. on Central Street is adorned from top to bottom with photographs of soldiers. Many of the young men and women shown in the images are young — some look like teenagers — and they are often shown smiling, displaying a visible pride in the uniform they wear and the service they are providing to their country.

The photographs serve as an instant reminder of the center’s purpose — reaching out to those who went off to war young and untouched by its horrors, but returned with memories, injuries and demons that never allowed them to truly come home.

“There’s a lot of people with (the disorder) out there,” said Darrell P. Keating, the center’s executive director. “We’re trying our best to find them.”

The number of veterans in the greater Gardner area struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder is hard to state definitively, said Mr. Keating. The center keeps state-mandated statistics regarding its in-house and referral services, which range from a food pantry to housing assistance to counseling, and in 2007 roughly 48,000 such services were provided.

The last 1-1/2 years have seen the center grow markedly, said Mr. Keating, particularly through the addition of an outreach coordinator to its staff who works actively to seek out veterans at churches and support groups.

Despite those efforts, however, he said there are many veterans who continue to struggle alone.
“It’s invisible in today’s society,” Mr. Keating said of post-traumatic stress.

Robert Stair, a counselor with the center, said many will not seek help until they’ve reached a breaking point, often in the form of a job being lost or a relationship being broken because of substance abuse. Most of the veterans that the center deals with, he said, have a history of post-traumatic stress — beginning either during or after their time in the service — and have as a result had issues with substance abuse.

“Just about every person’s got a different kind of story,” he said. “Unless you’ve gone through it, you really can’t understand.”

A disorder that does not discriminate

For years, Ms. Vallee wondered what was wrong.

Her life, as documented in “Severed Soul” — through the character of Amy Howard — has been filled with traumatic experiences. Her brother drowned when she was a young girl, and as medics took him away she caught a glimpse of his feet hanging from a body bag. Later, she lived through two serious car accidents — one in which she was hit by a semi-truck, and another on Route 140 in which a boulder rolled down a hill and struck the van she was driving.

“I thought I was going to die,” she said of the second crash.

After that second car accident, said Ms. Vallee, something changed. She was “always on guard” — jumpy, afraid and unsure of why. Then married to a man she describes as distant and emotionally abusive, she found little sympathy among many family members and friends.

“I knew something wasn’t right,” she said, describing the feeling as a numbness, a fog that led her to withdraw and isolate herself. “They look at you like you have three heads. They think you have a flaw.”

Ms. Vallee was eventually diagnosed as having post-traumatic stress. Initially caught off guard — having thought the disorder was exclusive to veterans — she decided to become involved with local veterans groups in hopes of learning more. Since then she has further branched out, writing “Severed Soul” and seeking out others that have touched by the disorder.

“It’s not just a vet thing,” she said, noting that victims of sexual assault and trauma often develop post-traumatic stress.

Available statistics indicate the diversity of those living with post-traumatic stress. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 7.7 million Americans are affected by the disorder.

Women, according to the institute, are more likely than men to be affected, and while it is most prevalent among adults it can also affect children.

Carrying visions

In a military context, post-traumatic stress has been known by many names throughout history.

During the Civil War era, it was known as “soldier’s heart,” while it was dubbed “shell shock” after World War I. Veterans of World War II were described as having “combat neurosis,” and after Korea it became “combat fatigue.”

Mr. Stair began his work as a counselor in 1983 while still an active member of the Air Force. At the time, he said, his goal was to help make sense of why so many fellow servicemen had difficulty readjusting to civilian life after Vietnam.

“There wasn’t any means of getting support,” he said, noting the lack of resources available to those veterans.

Most of the veterans Mr. Stair deals with in his current role served during the Vietnam era, and most have carried the pain and trauma of their experiences through the years without seeking help.

“It takes a long time for them to come forward,” he said, noting that men especially “try to handle things on their own.”

Most members of the newest generation of veterans — the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan — who suffer from post-traumatic stress have largely yet to come forward, said Mr. Stair. While awareness of the disorder has grown vastly since Vietnam, the intrinsic value military culture places on strength and self-sufficiency still serves as a deterrent for those in need of help.

Additionally, said Mr. Stair, many of the newest returning veterans are far from the breaking point that lead many from the Vietnam generation to finally seek help.

“They haven’t identified themselves,” he said, although — like their predecessors — “they carry around a lot of these visions.”

Leslie Lightfoot, CEO of Fitchburg’s Veteran Homestead Inc., agreed that emotional or mental issues continue to carry a serious stigma in military culture. “That’s not changing,” she said, noting she has heard similar sentiments from her two daughters currently serving in the military.

She also agreed that post-traumatic stress among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans remains hidden, for the same reasons cited by Mr. Stair.

“The drug and alcohol thing is down the road (for them),” she said. “Sometimes it takes years and years and years.”

Statistics show that post-traumatic stress has affected the newest veterans, and in substantial numbers. A 2007 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that of 103,788 veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom surveyed between 2001 and 2005, 13,205 had PTSD — a figure comprising more than half of the veterans with a mental health diagnosis and 13 percent of all veterans surveyed.

The numbers also show that the new veterans are not coming forward. The New England Journal of Medicine in 2004 released a study showing that only 24 to 40 percent of service members in need of mental health services pursued that help, largely because of fears of being stigmatized.

Another, more disturbing trend among both service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and veterans of earlier conflicts has emerged in recent years — an increase in suicide rates. A 2007 CBS News investigation found that in 2005, approximately 20 veterans per 100,000 committed suicide, with a higher rate among those aged 20 to 24.

CNN reported in February that 2,100 soldiers tried to commit suicide in 2007, up from 350 in 2002. The suicide rate among active soldiers, CNN reported, was 17.5 per 100,000 in 2006 — less than the civilian rate, but a drastic increase from previous years.

Suicidal tendencies, said Mr. Stair, mark the point at which groups like his can step in and force a veteran to receive treatment. While he described the problem of veteran suicide as limited in north central Massachusetts, he said the focus both regionally and nationally must be on finding ways to help before a veteran’s post-traumatic stress causes him or her to reach that point of despair.

“Even one’s too many,” he said.

dkittredge@thegardnernews.com
http://www.thegardnernews.com/index.aspx

Post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD)

• 7.7 million Americans are affected by PTSD, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The disorder is more likely to affect women than men, according to the institute, and while it is most prevalent among adults it can affect people of any age, including children.

• A 2007 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that of 103,788 veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom surveyed between 2001 and 2005, 13,205 had PTSD — a figure comprising more than half of the veterans with a mental health diagnosis and 13 percent of all veterans surveyed.

• According to a 2004 study that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, only 24-40 percent of service members in need of mental health services pursued them because of fears about being stigmatized.










J.L. Vallee

Westminster Info Press

PO Box 62

Westminster, MA 01473

JLVallee@SeveredSoul.com


www.severedsoul.com


http://www.myspace.com/author_jlvallee
part one of two