PTSD Support Program Loses Funding
CBS 7 News
Robert Guaderrama
rguaderrama@cbs7.com
December 14, 2011
Mildand, Texas - Funding loss prompts an organization to re-strategize its services to help soldiers struggling with a mental condition. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a mental health condition, triggered by a traumatic event. A Midland organization which has been helping veterans dealing with the condition has lost it's funding, leaving them scrambling to figure out just what to do. They are hoping to continue to provide the same services, despite the cuts.
Permian Basin Community Centers received a state grant last year to fund a PTSD program, though they thought the funding would be renewed, it’s been completely cut.
"For all they do for us everyday, any little bit we can do to help them is hugely important," said Todd Luzadder, Midland Mental Health Director.
P.B. Community Center's has lost $60,000 of state funding for their PTSD support program. The program provides support groups and counseling to veterans, by veterans.
read more here
Showing posts with label PTSD support. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PTSD support. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Texas PTSD Support Program Loses Funding
In this time of great need this is not the time to cut funding for any PTSD program unless there is no one being helped by it. Are they out of their minds? Cutting funds, especially now when even more will come home from combat with PTSD, means more will suffer needlessly.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Survivor Celebrates Trauma Anniversary
Survivor Celebrates Trauma Anniversary with Online PTSD Community
Michele Rosenthal celebrates her trauma anniversary with followers and fellow trauma survivors online with a month long series of events.
(I-Newswire) August 11, 2010 - Michele Rosenthal, a West Palm Beach resident, is celebrating an unusual anniversary: the day she survived a life-threatening trauma. While what she is celebrating may not be a typical milestone for most, her way of affirming life serves to benefit many people around the country who have a similar milestone to reconcile.
On August 31, 1981, Rosenthal was admitted to a hospital with the rare diagnosis of Stephens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS). A a severe allergic reaction to a medication that affects .5 people/million, SJS can leave a patient with as little as a 30% chance of survival. Rosenthal did survive, but after going through acute stress, she spent the next 25 years suffering with intense and disruptive psychological and emotional symptoms that were finally diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
For trauma survivors, the anniversary of the day their world changed can be extremely painful. PTSD symptoms often increase, and on both conscious and subconscious levels survivors struggle to cope with memories and feelings they often can't control or explain. For example, on her trauma anniversary date each year during her 25 years of undiagnosed suffering, Rosenthal’s insomnia increased and her hair shed massively and, according to all the doctors with whom she sought help, inexplicably.
Once she was properly diagnosed, Rosenthal went on a healing rampage. She took control of her recovery and is now PTSD-free. Today, Rosenthal is the founder of Heal My PTSD, LLC, (www.healmyptsd.com), and works as a Self-Empowered Healing Coach, helping survivors shift from powerless to powerful so they can progress their healing journey.
go here for more
Survivor Celebrates Trauma Anniversary
Michele Rosenthal celebrates her trauma anniversary with followers and fellow trauma survivors online with a month long series of events.
(I-Newswire) August 11, 2010 - Michele Rosenthal, a West Palm Beach resident, is celebrating an unusual anniversary: the day she survived a life-threatening trauma. While what she is celebrating may not be a typical milestone for most, her way of affirming life serves to benefit many people around the country who have a similar milestone to reconcile.
On August 31, 1981, Rosenthal was admitted to a hospital with the rare diagnosis of Stephens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS). A a severe allergic reaction to a medication that affects .5 people/million, SJS can leave a patient with as little as a 30% chance of survival. Rosenthal did survive, but after going through acute stress, she spent the next 25 years suffering with intense and disruptive psychological and emotional symptoms that were finally diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
For trauma survivors, the anniversary of the day their world changed can be extremely painful. PTSD symptoms often increase, and on both conscious and subconscious levels survivors struggle to cope with memories and feelings they often can't control or explain. For example, on her trauma anniversary date each year during her 25 years of undiagnosed suffering, Rosenthal’s insomnia increased and her hair shed massively and, according to all the doctors with whom she sought help, inexplicably.
Once she was properly diagnosed, Rosenthal went on a healing rampage. She took control of her recovery and is now PTSD-free. Today, Rosenthal is the founder of Heal My PTSD, LLC, (www.healmyptsd.com), and works as a Self-Empowered Healing Coach, helping survivors shift from powerless to powerful so they can progress their healing journey.
go here for more
Survivor Celebrates Trauma Anniversary
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Colorado veteran starts PTSD support group
Carbondale veteran starts PTSD support group
26-year-old Iraq War veteran creates outlet for those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
John Gardner
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
CARBONDALE, Colorado — Adam McCabe knows the affects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder all too well.
McCabe, a 26-year-old Marine veteran of the Iraq War, has been dealing with the disorder since he returned from his second tour of duty in 2006. He found that it was hard to acclimate back into society after having seen the reality of war.
“I've been having a lot of struggles the past few years,” McCabe said.
McCabe found that he was pushing those closest to him away, and he had a tough time connecting with people. Life was very different than he remembered.
“I thought that I would be successful in the civilian world because I was successful in the military,” he said. “But there is a big disconnect here. I couldn't connect with people, family and friends. Not because I didn't want to, but because everything had changed about me.”
He's undergone intensive inpatient treatment for PTSD, he said. And now, he's found solace in talking with other veterans who suffer from the same disorder.
“Once I started talking about it, it was a good thing,” McCabe said.
And now he's helping other veterans in the Roaring Fork Valley, who suffer from the disorder, to deal with it head on.
read more here
Carbondale veteran starts PTSD support group
26-year-old Iraq War veteran creates outlet for those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
John Gardner
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
CARBONDALE, Colorado — Adam McCabe knows the affects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder all too well.
McCabe, a 26-year-old Marine veteran of the Iraq War, has been dealing with the disorder since he returned from his second tour of duty in 2006. He found that it was hard to acclimate back into society after having seen the reality of war.
“I've been having a lot of struggles the past few years,” McCabe said.
McCabe found that he was pushing those closest to him away, and he had a tough time connecting with people. Life was very different than he remembered.
“I thought that I would be successful in the civilian world because I was successful in the military,” he said. “But there is a big disconnect here. I couldn't connect with people, family and friends. Not because I didn't want to, but because everything had changed about me.”
He's undergone intensive inpatient treatment for PTSD, he said. And now, he's found solace in talking with other veterans who suffer from the same disorder.
“Once I started talking about it, it was a good thing,” McCabe said.
And now he's helping other veterans in the Roaring Fork Valley, who suffer from the disorder, to deal with it head on.
read more here
Carbondale veteran starts PTSD support group
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Secondhand trauma: Workshop looks at effects of PTSD on loved ones
Secondhand trauma: Workshop looks at effects of PTSD on loved ones
By Cindy Sutter
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
When Beth Grant moved to Boulder a year ago to live with her boyfriend, Ryan Nieto, she began to see a side of him she had never seen before.
"I started to notice that something was affecting him, something was wrong," she says. "There were times where he was withdrawn, times where he kind of shut himself off and pulled back. (I'd think) 'he's mad at me. What did I do wrong?'"
Grant knew her boyfriend was a veteran of the Iraq war. A Marine, he went in with the first wave of troops in 2003 and served six months there. But Grant got to know him after his deployment as a fellow college student in Ventura, Calif. They both got interested in rock climbing, and as the relationship got more serious, decided to move to Boulder and live together. Last year, Nieto began to have trouble sleeping and realized he was depressed, He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Not surprisingly, Nieto's struggles in coming to terms with his war experience began to affect Grant. Many loved ones who are close to veterans have symptoms of what local psychotherapist Trish Dittrick calls Secondary PTSD. It's a phenomenon, sometimes termed empathy fatigue, that has been studied among medical and mental health professionals in the aftermath of traumatic events such as Sept. 11 or Hurricane Katrina. Dittrick will participate in a workshop July 29 on Secondary PTSD, sponsored by Veterans Helping Veterans Now, a local nonprofit in which veterans help other veterans find the services they need. The group also runs a support group for female family members, which gave rise to the workshop.
"There's such a need for families of veterans to get support," Dittrick says. "The talk is meant for veterans and their families."
read more here
Workshop looks at effects of PTSD on loved ones
By Cindy Sutter
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
When Beth Grant moved to Boulder a year ago to live with her boyfriend, Ryan Nieto, she began to see a side of him she had never seen before.
"I started to notice that something was affecting him, something was wrong," she says. "There were times where he was withdrawn, times where he kind of shut himself off and pulled back. (I'd think) 'he's mad at me. What did I do wrong?'"
Grant knew her boyfriend was a veteran of the Iraq war. A Marine, he went in with the first wave of troops in 2003 and served six months there. But Grant got to know him after his deployment as a fellow college student in Ventura, Calif. They both got interested in rock climbing, and as the relationship got more serious, decided to move to Boulder and live together. Last year, Nieto began to have trouble sleeping and realized he was depressed, He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Not surprisingly, Nieto's struggles in coming to terms with his war experience began to affect Grant. Many loved ones who are close to veterans have symptoms of what local psychotherapist Trish Dittrick calls Secondary PTSD. It's a phenomenon, sometimes termed empathy fatigue, that has been studied among medical and mental health professionals in the aftermath of traumatic events such as Sept. 11 or Hurricane Katrina. Dittrick will participate in a workshop July 29 on Secondary PTSD, sponsored by Veterans Helping Veterans Now, a local nonprofit in which veterans help other veterans find the services they need. The group also runs a support group for female family members, which gave rise to the workshop.
"There's such a need for families of veterans to get support," Dittrick says. "The talk is meant for veterans and their families."
read more here
Workshop looks at effects of PTSD on loved ones
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
NAMI Montana executive director Mat Kuntz nominated to All Stars
Sent from member of NAMI
Here is a chance to help raise both NAMI’s profile and public awareness of the mental health needs of veterans-- in PEOPLE magazine.
NAMI Montana executive director Mat Kuntz, who is featured in the latest NAMI Advocate cover story www.nami.org/obama has been nominated to be one of PEOPLE Magazine’s “All-Stars Among Us,” representing Americans who have gone “above and beyond to serve their community.”
Earlier this year, he was selected to ride President’s Obama’s inaugural train as an “ordinary American” who has done “extraordinary things,” through advocacy for veterans.
Nominees for PEOPLE’s “All-Stars Among Us” are grouped under the names of major league baseball teams. The top vote-getter for each team will be honored at the MLB 2009 All-Star Game, July 13-15, in St. Louis. The person with the most votes overall will be featured in PEOPLE Magazine. To cast your ballot:
Visit the PEOPLE All-Star Web site.
Select the Pittsburgh Pirates emblem
Vote for Matt.
It’s that simple. Please spread the word to your networks. Each person can also vote up to 25 times in multiple visits (Yes, it’s allowed). Balloting ends on June 24. Mattt may be a long-shot, but someone has to win!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
When police buckle under burden of the beat
When police buckle under burden of the beat
Mark Russell
May 17, 2009
Page 1 of 2 Single Page View
IT IS often the last resort for police officers weighed down by what they have seen during a career on the beat dealing with murders, suicides, fatal car accidents and assaults.
A unique counselling program run out of the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital's veteran psychiatry unit is now treating officers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The facility was set up in 1995 to treat war veterans, but since the program was expanded four years ago, more than 200 police with PTSD have sought help to cope with their feelings of confusion, anger, bitterness and depression.
Psychologist Tony McHugh, who manages the program, says about half of the current 90 patients are police officers.
Mr McHugh said the officers meet in groups of five or six, twice a week for up to three months.
It was important for police to be with other officers as they were more inclined to open up about their experiences with people in the same job.
The program, which aims to show officers there is no shame in admitting to post traumatic stress, has proved to be a success, with two-thirds of those counselled returning to work in some capacity.
go here for more
When police buckle under burden of the beat
Mark Russell
May 17, 2009
Page 1 of 2 Single Page View
IT IS often the last resort for police officers weighed down by what they have seen during a career on the beat dealing with murders, suicides, fatal car accidents and assaults.
A unique counselling program run out of the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital's veteran psychiatry unit is now treating officers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The facility was set up in 1995 to treat war veterans, but since the program was expanded four years ago, more than 200 police with PTSD have sought help to cope with their feelings of confusion, anger, bitterness and depression.
Psychologist Tony McHugh, who manages the program, says about half of the current 90 patients are police officers.
Mr McHugh said the officers meet in groups of five or six, twice a week for up to three months.
It was important for police to be with other officers as they were more inclined to open up about their experiences with people in the same job.
The program, which aims to show officers there is no shame in admitting to post traumatic stress, has proved to be a success, with two-thirds of those counselled returning to work in some capacity.
go here for more
When police buckle under burden of the beat
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Veterans, spouses learn 'new normal'
Veterans, spouses learn 'new normal'
By Kelly Jasper Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Cheryl Snover knew what to expect when her husband, Jeff Snover, returned from Iraq.
She was a volunteer with the Family Readiness Group, married to a man who was coming up on 18 years in the Army, and the daughter of a Vietnam veteran.
"I knew with my eyes wide open what was coming, and yet there were still surprises I wasn't prepared for," she said. "As a society, we shut people off. If you went to war, you didn't talk about it."
Though the Department of Veterans Affairs has the staff to address mental health, separation and reintegration issues, few programs address the long-range impact on veterans' marriages, said the Rev. Edward Waldrop, a chaplain at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center.
He's formed a support group for combat veterans and their spouses, a concept he will introduce to other VA chaplains across the country in June.
"What we're doing isn't being done anywhere else," the Rev. Waldrop said. "We're putting them in a situation with people who have been there, done that."
go here for more
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/05/13/met_523752.shtml
By Kelly Jasper Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Cheryl Snover knew what to expect when her husband, Jeff Snover, returned from Iraq.
She was a volunteer with the Family Readiness Group, married to a man who was coming up on 18 years in the Army, and the daughter of a Vietnam veteran.
"I knew with my eyes wide open what was coming, and yet there were still surprises I wasn't prepared for," she said. "As a society, we shut people off. If you went to war, you didn't talk about it."
Though the Department of Veterans Affairs has the staff to address mental health, separation and reintegration issues, few programs address the long-range impact on veterans' marriages, said the Rev. Edward Waldrop, a chaplain at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center.
He's formed a support group for combat veterans and their spouses, a concept he will introduce to other VA chaplains across the country in June.
"What we're doing isn't being done anywhere else," the Rev. Waldrop said. "We're putting them in a situation with people who have been there, done that."
go here for more
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/05/13/met_523752.shtml
Monday, February 9, 2009
One hand in time of need works for AA, why not the DOD and the VA?
One hand in time of need works for AA, why not the DOD and the VA?
by
Chaplain Kathie
Being a Chaplain, especially an online Chaplain, can be very lonely as well as draining. I've cut back on the hours I do online from 16 back down to about 10. I couldn't keep up with the grueling pace anymore. As it is, I am a Chaplain 24/7. I never know where I'll be lead or who I will come into contact with that needs so spiritual help. It happens at the VA Clinic in Orlando. It happens in grocery stores, amusement parks and on the street when there is a car accident. It also happens in restaurants.
The other day, we took a tour of the Kennedy Space Center. (I posted about this with pictures) and we stopped for lunch at a sports bar on Merritt Island. They had just reopened that morning and they were having a rough time getting things to work right. The manager was making rounds going from table to table checking to make sure we were all happy. I could see he wasn't. I offered to say a prayer for him, the staff and the restaurant as well as the customers. He called over a few waitresses and the waitress we had for our table thought she had done something wrong because I had taken off my sweat shirt revealing my black Chaplain shirt with the official logo that looks like a sheriff's badge. I assured her that I was a Chaplain and not an officer. Most people spot the badge and not the word Chaplain right underneath. We joined hands as I prayed and a look of relief immediately came to the managers face.
The group of Chaplains I'm with in Brevard County call it the ministry of presence. Somehow just showing up in the middle of turmoil offers calmness. Often we don't have to say much of anything. Just being there to listen helps tremendously. This happens when I'm online and get emails from people that need to just be listened to.
It gets very hard when your life is falling apart. You wonder if anyone can hear you. If they cannot hear you, they cannot help you and hope fades, faith is tested to the breaking point and doubt takes over. We could be balling our eyes out in the middle of a crowded room, but if no one approaches us, we feel as if we are invisible to everyone as well as God. When things seem to be getting worse, no matter how hard or how much we pray, we wonder if God can see us, hear us, or we have been forgotten by Him as well. My own faith is tested and tried on a daily basis with my own personal problems. Mostly they are financial ones. It gets extremely hard to do what I do without financial support. I end up asking God why it is that I'm expected to help others if no help comes for us. Days on end with no help at all are like torture. Then a day comes when someone offers to help and I'm stunned. I know that God does in fact hear my pleas for help.
Often in the dark days of waiting for help, one of the Chaplains in my group sends out one of his daily devotionals and it hits me hard. Papa Roy did it again today.
We talk a lot about the fact so many of our troops and veterans are suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the wound of the warriors, because their need is so great. They are suffering from the same emotional turmoil we all do but their burden in added to by the simple fact they are serving others and suffering on top of it. If we, in our lives suffer while thinking of ourselves, think of how much it hurts when they have set themselves aside for the sake of others and suffer for doing so. They suffer for forfeiting their own needs and wants because they know they are needed by others. They wonder where their help is, where their heroes are, as they see hope slip away wondering why no help comes for them.
As you read about the suffering they go thru, the numbers are stunning but they don't see the vast flood of wounded. They see only themselves suffering in tremendous pain wondering why no one can see them. It is not until they begin to talk to others going thru the same trials and turmoil they see they are not alone. But what about between now and then? Who is there for them? Who is fighting for them and taking their burden upon their own shoulders for their sake? Do they get a Papa Roy sending out daily reminders of God's love for them when they need it the most? Do they get a phone call from someone in the DOD or the VA wanting to find out how they are, if they are doing ok or if they need anything? Is that too much to ask?
When people join Alcoholics Anonymous, they are put into contact with someone they can call when they need to talk or need support as well as someone that will call them to check on them. The troops and the veterans are not provided with anyone. In a perfect world, they have friends to care and watch over them but too often these friends have no idea what to say or do finding it virtually impossible to know the depth of the pain their friend is in. It's not that they don't want to understand. It's a matter of if they have not been in their place, they simply cannot grasp the complexity of the wound. How can a PTSD veteran gain strength from a clueless, although well meaning friend? They can't. They need someone to understand them and know what that kind of pain actually feels like.
Support groups are wonderful but too often they will go but feel unable to connect to a bunch of strangers. It takes the comfort of a person for many instead of a group so they don't feel lost in a crowd of other people suffering especially when they have it within them in their core to help others. They are then left with wanting to know "who is helping me" because instead of receiving they are yet again the one giving. They end up wondering if anyone can see them, see their pain and focus on them for a change. If God loves them then why doesn't God send someone to help them? If the government respects and appreciates their service, then why do they suffer without help? How can they trust anyone when no one can hear them?
They are not just suffering with the weight of the world on their shoulders, they suffer with claims denied and financial burdens they can do nothing about but somehow find the strength to keep fighting to have their claim honored and their wounds taken care of. They see their family under the financial strain begin to doubt them as they themselves lose hope of better days and prayers answered. Help does not come and hope does not come soon enough for too many. They cannot hold themselves up any longer and they take their own life. Why? Why when so many others have been thru the valley of despair could have comforted them do they feel so totally alone?
I know a lot of support groups out there and they are doing wondrous things but they do not offer one on one help the way AA does. This is what I want to see. I want to see a Papa Roy for every wounded service man and woman needing it. Is that too much to ask for them? You'd think that if the Army can get in contact with every soldier they want to deploy, they could do the same with every soldier they want to help. If the National Guards can mobilize individuals in emergencies and for deployments, they can do the same to help mobilize one person for the sake of another when they have an emergency or need help in a crisis. Is that too much to ask? What would it take to do this? It would only take the time to do it and the desire to do it for their sake.
If I, having tremendous faith in God and His ability, find myself so invisible in the darkest days of need, how can anyone expect them to endure if their own faith is weak and no one comes to help them? Believe me I struggle to hang onto hope and a reason to do what I feel I've been called to do more often than the rain comes into Central Florida. I need to be reminded that God does in fact know I'm still here and trying my best to do what is expected of me. Think of how they feel when no one comes to help them. If we offer one hand in their time of need, we not only help them heal, we help them to find a reason to live and we help their family find hope once more. Just think of that. Saving a warrior's life and his family at the same time you do what God said to do in the Ten Commandments when He said to love they neighbor as thyself. Time to move some mountains!
by
Chaplain Kathie
Being a Chaplain, especially an online Chaplain, can be very lonely as well as draining. I've cut back on the hours I do online from 16 back down to about 10. I couldn't keep up with the grueling pace anymore. As it is, I am a Chaplain 24/7. I never know where I'll be lead or who I will come into contact with that needs so spiritual help. It happens at the VA Clinic in Orlando. It happens in grocery stores, amusement parks and on the street when there is a car accident. It also happens in restaurants.
The other day, we took a tour of the Kennedy Space Center. (I posted about this with pictures) and we stopped for lunch at a sports bar on Merritt Island. They had just reopened that morning and they were having a rough time getting things to work right. The manager was making rounds going from table to table checking to make sure we were all happy. I could see he wasn't. I offered to say a prayer for him, the staff and the restaurant as well as the customers. He called over a few waitresses and the waitress we had for our table thought she had done something wrong because I had taken off my sweat shirt revealing my black Chaplain shirt with the official logo that looks like a sheriff's badge. I assured her that I was a Chaplain and not an officer. Most people spot the badge and not the word Chaplain right underneath. We joined hands as I prayed and a look of relief immediately came to the managers face.
The group of Chaplains I'm with in Brevard County call it the ministry of presence. Somehow just showing up in the middle of turmoil offers calmness. Often we don't have to say much of anything. Just being there to listen helps tremendously. This happens when I'm online and get emails from people that need to just be listened to.
It gets very hard when your life is falling apart. You wonder if anyone can hear you. If they cannot hear you, they cannot help you and hope fades, faith is tested to the breaking point and doubt takes over. We could be balling our eyes out in the middle of a crowded room, but if no one approaches us, we feel as if we are invisible to everyone as well as God. When things seem to be getting worse, no matter how hard or how much we pray, we wonder if God can see us, hear us, or we have been forgotten by Him as well. My own faith is tested and tried on a daily basis with my own personal problems. Mostly they are financial ones. It gets extremely hard to do what I do without financial support. I end up asking God why it is that I'm expected to help others if no help comes for us. Days on end with no help at all are like torture. Then a day comes when someone offers to help and I'm stunned. I know that God does in fact hear my pleas for help.
Often in the dark days of waiting for help, one of the Chaplains in my group sends out one of his daily devotionals and it hits me hard. Papa Roy did it again today.
Good morning Friends,
You can be
You can be fruitless and dying, or you can be fruitful and powerful. A lot of doubt comes into play when we are not walking close to God, when we are playing around with sin. James tells us, James 1:6-8 ...Ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. If your life is fruitless, your prayers also are powerless. On the other side of that coin, if you are walking mightily and fruitfully with God, then your prayers will be in accordance with His will. You will find that as your prayers are directed towards His will, they will always be granted to you. (Ron Daniels)
Mark 11:23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
You may wonder why you should say what God says in the Bible about you. First, God is looking for faith, and second, it is the Word planted in your life that will make you free. Speaking God's Word is a way of planting it in you. Yes, it can take faith to say what the Bible says about you. Especially when you don't feel like it and the circumstances don't agree, either. But we have to choose: will we rely on our feelings, or God's Word? Do we trust the circumstances more than God's Word?
Pray for our nation
Loving Lord, You call us into families and You often use our families to accomplish Your will in our lives—to instruct and nurture children, to care for our elderly and to give us glorious glimpses of Your great love for us. We praise and bless You for this marvelous plan, and for the joy and pleasure our families give us.
In God we trust: O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.
Papa Roy
We talk a lot about the fact so many of our troops and veterans are suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the wound of the warriors, because their need is so great. They are suffering from the same emotional turmoil we all do but their burden in added to by the simple fact they are serving others and suffering on top of it. If we, in our lives suffer while thinking of ourselves, think of how much it hurts when they have set themselves aside for the sake of others and suffer for doing so. They suffer for forfeiting their own needs and wants because they know they are needed by others. They wonder where their help is, where their heroes are, as they see hope slip away wondering why no help comes for them.
As you read about the suffering they go thru, the numbers are stunning but they don't see the vast flood of wounded. They see only themselves suffering in tremendous pain wondering why no one can see them. It is not until they begin to talk to others going thru the same trials and turmoil they see they are not alone. But what about between now and then? Who is there for them? Who is fighting for them and taking their burden upon their own shoulders for their sake? Do they get a Papa Roy sending out daily reminders of God's love for them when they need it the most? Do they get a phone call from someone in the DOD or the VA wanting to find out how they are, if they are doing ok or if they need anything? Is that too much to ask?
When people join Alcoholics Anonymous, they are put into contact with someone they can call when they need to talk or need support as well as someone that will call them to check on them. The troops and the veterans are not provided with anyone. In a perfect world, they have friends to care and watch over them but too often these friends have no idea what to say or do finding it virtually impossible to know the depth of the pain their friend is in. It's not that they don't want to understand. It's a matter of if they have not been in their place, they simply cannot grasp the complexity of the wound. How can a PTSD veteran gain strength from a clueless, although well meaning friend? They can't. They need someone to understand them and know what that kind of pain actually feels like.
Support groups are wonderful but too often they will go but feel unable to connect to a bunch of strangers. It takes the comfort of a person for many instead of a group so they don't feel lost in a crowd of other people suffering especially when they have it within them in their core to help others. They are then left with wanting to know "who is helping me" because instead of receiving they are yet again the one giving. They end up wondering if anyone can see them, see their pain and focus on them for a change. If God loves them then why doesn't God send someone to help them? If the government respects and appreciates their service, then why do they suffer without help? How can they trust anyone when no one can hear them?
They are not just suffering with the weight of the world on their shoulders, they suffer with claims denied and financial burdens they can do nothing about but somehow find the strength to keep fighting to have their claim honored and their wounds taken care of. They see their family under the financial strain begin to doubt them as they themselves lose hope of better days and prayers answered. Help does not come and hope does not come soon enough for too many. They cannot hold themselves up any longer and they take their own life. Why? Why when so many others have been thru the valley of despair could have comforted them do they feel so totally alone?
I know a lot of support groups out there and they are doing wondrous things but they do not offer one on one help the way AA does. This is what I want to see. I want to see a Papa Roy for every wounded service man and woman needing it. Is that too much to ask for them? You'd think that if the Army can get in contact with every soldier they want to deploy, they could do the same with every soldier they want to help. If the National Guards can mobilize individuals in emergencies and for deployments, they can do the same to help mobilize one person for the sake of another when they have an emergency or need help in a crisis. Is that too much to ask? What would it take to do this? It would only take the time to do it and the desire to do it for their sake.
If I, having tremendous faith in God and His ability, find myself so invisible in the darkest days of need, how can anyone expect them to endure if their own faith is weak and no one comes to help them? Believe me I struggle to hang onto hope and a reason to do what I feel I've been called to do more often than the rain comes into Central Florida. I need to be reminded that God does in fact know I'm still here and trying my best to do what is expected of me. Think of how they feel when no one comes to help them. If we offer one hand in their time of need, we not only help them heal, we help them to find a reason to live and we help their family find hope once more. Just think of that. Saving a warrior's life and his family at the same time you do what God said to do in the Ten Commandments when He said to love they neighbor as thyself. Time to move some mountains!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Australian Veterans linking together with PTSD
Soldiers echo calls for defence culture changes
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 27/10/2008
Reporter: John Stewart
Last week the Federal Government announced payments to families of four young soldiers who killed themselves after suffering bastardisation and bullying in the Defence Force. Soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after returning from overseas duty are also calling for a change in the way the military deals with soldiers suffering mental health problems.
Soldiers echo calls for defence culture changes
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Thursday, October 23, 2008
What are common problems in relationships with PTSD-diagnosed veterans?
Our problems are not new or news. We've stood by their sides for over thirty years. In my case, it's been 26 years since the day I met my husband. The years, well they haven't been easy. Seeing him change as mild PTSD carried him away, helpless to stop any of it from getting worse, took me down many paths. As I was reaching out to his friends to get help, he wouldn't listen. PTSD got worse and our marriage suffered more and more. What I knew about PTSD helped me to cope but did not end the heartache. It just helped me find hope that one day he would go for help. He finally did and then the knowledge I had was supported by a renewed hope that our marriage could survive. 24 years later, we're still married, in a crazy marriage without a boring moment.
Wives of veterans have a job on our hands. Too bad they don't have uniforms for us so that people would know we serve the military as well because we are the ones who take care of the veterans after the military is finished with them. We make sure they find reasons to get up every morning and keep trying. When they can't find it in themselves to fight, we fight for them. We take on the government to make sure their wounds are taken care of and they are compensated for the incomes their wounds prevent them from earning, but we also have to fight them. They want to give up. Too many times they win on this one and take their own lives, walk out of marriages or simply wait to die. They turn to drugs and alcohol instead of the love we feel for them because they can no longer believe in it. They wonder how we could possibly love them when they are such a mess inside. They have forgotten who they still are and all that we see in them becomes invisible.
The wives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have a lot more than we did when they came back from Vietnam. There are support groups all over the country and that is a good thing. One thing that support groups are doing is opening up their arms to us so that they can learn from what we know works and avoid making the same mistakes we did. There is hope in our experiences and marriages that have stood beyond where anyone ever thought their marriage would be tested by.
Emails come in from wives across the US and many other nations because of the book I wrote, For the Love of Jack, and the videos I've done. Their stories, oh so very familiar, and they wonder how their life could be the same as mine. Soon they discover that while the wars may be different, our husband's hair grayer and our children have grown, there is really no difference between us. War is still war and wives, well, were still picking up the pieces of what war did to them.
Here is one more way to get there from here. kc
Partners of Veterans with PTSD: Caregiver Burden and Related Problems
Jennifer L. Price, Ph.D. & Susan P. Stevens, Psy.D.
Introduction
A number of studies have found that veterans' PTSD symptoms can negatively impact family relationships and that family relationships may exacerbate or ameliorate a veteran's PTSD and comorbid conditions. This fact sheet provides information about the common problems experienced in relationships in which one (or both) of the partners has PTSD. This sheet also provides recommendations for how one can cope with these difficulties. The majority of this research involved female partners (typically wives) of male veterans; however, there is much clinical and anecdotal evidence to suggest that these problems also exist for couples where the identified PTSD patient is female.
What are common problems in relationships with PTSD-diagnosed veterans?
Research that has examined the effect of PTSD on intimate relationships reveals severe and pervasive negative effects on marital adjustment, general family functioning, and the mental health of partners. These negative effects result in such problems as compromised parenting, family violence, divorce, sexual problems, aggression, and caregiver burden. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Marital adjustment and divorce rates
Male veterans with PTSD are more likely to report marital or relationship problems, higher levels of parenting problems, and generally poorer family adjustment than veterans without PTSD. 2, 6, 7 Research has shown that veterans with PTSD are less self-disclosing and expressive with their partners than veterans without PTSD. 8 PTSD veterans and their wives have also reported a greater sense of anxiety around intimacy. 7 Sexual dysfunction also tends to be higher in combat veterans with PTSD than in veterans without PTSD. 9 It has been posited that diminished sexual interest contributes to decreased couple satisfaction and adjustment. 10
Related to impaired relationship functioning, a high rate of separation and divorce exists in the veteran population (those with PTSD and those without PTSD). Approximately 38% of Vietnam veteran marriages failed within six months of the veteran's return from Southeast Asia. 11 The overall divorce rate among Vietnam veterans is significantly higher than for the general population, and rates of divorce are even higher for veterans with PTSD. The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS) found that both male and female veterans without PTSD tended to have longer-lasting relationships with their partners than their counterparts with PTSD. 3 Rates of divorce for veterans with PTSD were two times greater than for veterans without PTSD. Moreover, veterans with PTSD were three times more likely than veterans without PTSD to divorce two or more times.
Interpersonal violence
Studies have found that, in addition to more general relationship problems, families of veterans with PTSD have more family violence, more physical and verbal aggression, and more instances of violence against a partner. 12, 2, 3 In these studies, female partners of veterans with PTSD also self-reported higher rates of perpetrating family violence than did the partners of veterans without PTSD. In fact, these female partners of veterans with PTSD reported perpetrating more acts of family violence during the previous year than did their partner veteran with PTSD. 2
Similarly, Byrne and Riggs 12 found that 42% of the 50 Vietnam veterans in their study had engaged in at least one act of violence against their partner during the preceding year, and 92% had committed at least one act of verbal aggression in the preceding year. The severity of the veteran's PTSD symptoms was directly related to the severity of relationship problems and physical and verbal aggression against the partner.
Mental health of partners
PTSD can also affect the mental health and life satisfaction of a veteran's partner. Numerous studies have found that partners of veterans with PTSD or other combat stress reactions have a greater likelihood of developing their own mental health problems compared to partners of veterans without these stress reactions. 10 For example, wives of Israeli veterans with PTSD have been found to report more mental health symptoms and more impaired and unsatisfying social relations compared to wives of veterans without PTSD. 5 In at least two studies, including the NVVRS study noted above, partners of Vietnam veterans with PTSD reported lower levels of happiness, markedly reduced satisfaction in their lives, and more demoralization compared to partners of Vietnam veterans not diagnosed with PTSD. 2 About half of the partners of veterans with PTSD indicated that they had felt "on the verge of a nervous breakdown". In addition, male partners of female Vietnam veterans with PTSD reported poorer subjective well being and more social isolation than partners of female veterans without PTSD.
Nelson and Wright 13 indicate that partners of PTSD-diagnosed veterans often describe difficulty coping with their partner's PTSD symptoms, describe stress because their needs are unmet, and describe experiences of physical and emotional violence. These difficulties may be explained as secondary traumatization, which is the indirect impact of trauma on those in close contact with victims. Alternatively, the partner's mental health symptoms may be a result of his or her own experiences of trauma, related to living with a veteran with PTSD (e.g., increased risk of domestic violence) or related to a prior trauma.
Caregiver burden
Limited empirical research exists that details the specific relationship challenges that couples must face when one of the partners has PTSD. However, clinical reports indicate that significant others are presented with a wide variety of challenges related to their veteran partner's PTSD. Wives of PTSD-diagnosed veterans tend to assume greater responsibility for household tasks (e.g., finances, time management, house up-keep) and the maintenance of relationships (e.g., children, extended family). 13, 14 Partners feel compelled to care for the veteran and to attend closely to the veteran's problems. Partners are keenly aware of cues that precipitate symptoms of PTSD, and partners take an active role in managing and minimizing the effects of these precipitants. Caregiver burden is one construct used to categorize the types of difficulties associated with caring for someone with a chronic illness, such as PTSD. Caregiver burden includes the objective difficulties of this work (e.g., financial strain) as well as the subjective problems associated with caregiver demands (e.g., emotional strain).
Beckham, Lytle, and Feldman 15 examined the relationship between PTSD severity and the experience of caregiver burden in female partners of Vietnam veterans with PTSD. As expected, high levels of caregiver burden included psychological distress, dysphoria, and anxiety. More recently, Calhoun, Beckham, and Bosworth 1 expanded this understanding of caregiver burden among partners of veterans with PTSD by including a comparison group of partners of help-seeking veterans who do not have PTSD. They reported that partners of veterans with PTSD experienced greater burden and had poorer psychological adjustment than partners of veterans without PTSD. Across both studies, caregiver burden increased with PTSD symptom severity. That is, the worse the veteran's PTSD symptoms, the more severe the caregiver burden.
Why are these problems so common?
Because of the dearth of research that examines the connection between PTSD symptoms and intimate-relationship problems, it is difficult to discern the exact correspondence between them. 7, 16 Some symptoms, like anger, irritability, and emotional numbing, may be direct pathways to relationship dissatisfaction. For example, a veteran who cannot feel love or happiness (emotional numbing) may have difficulty feeling lovingly toward a spouse. Alternatively, the relationship discord itself may facilitate the development or exacerbate the course of PTSD. Perhaps the lack of communication, or combative communication, in discordant relationships impedes self-disclosure and the emotional processing of traumatic material, which leads to the onset or maintenance of PTSD.
Riggs, Byrne, Weathers, and Litz 7 did examine the connection between PTSD symptom clusters and the relationship condition. The study examined the connection between the cluster of avoidance symptoms and the decreased ability of the person diagnosed with PTSD to express emotion in the relationship. The results of the study suggest that avoidance symptoms, specifically emotional numbing, interfere with intimacy (for which the expression of emotions is required) and contribute to problems in building and maintaining positive intimate relationships.
go here for more
http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_partners_veterans.html
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Wounded Times Blog is one year old today
For God and Country
Wounded Times blog is one year old today.
I've learned a lot since this first video.
Veterans and PTSD
6 min - Feb 25, 2006 -
Two and a half years later, these were added to the first one dealing with trauma.
Women At War08:02
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 8,880
The Voice Women At War09:49
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 729
Hero After War08:27
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 3,138
Nam Nights Of PTSD Still08:33
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,643
When War Comes Home Part One04:33
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 213
When War Comes Home Part Two07:10
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,075
A Homeless Veteran's Day04:00
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 599
Wounded And Waiting Part One08:00
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 624
Wounded And Waiting Part Two07:27
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 224
Coming Out Of The Dark Of PTSD04:25
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 635
PTSD After Trauma04:44
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 764
Point Man Int. Ministries Is There04:41
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 195
IFOC Chaplain Army Of Love07:14
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 214
PTSD Not God's Judgment06:00
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,069
These are also on Google video but the site no longer has any hit counts. These two videos are only on Google video because they are too long for YouTube.
Death Because They Served PTSD Suicides
Wounded Minds PTSD and Veterans
After posting since 2005 on what became Screaming In An Empty Room, I started this blog attempting to keep politics out of it. I do submit to temptation when it comes between the people who really do support the troops and the veterans and those who only claim they do. When I get too tempted, I have to slap my hand trying to click on the link to post it here instead of on the other blog. Considering this blog began to respond to requests from veterans and the troops who were tired of having to wade through posts that had political rants in it. They're tired of politics and I can't say that I blame them. They have a job to do and no matter what, no matter what they think about what's behind all of this, they still do their duty to the Constitution and for their country. My heart belongs to all of them as well as those who came before them.
In the over 15 years I've been doing this work online, starting and abandoning blogs and message boards, I lost count how many posts I've done. There are over 9,700 posts on the Screaming In An Empty Room blog. As I post this, this blog has received 43,500 hits, has 1,077 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder posts, 527 PTSD, 93 Post Combat Stress, 200 suicides, 22 attempted suicides. With at least 10 hours a day I've spent over 3,650 hours on this blog alone. Between reading reports and posting, what you see here is only part of what I've read. I have to decide what to post and avoid articles with no meat or have been done to death on other blogs. Occasionally I toss in some that I just find very interesting or funny but most of them deal with some type of trauma. I do put in a lot about police officers and firefighters as well the events they are involved in. We need to remember that their jobs put them into very traumatic situations as well.
These are the camps and forts that have been focused on.
Camp Algonquin (1)
Camp Anaconda (1)
Camp Bucca (2)
Camp Buehring (1)
Camp Casey (5)
Camp Cobra (1)
Camp Curtis Guild (1)
Camp Diamondback (1)
Camp Falluhah (1)
Camp Foster (1)
Camp Harper Iraq (2)
Camp Lejeune (12)
Camp Lemonier (1)
Camp Liberty (2)
Camp Mirage (1)
Camp Pendleton (20)
Camp Shelby (3)
Camp Speicher (1)
Camp Stryker (1)
Fort Belvoir (1)
Fort Benning (8)
Fort Bliss (19)
Fort Bragg (28)
Fort Campbell (15)
Fort Carson (31)
Fort Craig (1)
Fort Detrick (2)
Fort Devens (1)
Fort Dix (2)
Fort Douglas (1)
Fort Drum (25)
Fort Drum Blizzard (2)
Fort Harrison (1)
Fort Hood (27)
Fort Huachuca (2)
Fort Irwin (2)
Fort Jackson (2)
Fort Knox (11)
Fort Lauderdale (1)
Fort Lawn (1)
Fort Leonard Wood (4)
Fort Levenworth (4)
Fort Lewis (8)
Fort Logan (1)
Fort McCoy (1)
Fort McPherson (1)
Fort Meade (1)
Fort Polk (2)
Fort Riley (7)
Fort Sill (1)
Fort Stewart (8)
Fort Thomas (1)
Fort Wainwright (4)
Fort Wayne (1)
When I post about our veterans and troops, I say a prayer that one day we will put taking care of them at the front of the list when it comes to funding and planing on what our government spends. I pray God watch over them and their families. I pray the homeless are taken care of and I pray even more deeply that those wounded with PTSD are not only helped but finally healed.
Today I'm asking for your prayers for me. There is no price I can put on what I get back from the veterans and their families but this work has become expensive. When I lost my job the beginning of the year, I had a choice to make. I was torn between trying to find a full time job or doing this work. I knew I couldn't do both with the same level, so I decided to do this exclusively. I became a Chaplain, which in itself is expensive between traveling and training. Financially my family is suffering for my choice. I keep praying for the money to come to continue to do this without the extra stress of paying the bills there never seems to be enough for. I'm asking you to take a minute and pray that God grant me the financial support I need to keep doing this and that He continue to guide me in the work I do, especially creating the videos.
The only video I did not want to do was the one He was pulling me to do. It's the PTSD Not God's Judgment video. I fought against doing it. I finally gave in and did it. Since then I've discovered exactly why He wanted me to do it. It has been helping people I had no idea it would touch. Too many people, regular people like you and me, struggle with our connection to God. We think that when we suffer, it comes from God judging us and condemning us. This video shows, that is not the case. It's also one of the very few videos I will watch after they have been put together. I need to be reminded of His love as much as others do.
Thank you for your support of this site and the work I do. I hope during the next year to continue to provide all the information I can find about PTSD and links to very good work being done by reporters across the nation as well as the other nations. I pray that by the next anniversary of this blog, there will be more reports of treatments being discovered and less reports of suicides and attempted suicides. Too many have suffered needlessly.
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
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
Thursday, August 7, 2008
PTSD support group for wives forming in Grand Junction
PTSD support group for wives forming in Grand Junction
BY Marija B. Vader
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Wives of soldiers experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder are forming a support group in Mesa County.
“We’re hoping to help the wives of veterans. They’re going through hell too,” said Phyllis Clugston, one of the organizers of the group.
Men who served in war who cannot escape the torment of what they’ve seen can be diagnosed with PTSD at Grand Junction’s Veterans Administration Hospital.
The soldiers who lived through a single or many traumatic events can years later experience hypervigilance, sudden rage, sleep disorders, substance abuse, flashbacks, anxiety, depression, a loss of trust, and more.
The goal of this group will be to support wives and relationship partners through education, communication skill-building, stress relief activities and social bonding.
The initial meeting of interested people will be in the week of Aug. 25.
click post title for more
BY Marija B. Vader
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Wives of soldiers experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder are forming a support group in Mesa County.
“We’re hoping to help the wives of veterans. They’re going through hell too,” said Phyllis Clugston, one of the organizers of the group.
Men who served in war who cannot escape the torment of what they’ve seen can be diagnosed with PTSD at Grand Junction’s Veterans Administration Hospital.
The soldiers who lived through a single or many traumatic events can years later experience hypervigilance, sudden rage, sleep disorders, substance abuse, flashbacks, anxiety, depression, a loss of trust, and more.
The goal of this group will be to support wives and relationship partners through education, communication skill-building, stress relief activities and social bonding.
The initial meeting of interested people will be in the week of Aug. 25.
click post title for more
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Iraq vet kicked out of treatment may be jailed
Iraq vet kicked out of treatment may be jailed
The court had ordered treatment for PTSD instead of jail after Tony Klecker killed a teen in a drunk-driving accident.
Star Tribune
Last update: January 23, 2008 - 9:57 PM
Tony Klecker, who killed a teenager in a drunken-driving accident in 2006, could face 3 1/2 years in prison for his failure to remain in a court-ordered in-patient program for war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Last June, District Judge David Knutson gave Klecker, 30, a break in his sentencing for criminal vehicular homicide, staying a 57-month prison sentence and ordering him to serve a year in jail.
The mother of Deanna Casey, his 16-year-old Inver Grove Heights victim, had agreed to the sentence because it required Klecker, a Marine who fought in Iraq's bloodiest combat zones, to get treatment for the stress disorder.
go here for the rest
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/14168476.html
He completed the substance abuse part October 12 but then had to wait over a month longer for the next stage to begin. What was being done in between stage one and two for this veteran and all the other? There are so many questions in this that I'm stunned.
No one wants to see a wounded veteran going to jail because of his wounds. While this program seems that it will be a wonderful other option than jail, what were they thinking? Was there anything being done for him in between the wait? Did he get medication? Did he get therapy? Did he get anything after stage one?
The other part of this is the Mom of the teenager killed while he was drunk driving. She must have a heart of gold to be able to forgive him enough to want to see him helped instead of sent to jail.
The court had ordered treatment for PTSD instead of jail after Tony Klecker killed a teen in a drunk-driving accident.
Star Tribune
Last update: January 23, 2008 - 9:57 PM
Tony Klecker, who killed a teenager in a drunken-driving accident in 2006, could face 3 1/2 years in prison for his failure to remain in a court-ordered in-patient program for war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Last June, District Judge David Knutson gave Klecker, 30, a break in his sentencing for criminal vehicular homicide, staying a 57-month prison sentence and ordering him to serve a year in jail.
The mother of Deanna Casey, his 16-year-old Inver Grove Heights victim, had agreed to the sentence because it required Klecker, a Marine who fought in Iraq's bloodiest combat zones, to get treatment for the stress disorder.
During that wait, however, Klecker's symptoms worsened, and he became emotional around the one-year anniversary of the fatal accident, his attorney said. After the argument, he was asked to leave the hospital, although he would be allowed to participate on an out-patient basis. That, however, wouldn't meet the terms of his probation.
go here for the rest
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/14168476.html
He completed the substance abuse part October 12 but then had to wait over a month longer for the next stage to begin. What was being done in between stage one and two for this veteran and all the other? There are so many questions in this that I'm stunned.
No one wants to see a wounded veteran going to jail because of his wounds. While this program seems that it will be a wonderful other option than jail, what were they thinking? Was there anything being done for him in between the wait? Did he get medication? Did he get therapy? Did he get anything after stage one?
The other part of this is the Mom of the teenager killed while he was drunk driving. She must have a heart of gold to be able to forgive him enough to want to see him helped instead of sent to jail.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Building a life after escaping death
Staff Sgt. Ian Newland
Pay close attention to this part from his wife
Emails come in all the time from wives and girlfriends, even a few husbands and boyfriends dealing with their GI coming home. Without the tools, the knowledge of what's going on, there is little reason to stay in a marriage or relationship. Most relationships are hard anyway but when you add in PTSD, it is damn near impossible unless you have the support and gain the understanding of what this is and where all of these thoughts are coming from. When you understand you are not looking at a normal person, but a person who has been through a very abnormal time in their life, you can cope without putting yourself through hell. You can keep a marriage together and even save their lives.
I'm not going to gloss over any of this now with you. We cannot save all of them but we can get a lot closer to it than we are right now. There is no reason for them to lose all hope and take their own life. There is no reason for marriages to end when most will be able to function and start living again. We learn to adapt when there is love there. We learn to deal with the changes that cannot be overcome with therapy and medication. We learn that we can find a "normal" we can live with but only when we truly know what we are dealing with.
I cannot imagine the pain and confusion in partners of trauma survivors when they have no clue what it is. Honestly I damn near fell apart even knowing what it was from the start. I can assure you that once you have all the facts, learn the signs and come to grips with it, you can make it together. I'm not guaranteeing anything other than the simple fact no relationship has to end because of PTSD. The only thing that has to end is the way it was before because this is a whole new life together. It's relearning about who the other person is. Deep down inside their character is still there. You just have to search beneath the pain to find them there. All the love that was there before is still there and for some, it is even stronger because they survived the worst kind of events man has ever known. Most will cherish what they have more even while they deal with the ravages going on inside of them.
Ian Newland and his wife are off to a great future together because as he is healing, she is learning. Changes happen in every marriage. Add PTSD into a marriage and it becomes a roller coaster. It's a ride I've been on for 25 years and there hasn't been one dull moment in all of them. It's a price we pay for the ride he started in 1970 and never managed to get off of. At least with help, he is riding a lot higher than straight down on his own.
“After I was wounded, I had nowhere to turn,” he said. No one told him about the Wounded Warriors program. He had been booted out of Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany, still heavily medicated and with no instructions about future treatment. And no one bothered to tell him he had been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. he fought for benefits and treatment; he worked to make sure the other wounded soldiers living in the barracks made their appointments and got what they needed. And he started to fall apart. So did his marriage as he tried to deal with his problems with alcohol.
Building a life after escaping death
Ian Newland gets help as he struggles to plan his future
Posted : Saturday Dec 15, 2007 15:52:51 EST
Staff Sgt. Ian Newland promised after Pfc. Ross McGinnis died to save his life that he would never waste the gift.
“I very easily could have died that day,” Newland said. “But my children still have a father. I try to live each day to its fullest potential because of what he did for me.”
On Dec. 4, 2006, an insurgent tossed a hand grenade through the turret of the Humvee in which McGinnis, 19, was manning the .50-caliber machine gun. McGinnis could have followed training procedures and jumped from the turret and saved himself. Instead, he threw himself on the grenade and absorbed the blast, saving four men, including Newland. For his heroic actions, McGinnis has been nominated for the Medal of Honor.
But Newland said that though his friend’s sacrifice allowed him to live, he does so with guilt and pain that have made it difficult to honor his promise.
“I thought I could have done more,” Newland said during an interview at his Colorado home. “Every second, I was reliving it. All of a sudden, I’m in the Humvee again and the grenade goes off.”
He traveled to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia outside Washington, D.C., for McGinnis’ funeral services, and there he met McGinnis’ family.
“They were so loving and so compassionate,” Newland said. “I thought it was hard losing my soldier — this was just too much. But his dad grabbed me and said, ‘You don’t owe my son anything.’”
Pay close attention to this part from his wife
“I said, ‘I can’t handle this,’” his wife, Erin Newland, said. “‘I’m done. I just can’t take this anymore.’”
Instead, she went online and did some research, and she talked to the family therapist who had been assigned to take care of her husband’s post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I learned to not get into it with him and not get mad,” she said. “Instead, I’d just need to let him do his ranting and raving.”
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/bloodbrothersside4/
Emails come in all the time from wives and girlfriends, even a few husbands and boyfriends dealing with their GI coming home. Without the tools, the knowledge of what's going on, there is little reason to stay in a marriage or relationship. Most relationships are hard anyway but when you add in PTSD, it is damn near impossible unless you have the support and gain the understanding of what this is and where all of these thoughts are coming from. When you understand you are not looking at a normal person, but a person who has been through a very abnormal time in their life, you can cope without putting yourself through hell. You can keep a marriage together and even save their lives.
I'm not going to gloss over any of this now with you. We cannot save all of them but we can get a lot closer to it than we are right now. There is no reason for them to lose all hope and take their own life. There is no reason for marriages to end when most will be able to function and start living again. We learn to adapt when there is love there. We learn to deal with the changes that cannot be overcome with therapy and medication. We learn that we can find a "normal" we can live with but only when we truly know what we are dealing with.
I cannot imagine the pain and confusion in partners of trauma survivors when they have no clue what it is. Honestly I damn near fell apart even knowing what it was from the start. I can assure you that once you have all the facts, learn the signs and come to grips with it, you can make it together. I'm not guaranteeing anything other than the simple fact no relationship has to end because of PTSD. The only thing that has to end is the way it was before because this is a whole new life together. It's relearning about who the other person is. Deep down inside their character is still there. You just have to search beneath the pain to find them there. All the love that was there before is still there and for some, it is even stronger because they survived the worst kind of events man has ever known. Most will cherish what they have more even while they deal with the ravages going on inside of them.
Ian Newland and his wife are off to a great future together because as he is healing, she is learning. Changes happen in every marriage. Add PTSD into a marriage and it becomes a roller coaster. It's a ride I've been on for 25 years and there hasn't been one dull moment in all of them. It's a price we pay for the ride he started in 1970 and never managed to get off of. At least with help, he is riding a lot higher than straight down on his own.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
New PTSD group at YouTube
Speaking out on PTSD
PTSD is a wound. No one would be ashamed of a bullet wound. Why be ashamed of this wound? End the silence and break the stigma. More than you know suffer from this wound. Trauma is Greek for wound.
Tags:
ptsd post traumatic stress combat wound soldiers veteran Created: November 27, 2007Videos: 8 Members: 1 Discussions: 0 You are the owner of this group. Member since November 27, 2007
I set up this group for people to share PTSD videos (not just mine but I am pushing mine since I spend a couple of weeks just putting them together) because the more we focus on PTSD, share, learn from each other, the weaker the stigma gets. It is to support each other. If you plan on going in there and attacking anyone, I zap you out of the group faster than you can remember your password. This group is for us, the families and for the veterans, or anyone who has PTSD. It is to learn and support. Feel free to pass this on. All are welcome as long as you can remember compassion.
PTSD is a wound. No one would be ashamed of a bullet wound. Why be ashamed of this wound? End the silence and break the stigma. More than you know suffer from this wound. Trauma is Greek for wound.
Tags:
ptsd post traumatic stress combat wound soldiers veteran Created: November 27, 2007Videos: 8 Members: 1 Discussions: 0 You are the owner of this group. Member since November 27, 2007
I set up this group for people to share PTSD videos (not just mine but I am pushing mine since I spend a couple of weeks just putting them together) because the more we focus on PTSD, share, learn from each other, the weaker the stigma gets. It is to support each other. If you plan on going in there and attacking anyone, I zap you out of the group faster than you can remember your password. This group is for us, the families and for the veterans, or anyone who has PTSD. It is to learn and support. Feel free to pass this on. All are welcome as long as you can remember compassion.
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