Spirituality May Protect Their Mental Health

Something bigger for mind-body-spirit
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 18, 2018

On Forbes there is a very interesting article about mental health and spirituality. Raising Kids With Religion Or Spirituality May Protect Their Mental Health: Study

"It turned out that those who attended religious services at least once a week as children or teens were about 18% more likely to report being happier in their 20s than those who never attended services. They were also almost 30% more likely to do volunteer work and 33% less likely to use drugs in their 20s as well."

In other words, you are happier if you believe in something outside of yourself. Yep, and you are more likely to care about others too.

"But what was interesting was that it wasn’t just about how much a person went to services, but it was at least as much about how much they prayed or meditated in their own time. Those who prayed or meditated every day also had more life satisfaction, were better able to process emotions, and were more forgiving compared to those who never prayed/meditated. They were also less likely to have sex at an earlier age and to have a sexually transmitted infection."

 You are also more likely to be happier, less likely to hang onto bad feelings and anger. Notice that also stated that you do not need to be in a building to be in a place of prayer or meditation? In other words, you can do it where you are for free!

"One drawback of the new study was that although it tried to control for socioeconomic status and other confounding variables, most people in the study were white, female, and of higher socioeconomic status. The study would need to be repeated in a more diverse population to see whether the phenomenon holds for other demographics."

Some may want to point out that if you have more money and security, then you are happier and more giving. I know plenty of people with the means to do a lot of good in this world, but they are more interested in themselves than others.

This is from 2014

Don't take your life, take it back
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 22, 2014

The Department of Veterans Affairs puts it this way

After a trauma or life-threatening event, it is common to have reactions such as upsetting memories of the event, increased jumpiness, or trouble sleeping. If these reactions do not go away or if they get worse, you may have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Sometimes you may feel like a victim but you just didn't notice that you are a survivor. You are not weak. You were so strong that you were willing to risk your life for your friends and that came from the strength within you.

PTSD means you survived an event that was so traumatic your life was on the line. Anyone can change after that. When it is caused by combat, it means it wasn't just your life on the line but the lives of your friends as well.

While the events changed you, that does not mean you cannot change again. It doesn't mean you are stuck feeling lousy inside. You are not condemned to suffer, feeling sad, angry, bitter or hopeless. Help is out there the same way you were there to help your buddies survive combat.

Don't even think about taking your own life now when you can take your life back!

Every part of a warfighter went. Your body was conditioned to react to stressful situations. Your mind was trained to react in a new way. Your spirit was pushed and often crushed by what you had to see and do. Every part of you changed because of combat.

Life is full of challenges and changes because of them. Challenge yourself to discover that you have the ability to change again. Your buddies watched over you just as you watched over them when someone was trying to kill you. There is still an enemy to fight back home trying to claim victory over you and them. You used weapons in war and you need weapons now to fight PTSD. You were not alone in combat and you are not alone now.

Seek help for your mind even if that means medication. If the medication doesn't work or you are having problems with it, talk to your doctors so that they can change them until they find the right ones for you.

Seek help to teach your body how to live calmly again. It had to be trained to push on and now it needs to be trained to relax again.

Seek help to heal your spirit. After all you went through it is often hard to feel the good emotions because the bad ones are so strong. All that was good inside of you before is still in there.

PTSD can be defeated and you can take your life back.

And this is why I use Combat PTSD....

Combat PTSD Acronyms To Heal By
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 14, 2013

PTSD does not mean FUBAR (short for "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair" or "Recognition." To describe impossible situations, equipment, or persons as in, "It is (or they are) totally Fubar!") even though most of what the DOD has been doing has been.

If it worked then suicides wouldn't have gone up. If it worked then we wouldn't be talking about so much suffering back home. (Hell, this blog would be pretty happy and light on posts so I could get back to working for a paycheck all the time again instead of taking temp jobs.)

What we talk about all the time isn't what everyone else sees on the news so we'll keep cutting thru the BS (bull shit) living back here in the WORLD (USA)

Start with the acronym of PTSD itself "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" meaning "after trauma" which is actually "after wound" since trauma is Greek for "wound" and it was something that was done to you or you were exposed to. There should be no issue with this term if it was understood correctly. Replacing "disorder" as some want to do would put PTSD into something temporary instead of a lifetime disability. Changing it to I for injury would imply it will heal and go away but while you can heal PTSD, it never really goes away. With the right help you can actually come out on the other side better than the way you went into the military. What you can't heal you can learn how to adapt with.

So for them, CPTC would be the best acronym to use.

COMBAT POST TRAUMATIC CHANGE is a term I've been trying to come up with for over 30 years. (Plain and simple so if you see that term used from now on, you know where it came from.) Trauma changes everyone no matter what the cause was but hacks want to lump everyone in together as if there is no difference between a survivor of a car accident and a veteran surviving combat. A true PTSD guru not only points out the differences but the different levels as well. All PTSD are not the same! Veterans need the distinction to appropriately address what they survived and the fact they knowingly put themselves in danger for the sake of someone else. (Cops are the closest to veterans because they also deal with trauma and weapons used to do what they do but we're not talking about them on this one.) 

If you have issues with PTSD then start to use CPTC if it helps. Consider it this way. Combat changed you but that doesn't mean you cannot change again. There is nothing to be ashamed of and as a matter of fact, you are supposed to talk about it and not try to forget that part of your life.

Vietnam War Medal of Honor Hero Sammy Davis has been talking about this for years. He nailed it in this video from last year when I sat down with him and his wife Dixie. While I've known him for years, it was the first time we talked so much.

MOH Sammy Davis and Kathie Costos

Vietnam Medal of Honor Sammy Davis has a message to all the troops coming home. Talk about it! Don't try to forget it but you can make peace with it. Dixie Davis has a message for the spouses too. Help them to talk about it with you or with someone else.

 Now that you got the idea out of your head that you are supposed to just get over it, we can move onto the next part. MBS, mind-body-spirit.

Mind means talking to a shrink to be figured out. They test to see what is happening but if they are a hack and not trained for trauma, you can get a list of different diagnosis to explain what is going on. You need them for medications and they do have to play around with the meds to find what works for you. You need to talk to them and tell them if the meds are not working. The stuff hits your stomach and the chemicals shoot to your brain and your brain shoots the stuff out to the rest of your body. Meds are not the same as self-medicating and that is why drinking your 12th beer didn't work to get your adrenalin to adapt back to your civvies again.

This is only part of healing. The next part is taking care of your body. You have to train your body to become a veteran as much as you had to train it to become a flyboy, Sailor, Soldier or Marine. Well, as for Marines, they never really learn to walk right again. They keep the way they walk for the rest of their lives.

If you are physically able, martial arts, yoga, walking, swimming and a long list help teach your body to live more calmly. Make sure you do it at the same time everyday no matter how long you do it. Your body has an internal clock and will get used to what it does one day to the next and basically relearns. Just makes sure you can shut your head off when you are doing any of these. If your thoughts tend to run away, put in a pair of earbuds (unless you are swimming) and listen to calming music. It is fine to listen to whatever kind of music you like any other time of the day but this time has to be set aside for calming. Same with computer games. Don't play Call of Duty and think it is calming you down.

The spirit part is the most important of all since that is where CPTC hit you.

CSF (Comprehensive Soldier Fitness) is a bunch of BS and has done more harm than it has helped. We know that but the military has lacked the intel to figure that one out. So whatever you took from that training, forget about it. It is FUBAR to the max. Expecting you to train to become mentally stronger than what you already were is moronic. It has filled more body bags than the enemy. When suicides go up after they start something should have been a clue but there is no telling when or if they will ever figure that one out. When it comes to their ability to recon, they are pretty much Dinky Dau.

They trained you to be combat ready. Mentally and physically. What they had no part in was what you went into the military with. You courage and your compassion. It takes both to be willing to risk your life for the sake of someone else so whatever BS they fed you a steady diet of has to be flushed. That strength inside of you also opened the door for you to feel the bad stuff stronger than others did. It is not weakness of anything so telling you that you can train to be what you already were caused the emotional train wreck afterwards. This is a really good video on what is really going on with this crap.

POINT MAN: lead soldier in a unit cutting a path through dense vegetation if needed and constantly exposed to the danger of tripping booby traps or being the first in contact with the enemy.

Point Man leaders figured this out a long time ago. As a matter of fact before most of the new veterans were even born, way back in 1984. They also figured out that the families need to be educated and supported so they can help their veterans. It isn't whack-over-head-you're-going-to-hell type of spiritual healing. It is you are loved and you need to stop thinking you are evil because you are suffering. You don't deserve to suffer no matter what you try to tell yourself or anyone else does. There was no evil in you if you put your life on the line and there is no evil in you if you're grieving.

STAND-DOWN (period of rest and refitting in which all operational activity, except for security, is stopped.)

Time to learn, heal and then do what you do best. Take care of the others in need of help too. You know it all too well and you know what if feels like to be alone. Tomorrow can be better if you keep looking until you find what it is YOU need to heal.

UPDATE Can't help myself and have to say this.


FNG's in the DOD like to pretend PTSD is new but since they learned nothing from the past, nothing has improved but the bank accounts of morticians.

Was Mindfulness over hyped for PTSD?

(Note to readers: as with everything else, find what works for you! If something does not help you, find something else to help you heal. Always make sure that you are addressing your mind-body-spirit, no matter what you do.)

Mindfulness may have been over-hyped
BBC
Bruce Lieberman
May 7, 2018

A 2017 article that assessed evidence on meditation as a treatment for PTSD summed up the overall state of affairs: “This line of research is in its relative infancy.”

Mindfulness meditation has been practiced for millennia – and today is a billion-dollar business. But how much does the practice really change our health?

In combat veterans with PTSD, mindfulness-based group therapy increased healthy connections in parts of the brain that control ruminating (Credit: Getty Images)

In late 1971, US Navy veteran Stephen Islas returned from Vietnam, but the war continued to rage in his head. “I came very close to committing suicide when I came home, I was that emotionally and mentally damaged,” Islas remembers. At his college campus in Los Angeles, a friend suggested he check out a meditation class. He was sceptical, but he found that before long “there were moments that started shifting, where I was happy. I would experience these glimpses of calmness.”

Forty-six years later, Islas says that he has never completely freed himself from his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which was formally diagnosed in 2000 at the Veterans Affairs (VA) West Los Angeles Medical Center. But he’s convinced that meditation has saved his life.

Various forms of meditation are now routinely offered to veterans with PTSD. It’s also touted as a therapeutic tool to help anyone suffering from conditions and disorders including stress, anxiety, depression, addiction and chronic pain. More broadly, meditation has come into vogue as a way to enhance human performance, finding its way into classrooms, businesses, sports locker rooms and people’s smartphones through Internet apps like Headspace and Calm.

“There is a common misperception in public and government domains that compelling clinical evidence exists for the broad and strong efficacy of mindfulness as a therapeutic intervention,” a group of 15 scholars wrote in a recent article entitled Mind the Hype. The reality is that mindfulness-based therapies have shown “a mixture of only moderate, low or no efficacy, depending on the disorder being treated,” the scholars wrote, citing a 2014 meta-analysis commissioned by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
read more here

Meditating PTSD Veterans Use Chance to Change

Meditating through the stress
Tribune Chronicle
Emily Earnhart
September 27, 2017

“We follow up at 3 months, 6 months and a year. I have seen participants look 10 years younger by the end. I have had veterans come in with suicidal ideations that at the end of the course have hope for their futures.” Leslye Moore

WARREN — A dozen local veterans spent Tuesday afternoon breathing and meditating their way through their Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and service-related injuries.

Tribune Chronicle / R. Michael Semple Local veterans, from left, Matt Vadas, Herm Breuer and Michael O’Brien, all of Warren, talk together in a group setting Tuesday while participating in a Power Breath Meditation workshop at the Trumbull County Veterans Services Commission in Warren. The workshop was part of the Project Welcome Home Troops and taught veterans the Sudarshan kriya yoga (SKY) breathing and meditation practice.

Through the Sudarshan kriya yoga (SKY) breathing practice, military members and their families are getting the chance to change their minds and bodies and to heal through Power Breath Meditation workshops brought to Ohio by Project Welcome Home Troops. About 20 veterans involved in the free program are meeting this week at the Trumbull County Veterans Services Commission in Warren for workshops focused on stress reduction and coping skills.
read more here

David Lynch Foundation TM Women's Initiative

Doing nothing hasn't worked for you. Medication hasn't worked for you. Maybe everything you've tried so far hasn't worked but you haven't tried everything. Keep looking until you find the best way for you to heal!

The David Lynch Foundation Women's Initiative

 DavidLynchFoundation

Published on Dec 10, 2013

http://davidlynchfoundation.org/women

Domestic violence, rape and violent assault are all around us. Consider these facts:

One out of four women will be assaulted or raped by their spouse or intimate partner during their lifetime, and nearly 3 million children are witnesses to it every year.

250,000 children are at risk of becoming victims of sex trafficking every year.

In the military, 19,000 incidences of rape and sexual assault against female military personnel were recorded in 2010 alone.

To help combat the epidemic of violence and assault against women and children, the David Lynch Foundation launched a Women's Initiative in 2012 that offers Transcendental Meditation, an evidence-based, alternative therapy shown to heal and empower victims of abuse. The Initiative partners with leaders in the field of domestic violence and human trafficking across the U.S. and around the world to provide this therapy to women and children who need it most. Key findings from over 340 peer-reviewed studies include:

Reduced flashbacks and bad memories

Greater resistance to stress

Twice the effectiveness of conventional approaches for reducing alcoholism and substance abuse

42% decrease in insomnia

Twice as effective as other relaxation techniques for decreasing trait anxiety

Improved quality of life

"The person who had assaulted me almost tried to actually kill me. Finally, I found a way to escape but I had no money and nowhere to go. Being homeless... that feeling I think is the worst feeling I've ever had. And because there was so much stress, I started losing my hair as well. At that point I felt I just didn't want to to be part of this world anymore."

"He would just beat me up until he sees I'm unconscious, choke me until I passed out, and unfortunately he did these things in front of my child. When I look back to all... what I went through, it's truly a miracle that I'm alive."

"I was a platoon sergeant over in Iraq. As soon as that truck in front of mine blew up, all hell broke loose. Here come the bullets, just all over the place. I sustained multiple injuries to my face, torso, stomach, and legs. On November 18, 2011, I stood in the window ledge and shut my eyes and said a prayer, and was about to jump. I know what got me into that window ledge, but I also know what got me out of that window ledge and why I'm here now."

"When I started practicing Transcendental Meditation I just felt new, refreshed, reborn. And my hair started growing back, I'm very happy about that. I think if it can change my life it can change anyone's life. It's, like, miraculous."

"To learn TM has been, like, a life-changing experience. I feel hopeful. Life that has been grey for so long became come back to colors. I wish everybody have the opportunity to learn this."

"I believe in my heart Transcendental Meditation is a humongous portion of the reason I'm still sitting here now. To know that something as small of a concept - 20 minutes twice a day - can make me feel like I feel now. That's a gift that you can't buy. I've never felt this good in life, I don't think. It's given me me back."

Become a founding donor of the David Lynch Foundation Women's Initiative: http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/d...

SWAT Officer Overcoming the Nightmare of Traumatic Stress

"I don't like going to sleep. I'm afraid of what is going to happen once I fall asleep. I don't like what I'm thinking, I don't like my dreams, I haven't liked one of my dreams in 15 years."

On Steve Gordon's first day as a SWAT officer, he was involved in one of the longest and bloodiest shootouts in American police history. Since then he has been on over 1500 SWAT missions.

"In my profession you have to see a lot of death and despair. You have to see those victims of crime. You have to deal with, you know, the families. You have to listen to the screaming parents and it's not something you can just walk away from. And then the problems come. Isolation, substance abuse, shunning others, not trusting anybody. I know more people that have committed suicide than have actually been killed by bad people. Maybe they were dealing with the same things I've had to deal with. No one gives them the solutions to the problems they're having."

In January 2013, Steve learned Transcendental Meditation, along with a group of veterans and first-responders.

"To watch a guy that looked like he was the walking dead to a week later actually see some kind of life in their eyes, to watch them change in front of my eyes, that's what really sold me on it. And then as we did it more and more I felt a calmness. I was transforming with them. That's when I realized it worked. I'm just getting what I always wanted, and that's seeing people get better. If I can help somebody go through the experience that I had, then I want to be there for them. You want to give yourself a gift? Do this. Try to help yourself for a while. Don't poison yourself with alcohol or drugs or thoughts of suicide, just give yourself this one gift. A lot of guys and women are hurting themselves over what they've seen and what they've done and they're not seeing a way out. They're seeing the world black and white and this program can put color in it for them."

For more information please visit David Lynch Foundation

Resilience BS still being pushed to prevent PTSD

Resilience BS still being pushed by people that do not understand PTSD.

Does TM work? Yes because it helps the body to calm down, but so does Yoga, taking long walks and listening to calming music, praying, writing and you name it. When they work on teaching their bodies to calm down again, it all helps. Is TM the answer to all? No. Nothing is. The most harmful thing about this report is they are still pushing Resilience Training which has proven to be a failure. The results of the military suicides from last year alone prove that it does not work and they cannot prevent PTSD unless they do the one thing that has been proven to at least help. Having someone with the proper training to listen to them RIGHT AFTER THE TRAUMA before it has time to sink in.

On May 3rd, 2012 the David Lynch Foundation held an international summit on the effects of Transcendental Meditation (TM) on veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other stresses, as well as how TM can help build resilience in the brain in active duty military.

Since 2005 the David Lynch Foundation has shared Transcendental Meditation with our most stressed populations.

If you are inspired by this video please make a donation using the Donate button on the right.

The David Lynch Foundation runs entirely on donations and there is a long list of schools and organizations eager to participate. Change begins within!

Comprehensive Solider Fitness increased suicide warning ignored

Healing comes spiritually because PTSD is a trauma to the soul

Healing comes spiritually because PTSD is a trauma to the soul
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
January 9, 2013

There has been so much nonsense printed lately on PTSD connected to military service that it is hard to know where to begin on this other than at the beginning. If you ever read the Bible, you'd see all the signs of what we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder being connected to ancient warfare and the spiritual struggles other humans faced. If you study the history of war, you'll see the suffering of the warriors from all across the globe and throughout generations under different titles but all of the reports point to just how humans suffer after war as well as heal.

It is understandable when people want to pretend the reports on combat PTSD are new just as they want to deny how many take their own lives. Having to face the reality of how many years this has all gone on is sickening. It is a lot easier to pretend it never happened before.

Just because it wasn't in the newspapers didn't mean it was not happening. All generations of warriors suffered the same way because combat is brutal and humans are still human.

Research began in overdrive after Vietnam Veterans came home but that was because they pushed for it to happen. In WWII, my husband's uncle was on the Merchant Marine ship sunk by kamikaze leaving survivors in the ocean. Back then "shell shock" veterans were sent to an institution or as in the case of his uncle, taken in by a family living on a farm where he spent the rest of his life. Few reporters were working on it back then and most reports came from local, small media publications. The movie The Best Years of Our Lives came out in 1946 and did a great job trying to explain what had been happening to too many WWII veterans. None of what is happening today is new as much as some want to pretend it is. There is much we have learned over the years but all of it supports what was already known by ancient people. Healing has to begin where the wound hit first. The soul.

Most of the veterans I talk to claim to be Christian but claim no church as their spiritual home. They left their churches many years ago because the church failed them. Honesty, we have to look at the fact while most Americans claim to be Christian, the percentage of "churchless" is evidence of the spiritual void.

U.S. Catholics going to church less frequently reported on CNN in 2011 was only part of the story. There has been a return back to the original ministry of the early Christians.

Churches fail them. I worked for a church for 2 years as Administrator of Christian Education. I kept trying to get the church involved in healing military families, especially National Guards and Reservists but they were not interested in doing anything to help the community. They were not unique. I visited over 20 huge churches here in Central Florida. I heard back from just one. The pastor happened to be a Chaplain but was being transferred and couldn't take on a new project. There are too many reports on how much community wide efforts help heal from trauma. Not just from war but from trauma in a civilian's life. The problem is too many are simply not interested in the fact that psychology addressing trauma is only part of the answer. The whole veteran needs to heal, bodily, mindfully and spiritually, in order to heal the hole in the veteran.

They try fill it with whatever gives them temporary relief. Alcohol to go to sleep when in fact they are passing out. Drugs they justify taking because the military/VA answer to all is medications. Driving dangerously because they are in "control" over how fast they go. Cutting because that is a pain they are in control over. Sexual encounters because it offers relief for the moment. The list goes on but none of them heal. It all wears off.

A Churchless Faith article has this piece of information from Sociologist Alan Jamieson

"Ironically, Jamieson says, the people perhaps best equipped to help postmodern seekers understand God were being lost to the church."

There is a place for all different approaches. Too many times it has been reported that military Chaplains are proselytizing instead of serving all who come to them in spiritual crisis.

This is what they called "suicide prevention" discovered in a report Army Chaplain Holds Christian Prayer During Suicide Prevention Class, Soldiers Say by Andrea Stone for the Huffington Post back in October of 2012.

During an Army-wide stand down for suicide prevention sessions, a Christian chaplain in Texas improperly led rookie soldiers in a candlelight prayer, an Army instructor said in a formal complaint last week.

Staff Sgt. Victoria Gettman, a lab technician instructor at Fort Sam Houston, told The Huffington Post that she was among 800 soldiers from the 264th Medical Battalion undergoing resilience training on Sept. 26. Almost all of the soldiers were fresh out of boot camp and in training for their first job in the Army.

After a 45-minute talk on how to cope with stress, the officer in charge turned the stage over to a chaplain for the sometimes controversial "spiritual fitness" part of the session.

Gettman did not catch the chaplain's name, and he has not been otherwise publicly identified. But as an atheist, she wasn't interested in what he had to say so she stood up and moved to the back of the auditorium. The 17-year Army veteran knew -- unlike the young soldiers -- that this part of the program was optional. Still, she could hear most of what the clergyman said from just outside the room.

"The chaplain said we have to have something bigger than ourselves. We need, and he stresses need, to have something divine in our life," she recounted, adding that the soldiers were not informed they were allowed to step out.

They cannot feel as if they can see a military Chaplain without being condemned to hell if they do not covert. Yes, that is what is happening with too many servicemen and women seeking to heal spiritually. Medications numb but healing comes spiritually because PTSD is a trauma to the soul.

Now there seems to be some members of the clergy doing a push back against something that helps people from all backgrounds.

Conservative Leader Upset Over Marine Corps Meditation
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
By Beth Ford Roth

A recent news article about Camp Pendleton Marines using meditation as a means of improving their mental health has the head of the Family Research Council up in arms.

Tony Perkins's comments were prompted by an article that ran last month in the Washington Times. In the piece, Camp Pendleton-based Marine Staff Sgt. Nathan Hampton discussed the benefits he got from attending meditation classes on base before deployment.
read more here

Perkins may know a lot about what he thinks the Bible says but doesn't seem to know much about what happened in it when Christ walked this earth or what the very imperfect human body needs to recover. Meditation heals military Vets with PTSD

"George struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, a form of anxiety that develops after enduring a traumatic experience.

For five years, George underwent stints of medication and talk therapy, both intended to quell his PTSD symptoms. But neither method worked for him, he said.

"It [the medications] helped make me not who I am. It took away my creativity, my personality, my ability to care about anything," said George. "The one-on-ones were like, why am I talking to someone who has no idea what I've been through."

Until one day in 2009, while participating in a research session on transcendental meditation, George sat still for 20 minutes and focused on repeating a mantra.

"From the first time I did it, I knew it was what I would do for the rest of my life," said George. "It was the first time I felt quiet in my mind for five years."

Meditation is healing for those with and without a faith base and Chaplains are supposed to be doing the same. Taking care of ALL coming to them in spiritual crisis.

Chaplain / Pastor - Is There a Difference?
WRITTEN BY STEVE BALLINGER. POSTED IN TRAINING.
A question that has often been asked of me is—what is the difference between a chaplain and a pastor? That is a very legitimate question and one that needs to be answered, for many people are under the impression they are one and the same.

Both callings are wonderful callings on a person’s life, and are desperately needed, but they are very different in ministry. A pastor’s ministry deals mainly with in-reach, or we can say is church-based. Whereas, a chaplains ministry deals mainly with out-reach, and is community-based. A simple definition of a chaplain is, “a minister in the workplace.” In other words, Chaplains have a home church they attend, but their church is actually outside the walls of the church building. It’s called the community. Chaplains serve people of all faiths.

I am not saying the church does not do Missions work, for it does great missions work—locally, nationally and internationally. However, a chaplain at the local and national level has Constitutional protection, whereas a pastor does not. An ordained chaplain is recognized by the government, whereas an ordained pastor is not because of the separation of church and state issue.

If military Chaplains were doing their jobs and civilian members of the clergy were doing theirs, they would be a lot more involved in what heals.

Through Meditation, Veterans Relearn Compassion

Through Meditation, Veterans Relearn Compassion
By Amy Standen
Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder has pushed the VA to explore new and sometimes unorthodox treatments. In one VA facility in Menlo Park, Calif., veterans of current and past wars gather to meditate and break down the shields that combat forced them to hold.

Marine Esteban Brojas is rocking back and forth in his chair in a rehabilitation center for veterans in Menlo Park, Calif. He rubs his hands together so quickly you can hear them.

"You know, you're going into a building, and you know there's a grenade being popped in there," he says, "and there's a woman and a child in there ... and you're part of that?"

When Brojas came back from Iraq in 2003 to his home in Greenfield, Calif., he reunited with his wife and met his newborn daughter for the first time. His wife was excited to see him, but he found himself not wanting to pick up his daughter.

"The fact of holding my daughter in my arms, you know, or even being intimate with my wife? Very difficult. Very difficult because of the trauma," he says.

Multiply Brojas by the hundreds of thousands of newly returned servicemen and servicewomen the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates are suffering from PTSD, and you can see the scale of the problem here. These men and women cannot leave combat completely behind.
read more here

Reconnect to the healer within yourself

Reconnect to the healer within yourself
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
October 14, 2012

Transcendental Meditation in the Treatment of Post-Vietnam Adjustment began a long time ago and it worked for a lot of veterans, but not all of them.

Just like now, you need to remember there is no "one size fits all" in healing. One medication may work for one of you friends but be a disaster for you. One of your friends may do great in group therapy, but you do better talking to one person. One physical treatment may work great for you, like meditation, but your friend does better just taking a long walk.

This article is about a WWII veteran healing with Transcendental Meditation.

Veteran shares story in hopes of helping others deal with impact of war
“It’s a 5,000-year-old traditional warrior’s way of learning to cope with stress.”

Yellin says he suffered from “shell shock” for three decades after the end of World War Two, but it wasn’t something that was considered “manly” to discuss. Today, the condition is known as PTSD.

The point to all of this is what you need to heal is already inside of yourself. You just need help to reconnect to it.

When you come home from combat, finally allowing yourself to feel the pain that had been there all along, you push people away for a lot of reasons but it happens when you should be trying to reconnect to them.

Why? Because you don't recognize yourself anymore. You believe the person you were before, died in combat and a stranger has taken over. You don't think the way you used to. Feel the same way you did. Love the people in your life the same way. Enjoy the things you used to. But the hardest part of all is knowing the man/woman you were before war is buried someone in the body you see in the mirror.

Life changes everyone if we face that fact, we're a lot closer to understanding what trauma does, especially combat trauma.

The person you were is still in there but a lot of pain is hiding "him" from you and everyone else.

Survivor's guilt is a big factor.

In this study, PTSD among Vietnam combat veterans emerged as a psychiatric disorder with considerable risk for suicide, and intensive combat-related guilt was found to be the most significant explanatory factor. These findings point to the need for greater clinical attention to the role of guilt in the evaluation and treatment of suicidal veterans with PTSD.

The title of this report is "Suicide and guilt as manifestations of PTSD in Vietnam combat veterans" but it is not a new study. It is from 1991.

Why someone died but someone else survived is a question that has hit every combat veteran after a friend died or had their limbs blown off. "Why wasn't it me?" That question comes all the time and without discovering there is no real reason, it fuels guilt. We all know guilt works because our parents used it on us on a daily basis.

Guilt is powerful but as we emotionally mature, we are able to get past it for the most part. There is always this tiny voice inside of you reminding you of all the times your Mom pointed her finger at you because you screwed up.

What helps us move past it is the rest of what we've been able to do in our lives. The success we've had. The joys we've not only shared but caused other people to feel. The times we helped someone else and actually acknowledged what it meant to them. The fact we learned to "do" and did pretty good. Driving a car, learning a new skill, even being able to succeed with a computer game, all took time to learn but we focus on the "win" not what it took to get there.

That is all part of being human. Combat complicates it. While civilians, basically anyone, can end up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a traumatic event from one time in their lives, combat veterans get a different type. That is because it is not one event, over and done, but followed by not just many more, it is also the constant threat of many more from one second to the next.

The military solution is to give medications. Medications block pain and numbs. They do not heal. Meditation opens everything up and allows connections to be restored. It helps the veteran learn how to calm down again so they can gain strength without constantly being drained. If meditation does not accomplish this, then something else can.

Prayer helps accomplish this as well. You don't have to belong to one religious group or another. You gain strength from reconnecting to that part of "you" that is not biological, but spiritual.

For believers in Christ, this is powerful when it is provided in the right way but military Chaplains have to acknowledge why so many people walk away from "church" and avoid trying to get their buttocks back in the pew. People leave church for a reason and they also avoid it for many more reasons. Telling them they are going to hell if they do not accept Christ the "right" way is not helpful. Their job is help them reconnect to the spirit inside of them.

Everything they need to heal is there inside of them. They just need help finding it again.

Hey Shame and Death, 'Go F@#% Yourself'

Hey Shame and Death, 'Go F@#% Yourself' -- An Interview With Dr. Arnie Kozak
Huffington Post
Jaimal Yogis
Author, 'Saltwater Buddha' and 'The Fear Project'
Posted: 10/10/2012

Dr. Arnie Kozak has an aphorism for you that you probably won't hear from your average psychotherapist: "Freedom from fear is nothing more than telling shame and death to go fuck themselves." A psychologist, author, mindfulness teacher and snowboarder, Dr. Kozak has been a great influence on my work, and I was honored to get a chance to interview him recently about fear, psychology and mindfulness.

You've been a Buddhist practitioner and a psychologist for decades now. Can you talk about how Buddhist practice and psychology overlap in their approach to dealing with fear/anxiety?

Both Buddhist practice and psychology have the same aim -- the relief from suffering. They differ in how they approach this aim. I use a cartoon from The New Yorker in my teaching. It shows a psychoanalyst talking with his patient. He turns to him and says, "Listen, making you happy is out of the question, but I can give you a compelling narrative for your misery."

This captures one distinction between the Buddha's and Freud's approach. Psychology can transform the narrative in a healing direction, yet it stays at the narrative level.

This narrative level is still suffused with suffering, so in some sense the analyst in the cartoon is right. To get to happiness we must have the capacity to transcend stories, and this is where the Buddha's teachings come in. He taught a way to recognize how we are caught in stories and how the valence of these stories is irrelevant. Good or bad, they still separate us from the life around us.
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Gala to Benefit Veterans and First Responders with PTSD

Gala to Benefit Veterans and First Responders
Operation Warrior Wellness

Two YouTube PTSD videos worth watching

There are so many PTSD videos out there now that it is really hard to pick a couple out to highlight. Here are two of them. One is about how Tom Skerritt is going to be teaching a writing class to veterans to help them heal by writing what they can't talk about. The other is about meditation from David Lynch Foundation.

Both of them are pretty good but as with anything else, they do not work for everyone. If what you need is still not happening for you, keep looking for what works for you. Just try to be careful about what you find online. I just went through about 5 pages of YouTube videos and only found two that were worth posting on.

Tom Skerritt on Teaching Storytelling to PTSD Veterans from Afghanistan


Women Veterans Combat PTSD with Transcendental Meditation

Meditation, fellow veteran help Colo reservist heal from PTSD

Meditation, fellow veteran help Colo reservist heal from PTSD
Jul 26, 2012
Written by
Daniel P. Finney

Luke Jensen was in bad shape when Jerry Yellin reached out to him last year.

Jensen, a 32-year-old U.S. Army Reserve veteran of the Afghanistan war, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

He yelled at his wife and two daughters. He stormed about his Colo home. He rarely slept. He drank until he passed out. He overdosed on his anti-anxiety medication. One dark night, in front of his youngest daughter and wife, he held a loaded gun up to his head.

“I thought about suicide on a daily basis,” Jensen said. “It was that bad.”

Also an Army veteran, Yellin contacted Jensen after reading a profile in The Des Moines Register last year detailing Jensen’s struggles.
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New age babble, ancient healing

I was stunned by what was missed in this article. Meditation has worked for centuries to teach a body to calm down. The "whole" of the person begins to work in harmony again, mind, body and spirit. It is not the answer to all of "whole" of a person with PTSD, especially Combat PTSD.

Break Out of the Prison of Your Past
Lilian Cheung, D.Sc., R.D.
Co-Author, 'Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life'
Posted: 07/24/2012

"You are free to be here." -- Thich Nhat Hanh

This simple idea opens a world of relief. We can unburden ourselves of past suffering by realizing that however painful experiences were, they are not happening to us in the present moment. The suffering from the past is a shadow that we allow to haunt us.

The application of mindfulness, the state of being fully present in the here and now, has proved so useful in transforming past pain in to peace that prisons, detention centers and psychotherapists treating veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are increasingly implementing mindfulness-based programs. The results for individuals who participate, and their communities, have been promising.

The Mind Body Awareness Project, a nonprofit organization that offers meditation courses to at-risk youth in prisons and detention centers, conducted a two-year pilot study, which concluded in 2007. Ninety-five percent of participants in their mindfulness programs reported feeling physically better after coming to class. Ninety-three percent reported feeling less stressed, 85 percent felt better about themselves and 78 percent reported sleeping better.
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Meditation helps a veteran re-teach his/her body to calm down again. After training to get the body to go into high alert, experiencing the events of combat and months of not really resting, the body needs help to put things back in balance again. Meditation is vital but so is talk therapy, spiritual healing and often medication.

If meditation is not your thing, then some are helped by doing something as simple as taking long walks with calming music to trap out thoughts that can agitate the body going "on guard" again instead of relaxing. Some find martial arts work. Others find yoga helps, or playing a musical instrument, reading a good book or writing. Anything of natural order helps different people as long as it is calming and not numbing.

I talked to some veterans telling me that drinking does the trick and helps them calm down. They are confused between calming and numbing. Some say they drink to fall asleep but have confused falling asleep with passing out. If you're thinking about drinking instead of doing something listed above, it is not a good idea at all. It will only make PTSD stronger, your wallet leaner, your lawyer richer when you are caught drunk driving and leave you with a hangover.

It could also lead to something like this.

A woman said her ex-boyfriend was sitting on her roof texting her nonstop and had tried to break into her home. Sheriff's deputies took the suspect – a drunken Marine – to Camp Pendleton.

PBS concert with Paul McCartney and Ringo for David Lynch Foundation

PBS to Air TM Benefit Concert Headlined by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr
by BOB ROTH
MAY 18, 2012

The historic, star-studded benefit concert featuring a reunion of former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, which was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in April 2009, has now been edited into a 90-minute video and is airing on PBS affiliate stations nationwide during the next two months.

The first broadcast was on New York City’s channel THIRTEEN station on April 29.

The “Change Begins Within” concert benefitted the David Lynch Foundation, a charity that provides funding for at risk populations to learn the Transcendental Meditation technique, including underserved inner-city school children, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, and women and girls who suffer from domestic abuse and violence.
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Meditation being studied for treatment of PTSD in veterans

Don't laugh. It does help. Reading this brought back memories of a tough Marine's reaction when I told him he needed to take up Yoga. He glared at me then asked "What's next? Knitting?" Once I explained to him that he had to teach his body to go into high gear to face combat, he had to train his body to calm down now, he gave it a try. It helped and he had his buddies go for it too.

Part of PTSD is the reaction of the body during flashbacks and nightmares. It goes into full alert and gets tense. Veterans have to get their bodies to learn how to calm down just as much as they have to work on their mind and spirit. PTSD takes over the whole veteran and not just their memories.

Meditation being studied for treatment of PTSD in veterans
Posted: Saturday, May 5, 2012
Bloomberg News Service

WASHINGTON — Seeking new ways to treat post-traumatic stress, the Department of Veterans Affairs is studying the use of transcendental meditation to help returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Veterans Affairs’ $5.9 billion system for mental-health care is under sharp criticism, particularly after the release of an inspector general’s report last month that found that the department has greatly overstated how quickly it treats veterans seeking mental-health care.

VA has a “huge investment” in mental-health care but is seeking alternatives to conventional psychiatric treatment, said Scott Gould, deputy secretary of veterans affairs.

“The reality is, not all individuals we see are treatable by the techniques we use,” Gould said at a summit Thursday in Washington on the use of TM to treat post-traumatic stress suffered by veterans and active-duty service members.

By some estimates, 10 percent of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan show effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, numbers that are overwhelming the department.
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Study finds meditation helps soldiers overcome trauma, PTSD

Study finds meditation helps soldiers overcome trauma, PTSD


More than 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Department of Defense.

New research suggests one way to combat the symptoms is through meditation.

David George was sleeping in his cot during his deployment to Iraq when a car bomb exploded 25 yards away.

“I turn the lights on, and see a white cloud billowing into the room,” the 27-year-old recalls. “All the windows were blown out.”


Since then, he's struggled with PTSD, is often anxious, angry and depressed. At one point, back at home in Maryland, he stopped himself from buying a pistol.
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Study finds meditation helps soldiers overcome trauma, PTSD

Alternative treatment promoted for soldiers suffering from PTSD

Alternative treatment promoted for soldiers suffering from PTSD
By Charley Keyes, CNN Senior National Security Producer
June 8, 2011 -- Updated 2106 GMT (0506 HKT)

Donna Karan and David Lynch attend a December function for Lynch's foundation, which aims to relieve PTSD in veterans.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Transcendental meditation can help tackle PTSD, a medical researcher says
Dr. Norman Rosenthal says he has facts, figures and testimonials to back him up
Star-studded events this week are kicking off a campaign to teach veterans how to meditate

Washington (CNN) -- Celebrities and a medical researcher want to convince the Defense Department this week that meditation could help the increasing number of military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress.

Star-studded events in New York and Washington are bringing together people experienced in transcendental meditation with soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Designer Donna Karan hosted a reception in Manhattan on Tuesday evening, and movie director David Lynch ("Blue Velvet," "Mulholland Drive") and CNN anchor and correspondent Candy Crowley will headline a Washington event Wednesday to kick off a campaign the sponsors hope will teach 10,000 veterans how to meditate.

A Georgetown Medical School clinical professor, Dr. Norman Rosenthal, said he has the facts, figures and testimonials to show that meditation can be a low-cost, low-risk alternative to strong narcotics often prescribed by government doctors.

The Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs "are big institutions," Rosenthal said in a telephone interview. "Our hope is someone will raise an eyebrow and say, "Well, well."
He includes case studies in his new book, "Transcendence-healing and Transformation through Transcendental Meditation."
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Alternative treatment promoted for soldiers suffering from PTSD

Seattle hospital teaches meditation to troubled vets

Seattle hospital teaches meditation to troubled vets
The Seattle veterans hospital is teaching patients a form of meditation to ease their post-traumatic stress disorder. The technique called mindfulness-based stress reduction helps patients deal with anxiety, chronic pain and other health issues.
By Michelle Ma

Seattle Times staff reporter

After four combat tours — two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan — normal life seemed impossible for one Seattle Army veteran.

His heart raced when driving under an overpass, and he had trouble breathing when stuck in snarled traffic. As a soldier in combat, he wouldn't dare slow down for fear of being bombed or shot.

Crowded rooms were just as bad. He locked himself away at home and drank instead of facing large groups or loud, sudden noises. He responded to the slightest sense of threat with all-out aggression.

Last summer, the 34-year-old sergeant sought help at the Seattle veterans hospital, enrolling in group and individual therapy and starting medication to treat what doctors diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

He also practices a form of meditation he learned through the VA Puget Sound Health Care System that has eased the horrific memories that bombarded his mind.
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Seattle hospital teaches meditation to troubled vets

Mind training helps troops with combat, then PTSD

It is too early to tell how well this will work. There was a lot of undeserved attention for Battle Mind, even though the suicide and attempted suicide rates went up. I hope they got it right this time.

U.S. Marine Corps Sargeant Ryan Barnett, right, and Corporal Pete Jarzabek meditate during Warrior Mind Training class at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008. The course is catching on in military circles as a way not only to treat both post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries, but also to improve focus and better prepare soldiers and Marines for the rigors of combat. Associated Press © 2008

Mind training helps troops with combat, then PTSD
from The Associated Press


CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. October 7, 2008, 06:58 am ET · The explosion of practice mortars sent Army Spc. Kade Williams into panic attacks, and nightmares plagued his sleep. The ravages of post-traumatic stress had left the veteran of the war in Afghanistan vulnerable, and he was desperate for help.

But sitting silently on the floor with his eyes closed while listening to a soft-spoken instructor tell him to find a focal point by pressing on his lower stomach as guitar music hums in the background? That seemed a bit far-out.

Until he tried it.

"I will be the first one to admit that I was wrong," Williams said.

Warriors have long used such practices to improve concentration and relaxation — dating back more than 1,000 years to the techniques of the samurai. Here at coastal Camp Lejeune, 100 miles inland at the Army's Fort Bragg and at several bases in California, such meditation now comes with a name: Warrior Mind Training.

The course is catching on in military circles as a way not only to treat both post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries, but to improve focus and better prepare soldiers and Marines for the rigors of combat. It can also improve shooting range performance and raise training test scores, said Sarah Ernst, a senior Warrior Mind instructor.

At North Carolina's Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps' main base on the East Coast, the courses are offered through the post naval hospital's "Back on Track" program, which helps wounded sailors and Marines recover mental health issues.

"This is a way to turn off your thoughts and get razor-sharp attention. We kind of work out the muscles, before our troops ever see action, so that they have the mental skill set to stay focused in the heat of battle — and to be able to leave the horrors of war behind when it's time to come home," Ernst said.

"Our motto is, 'Take the war to the enemy, but leave the battle on the battlefield.'"
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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95461525&sc=emaf

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