PTSD:Mental health professionals need to listen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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