OMG! Virtual "reality" is they still do not get it~

A couple of things to point out here. The first one is that for most veterans, they already have the movie playing in their head while in a "safe place." Not sure how pretending they are back there again would help. There were only 75 in the research. Pretty small to be given this kind of attention, plus, not a "new" effort.

2007 Terror by degree in PTSD. 2008 Virtual Iraq in the New Yorker and then how only 50 patients in 3 years used it. It was also called a "boondoggle." By 2010 it turned out that Sally Satel, yes, the witchy woman, was promoting it. There are more but you get the idea now.

The thing that really jumped out at me was the part where a veteran talks about his buddy committing suicide, before he tried to do it too. He was robbed of hope with the awareness his buddy couldn't make it. He then figured he could not make it either.

Tomah VA therapists use Fort McCoy combat simulator to help veterans with PTSD
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Meg Jones
Sept. 21, 2018

The 65-day program includes nine sessions in the combat simulator as well as other group and individual therapy. Tomah VA therapists work with Fort McCoy to tailor scenarios, which can feature desert, jungle and city landscapes. Veterans are placed in four-person teams and a therapist is always with them in the simulator.

FORT McCOY – Zach Nelson texted his mother and brother goodbye in March and then swallowed what he hoped was a lethal amount of pills.

A friend of Nelson’s had recently committed suicide and the 30-year-old Iraq veteran figured “if he can’t make it, neither can I.” But his family notified police in New Auburn, where Nelson lived, and they found him before it was too late.

Nelson ended up at the Tomah VA Medical Center where, as part of his mental health therapy, he returned to the dangerous sands of Iraq on foot patrols and route clearance missions, just like the ones he experienced overseas.

This time, though, instead of battling real roadside bombs and terrorists, Nelson confronted his memories through the wonders of technology. The same technique is being practiced on other veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as well.

Tomah VA mental health therapists are treating veterans with PTSD, depression and anxiety in a state-of-the-art combat simulator at nearby Fort McCoy. The multimillion dollar simulator features full size Humvees and weapons surrounded by a 360-degree video and audio system.
read more here

Office of Naval Research funding PTSD study for 20 veterans?

Virtual reality helps treat PTSD in soldiers "Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could gain some relief from a new virtual-reality program, new research suggests." according to a "new" story on FOX. The problem is, it isn't new.

New claims say they changed it.

"Now, the researchers have developed a new virtual-reality program, called "Bravemind," which was created using feedback from the first version and includes an expanded set of features.Tests of this early version have been positive, Rizzo said. A study funded by the Office of Naval Research used a standard exposure-therapy approach, and involved 20 military members (19 men and 1 woman) who had spent an average of eight years in active service. Over the course of the study, 16 participants showed improvement in their PTSD symptoms, while four participants did not."

I walked through one of these a few years ago in Orlando at a convention. It is realistic and fascinating to view but veterans say that it is like telling their stories over and over again leaving them with no closure, no peace. This study is so tiny, it should not make headline news. As for funding, Naval Research should actually be taking a look at data collected over the last 40 years to figure out what actually worked for veterans.

Maybe this would work better if coupled with the other parts of the veteran to help them heal? Maybe the timing is a factor and needs to be done sooner than later?

While claims have been made for years about "helping veterans" the outcome is questionable.

Virtual Reality for PTSD disclaimer shows issues

We make fun of virtual reality. Veterans say while it is "cool" it does not do them any good. Sure it may help some, but then again, any step taken will make them feel better for a little while but it doesn't last.

There is a new report on virtual reality. No big shocker here because folks have been pushing this for a long time. The kicker was found in the disclaimer at the bottom of the report.

Rothbaum is a consultant to and owns equity in Virtually Better, Inc, which creates virtual environments, however Virtually Better did not create the Virtual Iraq environment tested in this study. Co-authors Kerry Ressler, PhD, and Michael Davis, PhD, are founding members of Extinction Pharmaceuticals/Therpade Technologies, which seek to develop d-cycloserine and other compounds for use to augment the effectiveness of psychotherapy. They have received no equity or income from this relationship within the last three years. The terms of these arrangements have been reviewed and approved by Emory University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.

Now that you read that, take it into consideration when you read about claims made.

Emory researchers report first findings of virtual reality exposure therapy for veterans with PTSD
Emory University
Woodruff Health Sciences Center
April 21, 2014

A randomized controlled clinical trial of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) found that shorter doses of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE) reduces PTSD diagnoses and symptoms.

The study was published in the April 18, 2014 online edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry,

Researchers at Emory University conducted the study with 156 veterans with combat-related PTSD. After an introductory session, each veteran was randomly assigned to receive d-cycloserine (DCS) (53 subjects), alprazolam (50 subjects), or a placebo (53 subjects) before each of five sessions of VRE.

The study found PTSD symptoms significantly improved from pre- to post-treatment with the VRE therapy and the DCS may enhance the VRE results for those veterans who demonstrated better emotional learning in sessions. In addition to self-reported symptoms, researchers used objective measures of cortisol, a stress hormone, and the startle response, and found reductions in reactivity after treatment. Alprazolam, known more commonly as Xanax, impaired recovery from symptoms.
read more here

If it works for you, great. If not, don't give up. Keep looking for what works best for you. Make sure that you take care of the whole you. Your mind, body and spirit and heal. You are not "stuck" where you are and can change again.

All games for wounded are not the same

This may be a good idea for some wounded however, not a wise thing to give to traumatically wounded veterans. They may like to play these games just like the rest of their peers but that does not mean these games are good for them.

Older games are better because they sit together and spend time with each other.

Veterans form Gaming Clan group to reach out to military
Gadsdey Times
By John Davidson
Times Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, October 26, 2013

Recruiting commercials may say otherwise, but life sometimes can be a bit dull for the average service member on an average day. The motto “hurry up and wait” permeates daily military life. There’s a lot of downtime, whether it’s standing by at the barracks for official word from higher-ups, or being caught between shifts on deployment.

One of the ways service members kill time is by playing video games. Taking part in that activity while waiting to officially get off work is almost a daily routine, and the natural competitiveness between soldiers, Marines, sailors or airmen has spread the hobby throughout the military.

Now, two Alabama veterans are creating a gaming community specifically for former service members.

The group, known as the Veterans Gaming Clan, combines that love of games with a community of like-minded people who can provide support for each other that most outsiders cannot.

The group began as a few beta testers of the Xbox 360 version of a game called “World of Tanks.”

As some of the testers got to know each other, they learned about their respective military backgrounds and a bond was formed. Eventually, a community designed to serve veterans was formed.
read more here

A few years ago I went to Walter Reed and brought some of the Cracker Barrel Peg Board games with me. Many of the wounded soldiers were happy with them and talked to their roommate about being challenged. They were able to spend time together instead of isolating with a remote control in their hands. These games are fine for others but not advisable for everyone.

This game is a brain teaser. No big shocker but I usually leave three pegs in with no way to get them out. While this video shows how it can be done, it isn't as easy as you think it is.


It feeds the mind in a good way but does not increase adrenaline the same way video games do. There are many games better suited for combat wounded soldiers recovering from wounds.

Video games like Call of Duty can cause problems for some wounded with PTSD and the reports go back a while after veterans were experiencing issues with this type of game.

Veteran's Group Warns Of The Post-Traumatic Stress Dangers Of Call Of Duty

"The scariest part of PTS is when a veteran experiences symptoms such as flashbacks, or feelings of panic and depression, yet unknowingly brushes it under a blanket of machismo," said Gresford Lewishall, vice president of the organization. "Veterans either play or have exposure to the games and subsequently feel like they're back in Afghanistan or Iraq in life or death situations.

Their heart beat accelerates and they feel a sense of unease come over them."

Stay Strong Nation's goal is to make veterans aware of the potential danger of games like Call of Duty as potential PTSD triggers, while educating civilians on the potential problems so that they can avoid unknowingly exposing their soldier friends and family.

There are also issues with virtual reality that needs to be exposed.

Efficacy of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy in the Treatment of PTSD

In this sense, virtual reality has been used as a tool for exposure and has achieved positive results in the treatment of various anxiety disorders including specific phobias, social phobia, panic disorder and PTSD. Even though this resource has encountered some difficulties because it raises questions about affecting the therapeutic relationship and struggles with personalizing exposure for individuals with different traumas, its use has yielded many benefits.

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) facilitates the emotional engagement of patients with PTSD during exposures to the multiple sensory stimuli made possible by the virtual environment, bypassing symptoms of avoidance and facilitating control on the part of the therapist. The sense of presence provided by a virtual environment that is rich in sensory stimuli facilitates the emotional processing of memories related to the trauma.

This technological apparatus allows gradual exposure to the feared environment according to the needs of each patient. In addition, it can be used in situations where time is limited, as well as in situations that are difficult to control or unpredictable or that could put the patient at risk if the exposure were performed in a real situation.

Finally, exposure in a virtual reality environment allows for greater methodological rigor in clinical studies as it allows for the standardization of the duration and type of exposure for all patients.

The objective of this article is to conduct a systematic review of studies that have used virtual reality in the treatment of PTSD. We aim to verify the efficacy of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for patients diagnosed with PTSD.

Cockamamie war games will not fix combat PTSD

I am glad this article started out with the most important part of the delusion the DOD has been under. Computer games may be something the troops like but that does not mean they are good for them. Like drinking alcohol may make them feel better for a while numbing the pain they do not want to deal with, but afterwards they are worse off. Computer games feed adrenaline and adrenaline feeds PTSD. This is one of the worst ideas I have ever heard.

Can the rush in gaming help overcome the stress of combat?
By Matthew M. Burke
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 30, 2013

Former Army Sgt. Melissa Cramblett was once again pitched in battle against a tenacious enemy fighter. Her heart raced as she tried to save fellow soldiers from falling.

“I’m going to kill this mother[expletive],” she said to herself as adrenaline coursed through her veins.

Cramblett could put down the controller when violent combat video games like “Call of Duty: Black Ops” got to be too much, but it wasn’t so easy to flip the switch on her post-traumatic stress symptoms, which worsened each time she played.

She suffered anxiety and took her anger out on her family. She couldn’t sleep, but when she did, she was constantly haunted by a solider she knew who had been decapitated in an IED attack in Iraq in 2004. The soldier had been in the vehicle behind her; it was a devastating loss. Now, despite being a few years removed from the battlefield, she was back in Iraq and his bloodied body was standing over her.

“I can’t be in the same room [with someone playing],” she said of the increasingly realistic and violent crop of combat video games, some of which are developed with the help of active-duty and retired special operations troops. “It gives you that adrenaline rush that makes you feel like you’re back there.”

Cramblett has since asked her husband to get rid of the videos at home and she warns servicemembers with PTSD to stay away from them through her work with veterans groups Stay Strong Nation and the Veterans Who Care Foundation.

“I know I’m not the only one suffering from those games,” she said from her civilian job at a recruiting battalion in Portland, Ore. “I think it’s dangerous if a servicemember plays if they have PTSD.”

Despite the beliefs of people like Cramblett — and media reports that former servicemembers might have committed suicide after playing the games — violent combat video games remain a popular respite of troops downrange and a connection to their warrior past once they return home.
read more here

It is time for the DOD and "researchers" to actually research PTSD before they come up with these cockamamie fix-it by breaking it approaches. This isn't rocket science! This is common sense.

When military training and exposures teach their bodies to operated under adrenaline rushes, the body learned to adapt. The best way to treat PTSD is to teach the body how to work without it again. Learning how to calm down will not happen with this. Sure they may have fun playing the games. Sure they may even get some relief for a while but what they will end up with is what will make PTSD worse.

Some "games" may work but that depends on how much the designer understands PTSD as much as it depends on how talented they are in creating the game. Violent games are part of the problem when kids think they can kill on a computer screen but find real life much different. When they left real combat and play the games again, there is a much different effect on what is happening inside of them and it is not good.

Canada messing up troops as much as the US is

Vancouver Sun Online seems to have been very busy lately on PTSD. It is good way to take a look at what Canada is dealing with as well as the US. They are doing the same things we are including making a huge mistake on this first video.

They have up a video on Virtual Reality. In other words a computer game not unlike what most of these young men and women have been playing with for years. It is designed to simulate combat, which would be fine for mission training, but lousy at "preventing" PTSD and "defeating the enemy from within."

These are among the claims you will hear in this video.

Helps them "get over it" is not a good thing to say. This also claims "the program is also intended to prevent trauma" which is another big mistake. Topped off with "virtual taste of the terrors that await them and learn the ways to cope." It gives them a "sense of purpose and pride in the mission." said Dr. Buckwalter. It "tempers the body chemistry as they head into the mission."

Pure BS! If I had a PhD after my name I could say that if they dropped and did twenty pushups after they saw a buddy blown up it wouldn't bother them so much because exercise releases more endorphins!

Living with PTSD -- nine tours of duty
VancouverSunOnline

Apr 13, 2013
Jamie and Cyndi Teather -- both veterans of numerous tours of duty. Jamie served in five tours -- everywhere from Croatia and Bosnia to Afghanistan. He suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, but fears sounding like a whiner. Soldiers just don't do that. However, he is "broken," says Cyndi. She says they can live together happily as long as one of them is medicated.

Living with PTSD -- a wife misses her husband
VancouverSunOnline
Apr 13, 2013
Nicola Thom misses her husband. He isn't the same man she married. A soldier who served 22 years in the military and saw seven tours of duty, he came home changed after the last two tours. However, "I tell him we'll find a new normal," she says.

K9 Bravo
VancouverSunOnline
Apr 13, 2013
Richard Yuill, with his dog Halo, was diagnosed with PTSD after serving in Bosnia in 2000. He's part of the K9 Bravo program started by Hope Heels, a non-profit group established to help people with mental health issues. Video by Rick MacWilliam, edmontonjournal.com
Pte. Ted Patrick
VancouverSunOnline
Apr 13, 2013
Now 91, Ottawa-born and raised Pte. Ted Patrick was a signalman (radio operator) in the Irish Regiment of Canada. He served in Italy, Belgium and Holland during the war. Like many who served in the slow advance through Italy, he has terrible memories of being shelled by German mortars. In fact, he has lived with PTSD for much of his life.

PTSD Will No Longer Be 'Invisible' In The Military

PTSD Will No Longer Be 'Invisible' In The Military
Written by
Anita Brikman
WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- The organizers of "Honor for All; Visible Honor for Invisible Wounds" are hoping to bring the debilitating effects of PTSD and traumatic brain injuries to the forefront.

Thousands of current service men and women are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan haunted by nightmares and memories of friends lost and the carnage they witnessed. Yet they may appear "OK" on the outside, compared to some of their fellow veterans with combat injuries.

Efforts are underway both in Washington, DC and across the nation to help suffering soldiers in new ways.

In Atlanta, Georgia, 27-year-old former Army Staff Seargeant Jeff Matthews is back on the battlefield in Afghanistan, thanks to a virtual reality computer program and the helmet covering his eyes and ears.

"There's bullets everywhere," he describes, as he takes part in an experiment at Emory University for more than 90 vets with PTSD.
PTSD Will No Longer Be Invisible In The Military

Sally Satel Promoted Virtual Reality War Games

Dr. Sally Satel Promoted Virtual Reality War Games as a Treatment for PTSD
May 18, 2010 posted by Robert L. Hanafin
Recently we at Veterans Today have been getting a lot of feedback both positive and negative on the Pentagon’s experimentation with Virtual Reality War Games as a treatment for PTSD.

First let me say that I personally want to approach this with an open mind, heck I’m a strong, passionate supporter of Assistance, Service, and Companion Dogs for Vets and Troops as a treatment for PTSD but not as a exclusive approach. That said, not even the Pentagon is advocating the use of virtual reality combat simulations (war games) as the answer for PTSD, combat stress, or combat trauma but as a weapon in their arsenal for dealing with and helping troops cope with PTSD. After all the MISSION of military medicine is Force Readiness.

What I do caution are (1) Sally Satel has advocated this approach from the early stages of its development and that alone turns my radar of suspicion on, and (2) virtual reality is based on a commercial war game that is sold in Wal-Mart, K-Mart, even on Base and Post Exchanges, so why spend millions of tax payer bucks on a defense contract when military psychologist can just pay a few bucks to pick up a similar war game at the Bx or Px and tailor it to the patient’s PTSD symptoms?

Anyway, we at Veterans Today have decided to do a series of articles focusing on this latest development in state of the art technology to treat PTSD. I am going to do best I can to paint a balanced picture of the pros and cons leaving out my own personal bias and cautions, because as I said we should approach this open minded, fiscally prudent (is is cost effective per patient treated), exactly how does it differ from the War Games psychologist can buy or prescribe for their patients at the BX/PX, but most important how many active duty troops can they get to step forward and admit they have a problem using this attention getter?

Lastly, what are the implications, if any, for expansion of this treatment into the Department of Veterans Affairs? If PTSD is caught, treated, and troops even taught to cope with PTSD and stay on active duty, then eventually PTSD could become a thing of the past within the VA system. Are we talking cure here? Maybe, maybe not.

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News Network
read more here
Dr Sally Satel Promoted Virtual Reality War Games

Veterans suffering from PTSD can visit virtual Chicoma Island for help

Veterans suffering from PTSD can visit virtual Chicoma Island for help
By Bob Brewin 09/01/2009

View slideshow of veteran visiting Chicoma Lodge in Second Life.

Combat veterans rarely talk about their most searing hidden emotions and thoughts caused by their experiences in battle, a reticence that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles is near completing Coming Home, a virtual world in Second Life that its creators hope will help break down the barriers to PTSD treatment, said Jacquelyn Morie, a project leader at ICT.

The institute developed a virtual world that features immersive therapy, which mental health professionals can use to treat Iraq combat veterans suffering form PTSD called Virtual Iraq. The site includes a virtual Iraqi village that veterans can walk through.

ICT initially planned to use the village in Second Life, but in a recent paper that Morie wrote, a veteran told her that he found the Iraqi village "disturbingly realistic, and he did not believe that any veteran should be allowed to explore the village without a therapist at his side."
read more here
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090901_9444.php?oref=topstory

PTSD Virtual Reality Therapy:Fraudulent High-Priced Boondoggle

Nov-02-2008 18:59
PTSD Virtual Reality Therapy:
Fraudulent High-Priced Boondoggle
Dr. Phil Leveque Salem-News.com
Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.
(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I was abjectly stunned and stupefied when I first read of Virtual Reality Therapy for PTSD Veteran victims. What it first suggested to me was that the VA Psychologists (and Social Workers) didn’t have the slightest comprehension of who and what they were presumed to be treating.

In the first place, the terms surrounding the definition of PTSD are ambiguities and arcane with battle fatigue, shellshock, homesickness, “miss their mothers”, war neurosis, psychoneurosis, sexual repression, battle anxiety, eight balls and malingerer terms. There are probably a few other terms but most require explanation.

Battle fatigue is inexact.

By definition, Infantry soldiers are always exhausted. They work our butts off with little sleep to make us TOUGH. "Terror fatigue" or "horror fatigue" is more appropriate. If your buddy at your side is blown apart you may feel horror and terror that the next shot is for you.

"Shellshock" is concussion from mortar or artillery. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is probably the current term. Psychoneurosis was invented in World War Two and is a general inclusive term. Dr. Freud said all neurosis were from sexual repression. (He never was in a barrage).

"Battle anxiety" – hell yes – who wants to get wounded or killed? Eight balls and malingerers? Some people just didn’t want to be in the service, especially most of the Army Infantry – 8 million of us draftees.

The Draft Boards rejected about 15 percent. Basic training rejected about 7 percent. Good, I wouldn’t want those guys near me in battle.

Ok, lets get to PTSD.

These Shrinkologists seem to think this is a specific entity. IT IS NOT. PTSD is on a Bell Curve like IQ’s – Intelligence Quotients – with a standard deviation of about 3. Some guys pee their pants in basic training. These are the most sensitive or grade ONE.

click post title for more

Virtual Iraq has only treated 50 PTSD veterans

FACING the DEMONS
By DAVID KOHN
The Baltimore Sun
Friday, July 11, 2008

WASHINGTON — To a soldier who has been in Iraq, the sights, sounds and smells are familiar: the pop of an AK-47, the flash of a bomb, the stench of cordite.

The location, however, is not.


Here, in a small, windowless room at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, researchers are using the latest video game technology — plus a smell machine and a vibration platform — to help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Known as "Virtual Iraq," the treatment could help many soldiers who don't find relief from medication or traditional psychotherapy.

"It really jogs their memory," says Col. Michael Roy, who runs the digital therapy program at Walter Reed.

"It puts them back there very powerfully and makes them realize a lot of things they had consciously or subconsciously repressed."

Proponents of the new treatment say that once these memories are available, patients can begin to talk with therapists, eventually rendering the phantoms less terrifying.

Nationwide, only about 50 soldiers have undergone the treatment in the past three years — leading some critics to say the treatment is still unproved.

Virtual Iraq 50 patients in 3 years does not live up to hype

Facing demons in 'Virtual Iraq'
A 3-D simulator in which soldiers see, hear and smell the rigors of combat may help ease war-induced stress


Washington - To a soldier who has been in Iraq, the sights, sounds and smells are familiar: the pop of an AK-47, the flash of a bomb, the stench of cordite.

The location, however, is not.

Here, in a small, windowless room at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, researchers are using the latest video game technology - plus a smell machine and a vibration platform - to help patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Known as "Virtual Iraq," the treatment may help many soldiers who don't find relief from medication or traditional psychotherapy.


"It really jogs their memory," says Col. Michael Roy, who runs the digital therapy program at Walter Reed. "It puts them back there very powerfully and makes them realize a lot of things they had consciously or subconsciously repressed."

Proponents of the new treatment say that once these memories are available, patients can begin to talk with therapists, eventually rendering the phantoms less terrifying.

Nationwide, only about 50 soldiers have undergone the treatment in the past three years - leading some critics to say the treatment is still unproven.


Some researchers are skeptical that the new method improves on traditional therapy.

"We don't have empirical evidence that virtual treatment is needed. And it's quite expensive," says University of Pennsylvania psychologist Edna Foa, an expert on exposure therapy. "I want to see what motivates this, other than a fascination with gadgets."

Foa, who works with PTSD patients - including soldiers - in both the U.S. and Israel, says the images in virtual therapy may be too generic to effectively elicit patients' own memories.
click post title for more

50? That's it? That's all? And they have been passing this off as some kind of wide spread miracle cure? How can 50 out of thousands prove anything? Why hasn't this been used more widely and tested on a lot more veterans before they even began to publicize it?

Using people who survived 9-11 is not the same as treating combat veterans. There is a huge difference between victims of trauma and participants in it. Keep in mind, as I remind my readers often, I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. I admire these people greatly and need them where they are so that when I'm finally able to get some of these veterans to the point where they are ready to ask for treatment, I have someone to send them to. However, that said, I've studied PTSD for over 25 years, talk to them, emailed with them and listened to them as well as living with one of my own.

The ones who are cut the deepest are the combat troops. First because of the re-exposure to traumatic events. It's not just one time they experience a traumatic event but they do so on a daily basis. They are also part of the traumatic events instead of just bystanders in the wrong place at the wrong time. The second deepest cut comes to the police force. They are also participants in traumatic events. They are not exposed to them as often but they are a close second. Then the emergency responders, like firefighters. They are not participants in the events but rescuers. They have a whole other set of things to deal with. Everyone else usually experiences a traumatic event on a one time basis. There is a huge difference between all of them and cannot be treated the same without taking all of this into account. PTSD is not a one size fits all wound. Some cuts are deeper than others because of how many times the trauma hits.

I am not impressed with virtual reality treatment now that I know we are talking about 50 nationwide who have been through the program.

Virtual Iraq in The New Yorker

Virtual Iraq
Using simulation to treat a new generation of traumatized veterans.
by Sue Halpern
May 19, 2008

In November, 2004, when he was nineteen years old, a marine I’ll call Travis Boyd found himself about to rush the roof of the tallest building in the northern end of Falluja in the midst of a firefight. Boyd, whose first assignment in Iraq was to the security detail at Abu Ghraib prison, had been patrolling the city with his thirteen-man infantry squad, rooting out insurgents and sleeping on the floors of abandoned houses, where they’d often have to remove dead bodies in order to lay out their bedrolls.

With Boyd in the lead, the marines ran up the building’s four flights of stairs. When they reached the top, “the enemy cut loose at us with everything they had,” he recalled. “Bullets were exploding like firecrackers all around us.” Boyd paused and his team leader, whom he thought of as an older brother, ran past him to the far side of the building. Moments after he got there, he was shot dead. Within minutes, everyone else on the roof was wounded. “We had to crawl out of there,” said Boyd, who was hit with shrapnel and suffered a concussion, earning a Purple Heart. “That was my worst day.”

It is in the nature of soldiers to put emotions aside, and that is what Boyd did for three years. He “stayed on the line” with his squad and finished his tour of duty the following June, married his high-school girlfriend, and soon afterward began training for his second Iraq deployment, not thinking much about what he had seen or done during the first. Haditha, where he was sent in the fall of 2005, was calmer than Falluja. There were roadside bombs, but no direct attacks. Boyd was now a team leader, and he and his men patrolled the streets like police. When drivers did not respond to the soldiers’ efforts to get them to stop, he said, “we’d have to light them up.” He was there for seven months.

With one more year of service left on his commitment, and not enough time for a third deployment, Boyd was separated from his unit and assigned to fold towels and clean equipment at the fitness center of his Stateside base. It was a quiet, undemanding job, intended to allow him to decompress from combat. Instead, he was haunted by memories of Iraq. He couldn’t sleep. His mind raced. He was edgy, guilt-racked, depressed. He could barely do his job.

“I’d avoid crowds, I’d avoid driving, I’d avoid going out at night,” he told me the first time we spoke. “I’d avoid people who weren’t infantry, the ones who hadn’t been bleeding and dying and going weeks and months without showers and eating M.R.E.s. I’d have my wife drive me if I had to go off the base. A few times, I thought I saw a mortar in the road and reached for the steering wheel. I was always on alert, ready for anything to happen at any time.”
click post title for more

Terror by degree in PTSD

I've posted about virtual reality therapy in the past but hesitantly. I think we all need to stay open to new ideas. The problem I had with it has been pointed out on this article.

There are different levels of this wound, just as their are burns by degrees, there are PTSD wounds by degrees. Some veterans find they just need a little reassurance to get through this and begin to heal, while others, again as pointed in article, as well as countless times on this blog, some go into deeper wounds.

My husband is in the 90% range. Like most Vietnam veterans, they didn't receive any help for a decade or more. For him it was over 20 years after his return. There are things he can tolerate but many more he cannot. To this day, he has not been able to go to the Vietnam Memorial Wall, but we do go to the traveling walls. Even they cause him distress.

Knowing Jack, knowing veterans from all across the country, this article points out the problems with virtual reality therapy. They need to know what levels are helped and what levels are harmed before they go off and do this as a one size fits all cure. For some it may help but for others, it is just terror by degrees.


PTSD: VA's Current Snow Job
Dr. Phillip Leveque Salem-News.com
Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Toxicologist and Pharmacologist.
US Marines. Photo: NATO
(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I had the dubious experience to watch and listen to the VA's new treatment for PTSD, "virtual reality", on ABC local news in Portland, Oregon. I was both fascinated and outraged.
Two doctors were directing the "experiment" of treating soldiers with "terror movies". One was Capt. Greg Reger, a psychologist who was manning the computer/player. The other was a civilian, Dr. Miles McFall of Seattle, Washington. It wasn't stated if he was a physician. He told the news reporter he was an expert on PTSD.
With the VA and the Army both admitting their treatment of PTSD veterans was a colossal failure, I can't imagine any doctor admitting he was involved in the colossal failure of the treatments.
go here for the rest
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december032007/ptsd_120207.php