1st sgt., fellow Guardsmen aid injured at Boston tragedy
Apr. 20, 2013
QArmy Times
By Meghann Myers
Staff writer
First Sgt. Bernard Madore spent most of the Boston Marathon doing what first sergeants do: keeping his men on track, joking around, playfully shouting at the other runners to “get up the hill!”
The fun came to an abrupt end the afternoon of April 15, when two explosive devices went off near the finish line, killing three and injuring more than 180. That’s when Madore’s training kicked in.
“I started looking up and around as soon as it went off to see where’s it going?” Madore told Army Times. “And then there was a secondary bomb, so we paused to look around, because you don’t know if somebody’s going to start shooting or what.”
Madore and several other soldiers from the Massachusetts National Guard’s 1,060th Transportation Company had ruck-marched the 26.2-mile race to raise money for the nonprofit Military Friends Foundation. They were waiting in a medical tent for the last members of their group to catch up when the first blast went off around the corner.
The men rushed toward the scene and immediately began helping first-responders tear down a barricade that separated spectators from the marathon route. When the uninjured were freed, it was on to the next step.
read more here
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Have the energy to carry the weight of others
Today I heard about another suicide of a veteran leaving everyone in shock. He was in the Orlando area and had told many veterans to get help explaining that PTSD is nothing to be ashamed of and they could get better. This happens way more often than you read about in your local paper so I thought it would be a good time to explain what I think I finally figured out.
Years ago, in the late 90's my life was wearing on me. After all, I was helping everyone else because it made me feel better knowing I could some good with my own pain. Living with a combat PTSD veteran is not fun. The problem was I was not really dealing with my own pain. I was avoiding it. Usually slow to anger and over it fast, I started to feel angry most of the time. I knew I was in trouble. I started to hate everything and was not fond of many. Talking to my own family members left me feeling frustrated because I was still hearing "get a divorce" but at least it wasn't as often. They just couldn't understand what I was trying to tell them. I didn't want to let it go again the way I did after my daughter was born and an infection almost killed me. I was actually praying to die. Anyway, I knew I to do something so I called our family doctor and he recommended a few family psychologists. After I called a few, I ended up with some with a lot of experience with PTSD. Even though I didn't have it, it was still part of the problem I had. I finally addressed my own pain and those dark days were over.
I am a helper. Always have been. It is very hard for helpers to ask for help. All too often we ignore our own needs to the point where we just crash. That is what happened to the one I heard about today. If you are a helper make sure you take care of you.
Have support for yourself. If you don't think any less of the people you help then understand no one can really think less of you for doing what you preach about doing. To this day I have a list of people I call when I am feeling the need. I also advise against helping others too soon. If you are not healing and strong enough, it can drain the life out of you. Get strong first so you can be able to help others. Don't rush it.
A lot of time veterans tell me they want to do what I do and I tell them they will get there when they are ready. If they rush it, they can do more harm to themselves than help anyone else. They are helpers and they are happy doing what they are uniquely qualified to do but first they need to "heal thyself" before doing it for others. I know I came close to popping my cork when someone was just not listening. My patience was that thin. Get strong so you can have the energy to carry the weight of others.
Remember, when I got help I was a know-it-all and was emailing experts but never once did I want them to see how much I needed their help. I am only here now because I got past that ego trip I was on and understood that if I was telling someone there was nothing wrong with asking for help I had better live it in my own life.
Years ago, in the late 90's my life was wearing on me. After all, I was helping everyone else because it made me feel better knowing I could some good with my own pain. Living with a combat PTSD veteran is not fun. The problem was I was not really dealing with my own pain. I was avoiding it. Usually slow to anger and over it fast, I started to feel angry most of the time. I knew I was in trouble. I started to hate everything and was not fond of many. Talking to my own family members left me feeling frustrated because I was still hearing "get a divorce" but at least it wasn't as often. They just couldn't understand what I was trying to tell them. I didn't want to let it go again the way I did after my daughter was born and an infection almost killed me. I was actually praying to die. Anyway, I knew I to do something so I called our family doctor and he recommended a few family psychologists. After I called a few, I ended up with some with a lot of experience with PTSD. Even though I didn't have it, it was still part of the problem I had. I finally addressed my own pain and those dark days were over.
I am a helper. Always have been. It is very hard for helpers to ask for help. All too often we ignore our own needs to the point where we just crash. That is what happened to the one I heard about today. If you are a helper make sure you take care of you.
Have support for yourself. If you don't think any less of the people you help then understand no one can really think less of you for doing what you preach about doing. To this day I have a list of people I call when I am feeling the need. I also advise against helping others too soon. If you are not healing and strong enough, it can drain the life out of you. Get strong first so you can be able to help others. Don't rush it.
A lot of time veterans tell me they want to do what I do and I tell them they will get there when they are ready. If they rush it, they can do more harm to themselves than help anyone else. They are helpers and they are happy doing what they are uniquely qualified to do but first they need to "heal thyself" before doing it for others. I know I came close to popping my cork when someone was just not listening. My patience was that thin. Get strong so you can have the energy to carry the weight of others.
Remember, when I got help I was a know-it-all and was emailing experts but never once did I want them to see how much I needed their help. I am only here now because I got past that ego trip I was on and understood that if I was telling someone there was nothing wrong with asking for help I had better live it in my own life.
Resilience training is key to military suicides, not stopping them!
When will they understand that when the suicides and attempted suicides increased while pushing this has not worked? Read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR and see what this has produced.
Suicide prevention: Resiliency key to overcoming threat to Army ranks
April 18, 2013
By
Reginald Rogers, Paraglide
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (April 18, 2013) -- Last year, the Army's suicide rate peaked to astronomical levels, as the service reported more than 320 suicides. The increase in the number of reported suicides set off various alarms with the Army's senior leadership, and prompted the service to take a closer look at its suicide prevention program.
To ensure that those numbers are decreased in 2013, the Army has worked to ensure that all leaders are familiar with the resources available to at-risk Soldiers and other community members.
Fort Bragg is no different.
According to Lt. Col. Kevin Willis, manager, XVIII Airborne Corps Suicide Prevention Program, the goal of the Fort Bragg program, as directly related to the Army Suicide Prevention Program, is to prevent suicide among Soldiers, family members and civilians.
Willis pointed out that in accordance with ARMY DA PAM 600-24: Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention, suicide prevention is described as a continuum of awareness, intervention, and postvention to help save lives. Ultimately, the goal of prevention is to develop healthy, resilient Soldiers to the point where suicide is not an option.
He said it is important to establish a culture that reinforces help-seeking behavior as an appropriate and widely accepted part of being responsible.
"Intervention is also key since the goal is to prevent a life crisis or mental disorder from leading to suicidal behavior and includes managing suicidal thoughts that may arise," Willis said.
read more here
Making peace after trauma comes with knowing the different types
Making peace after trauma comes with knowing the different types
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
April 21, 2013
It does not just happen. It does not take time to heal all wounds. It takes a lot of work but what has happened after men and women are out of combat zones proves what does not work. "Resilience" during combat is one thing but expecting it to work on preventing PTSD is a deadly notion.
I was reading this article about "Mindfullness"
It claims that,
There are three components to healing. One is the mind and that requires a trauma specialist to respond right after "it" hits the "fan" and then the event is not allowed to take over. This does not have to be a "professional" but can be done with someone trained to respond the right way. Someone who will not dismiss or minimize what the serviceman or woman is experiencing. Someone who is trained to stay away from the wrong choice of words. I've actually heard people try to "fix" someone by saying "God only gives us what we can handle." That ends up enforcing what they already think. People walk away from trauma either believing they are one lucky SOB or they just got nailed by God. God either saved them or did it to them. If they believe God did it to them, then bingo, they just heard they were right and God gave it to them. I have also heard well trained crisis responders do it to perfection. They listened right, saying very little and with compassion. They focused on the person they were helping. Not taking phone calls, checking their watch or looking around the room as if they had something better to do.
If that doesn't happen then you need to have a mental health professional but even that is an issue if they are not trauma specialists. Otherwise they get it wrong too. Psychiatrists and psychologist come with the same issues. If they are not experts on what trauma does, they get it wrong. If they are not specialists there is also the issue of many not believing PTSD is real even though brain scans have shown the changes in the brain. Some of them know so little all they offer is medication as if "they have a pill for that" is the answer to everything. Medication numbs. It does not heal. There is also the issue of many medications coming with a warning they could increase suicidal thoughts being prescribed. The right ones can work to calm things down enough so the other part of treatment can start to work.
The body is the second part that needs to be treated. Everything is being drained by flashbacks, nightmares following a year of being constantly on edge. The body has to relearn soothing and calming down. There are many ways to get there. Yoga, meditation, martial arts, writing, swimming, walking and playing a musical instrument help with that as long as they can train themselves to focus on what they are doing and not the negative thing that happened to them. If they start to think of the events they survived, they need to push it out and think of what they are doing.
The other, and I think the most important part of healing, is spiritual. Forgiving. Knowing they are forgiven for whatever they feel they need to be forgiven for and forgiving whomever they have to forgive. That is not up to anyone to judge or dismiss. It is the only way they being to make peace with what happened. With combat and a close cousin law enforcement, it is not just surviving the event. Often it is participating in it with the use of weapons.
Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about being confused over something I said about this. It is a good time to clarify. There are different causes of PTSD but all are being diagnosed and treated the same way. They treat someone surviving a hurricane (one time event) the same way they treat a rape victim even though a hurricane always comes with a warning but rape does not. The threat of something happening again or not is part of what has to happen in therapy. Something that happens in a natural disaster is not man made. Rape is. It is done to the person by another person's actions. Worrying about it happening again is part of what PTSD does. Then the human issue of forgiving comes into it. Forgiving their attacker while seeking justice is tricky. It requires a lot of work to do that but once it is done, life gets better not carrying that burden on top of everything else.
Abuse is another one especially when you live with the person. For me it was my Dad, a violent alcoholic until I was 13. Then my ex-husband tried to kill me. Huge difference between what nature does and what people do.
They treat someone with PTSD after a car accident the same way as the other three even though the threat to them is the repeated every time they get into a vehicle. Again it is the human factor of someone causing the trauma or worse, when they caused it.
Firefighters are another different group. They put their lives on the line everyday and when they are not rushing to a fire, they are waiting for it. They don't know when the next alarm bell will ring. The friend I talked to yesterday is involved with firefighters. He told me that some of them are armed when we were talking about how cops and military folks use weapons. (That is something we can explore later as I learn more about that aspect.) For the average firefighter, again, there is a huge difference between the type of PTSD they get hit with because of the nature of the trauma, the threat to their lives and concern for facing it all over again. There is survivor guilt when they couldn't save someone or when one of their friends die in the line of duty.
We are all talking about the bombs in Boston last week and people seeking things no one should have to see because other humans decided to do it and others decided to help afterwards. They will have a lot to deal with on a whole different level. It is close to what firefighters/first responders face on a daily basis. Lives on the line and seeing things no one should have to see but they know someone has to do it.
Then you have police officers and the troops. Cops know the risk every time they clock in but they get to go home at the end of their shift. The troops don't while they are deployed into combat zones. The troops get to go back to the states away from combat, but cops have to get up and do it all over again everyday. (Getting how complicated all this is yet?) Both groups have to use force and become part of the event itself. The nature of the trauma is much different for them from the other groups and they have to be treated differently.
Then you also have the secondary stressor. I had a DEA agent years ago contact me because he was worried about losing his security clearance. He was a combat veteran and had been through a lot working on both jobs yet it was not until his younger brother was killed in Iraq that it hit him like a ton of bricks. What he discovered was he was pushing past mild PTSD and not addressing it. He was not ready when he was hit by the event that was the thing to wake up sleeping PTSD.
That is something that is happening right now after the bombings in Boston. People will react differently when they go out in public and need help right now. The victims will need a different kind of help. For the responders, they will need help too. Yet if they are treated the same way, then they will need a lot more help then they would have if they are treated properly right now.
There are experts who are not experts in trauma, but there are experts in trauma that I learned from over all these years. They are out there and those are the people who should be running the studies like the one you just read about. They are the ones who should be listened to if we are ever going to get any of this right. If we keep listening to the ones doing the talking most of the last 40 years, the ones getting the attention and funding, then we are all screwed.
They say take care of all parts of the survivors of trauma with their minds, bodies and spirits and then you have healing. Otherwise we have the history of PTSD being repeated.
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
April 21, 2013
It does not just happen. It does not take time to heal all wounds. It takes a lot of work but what has happened after men and women are out of combat zones proves what does not work. "Resilience" during combat is one thing but expecting it to work on preventing PTSD is a deadly notion.
I was reading this article about "Mindfullness"
"New study from University of Michigan, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System shows group mindfulness activities have positive effect on PTSD symptoms."First, it is not new in the world of psychiatry but it may be new to University of Michigan. Part of PTSD is the loss of ability to calm down. The function of the human body has been compromised by the constant stress of combat, multiple traumas topped off with the treat of them happening again. In other words, the body learned how to survive on "alert" and it needs to learn how to calm down again.
It claims that,
"After eight weeks of treatment, 73 percent of patients in the mindfulness group displayed meaningful improvement compared to 33 percent in the treatment-as-usual groups."Sounds great but any help can make people feel better when it comes to PTSD because as soon as they start talking about it, it stops getting worse. What this study does not address is the longterm.
There are three components to healing. One is the mind and that requires a trauma specialist to respond right after "it" hits the "fan" and then the event is not allowed to take over. This does not have to be a "professional" but can be done with someone trained to respond the right way. Someone who will not dismiss or minimize what the serviceman or woman is experiencing. Someone who is trained to stay away from the wrong choice of words. I've actually heard people try to "fix" someone by saying "God only gives us what we can handle." That ends up enforcing what they already think. People walk away from trauma either believing they are one lucky SOB or they just got nailed by God. God either saved them or did it to them. If they believe God did it to them, then bingo, they just heard they were right and God gave it to them. I have also heard well trained crisis responders do it to perfection. They listened right, saying very little and with compassion. They focused on the person they were helping. Not taking phone calls, checking their watch or looking around the room as if they had something better to do.
If that doesn't happen then you need to have a mental health professional but even that is an issue if they are not trauma specialists. Otherwise they get it wrong too. Psychiatrists and psychologist come with the same issues. If they are not experts on what trauma does, they get it wrong. If they are not specialists there is also the issue of many not believing PTSD is real even though brain scans have shown the changes in the brain. Some of them know so little all they offer is medication as if "they have a pill for that" is the answer to everything. Medication numbs. It does not heal. There is also the issue of many medications coming with a warning they could increase suicidal thoughts being prescribed. The right ones can work to calm things down enough so the other part of treatment can start to work.
The body is the second part that needs to be treated. Everything is being drained by flashbacks, nightmares following a year of being constantly on edge. The body has to relearn soothing and calming down. There are many ways to get there. Yoga, meditation, martial arts, writing, swimming, walking and playing a musical instrument help with that as long as they can train themselves to focus on what they are doing and not the negative thing that happened to them. If they start to think of the events they survived, they need to push it out and think of what they are doing.
The other, and I think the most important part of healing, is spiritual. Forgiving. Knowing they are forgiven for whatever they feel they need to be forgiven for and forgiving whomever they have to forgive. That is not up to anyone to judge or dismiss. It is the only way they being to make peace with what happened. With combat and a close cousin law enforcement, it is not just surviving the event. Often it is participating in it with the use of weapons.
Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about being confused over something I said about this. It is a good time to clarify. There are different causes of PTSD but all are being diagnosed and treated the same way. They treat someone surviving a hurricane (one time event) the same way they treat a rape victim even though a hurricane always comes with a warning but rape does not. The threat of something happening again or not is part of what has to happen in therapy. Something that happens in a natural disaster is not man made. Rape is. It is done to the person by another person's actions. Worrying about it happening again is part of what PTSD does. Then the human issue of forgiving comes into it. Forgiving their attacker while seeking justice is tricky. It requires a lot of work to do that but once it is done, life gets better not carrying that burden on top of everything else.
Abuse is another one especially when you live with the person. For me it was my Dad, a violent alcoholic until I was 13. Then my ex-husband tried to kill me. Huge difference between what nature does and what people do.
They treat someone with PTSD after a car accident the same way as the other three even though the threat to them is the repeated every time they get into a vehicle. Again it is the human factor of someone causing the trauma or worse, when they caused it.
Firefighters are another different group. They put their lives on the line everyday and when they are not rushing to a fire, they are waiting for it. They don't know when the next alarm bell will ring. The friend I talked to yesterday is involved with firefighters. He told me that some of them are armed when we were talking about how cops and military folks use weapons. (That is something we can explore later as I learn more about that aspect.) For the average firefighter, again, there is a huge difference between the type of PTSD they get hit with because of the nature of the trauma, the threat to their lives and concern for facing it all over again. There is survivor guilt when they couldn't save someone or when one of their friends die in the line of duty.
We are all talking about the bombs in Boston last week and people seeking things no one should have to see because other humans decided to do it and others decided to help afterwards. They will have a lot to deal with on a whole different level. It is close to what firefighters/first responders face on a daily basis. Lives on the line and seeing things no one should have to see but they know someone has to do it.
Then you have police officers and the troops. Cops know the risk every time they clock in but they get to go home at the end of their shift. The troops don't while they are deployed into combat zones. The troops get to go back to the states away from combat, but cops have to get up and do it all over again everyday. (Getting how complicated all this is yet?) Both groups have to use force and become part of the event itself. The nature of the trauma is much different for them from the other groups and they have to be treated differently.
Then you also have the secondary stressor. I had a DEA agent years ago contact me because he was worried about losing his security clearance. He was a combat veteran and had been through a lot working on both jobs yet it was not until his younger brother was killed in Iraq that it hit him like a ton of bricks. What he discovered was he was pushing past mild PTSD and not addressing it. He was not ready when he was hit by the event that was the thing to wake up sleeping PTSD.
That is something that is happening right now after the bombings in Boston. People will react differently when they go out in public and need help right now. The victims will need a different kind of help. For the responders, they will need help too. Yet if they are treated the same way, then they will need a lot more help then they would have if they are treated properly right now.
There are experts who are not experts in trauma, but there are experts in trauma that I learned from over all these years. They are out there and those are the people who should be running the studies like the one you just read about. They are the ones who should be listened to if we are ever going to get any of this right. If we keep listening to the ones doing the talking most of the last 40 years, the ones getting the attention and funding, then we are all screwed.
They say take care of all parts of the survivors of trauma with their minds, bodies and spirits and then you have healing. Otherwise we have the history of PTSD being repeated.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Volunteer firefighters died saving others
Residents near Texas plant explosion allowed to return home
By Tom Watkins
CNN
updated 4:17 PM EDT, Sat April 20, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
West, Texas, "is safe for our citizens," Mayor Pro Tem Steve Vanek says
Residents can return home but will have limited utilities and a curfew, he says
Town of West -- population 2,800 -- grapples with loss; death toll remains at 14
(CNN) -- Days after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 14 people and leveled parts of a central Texas town, officials moved Saturday to help get residents back to their homes.
"I want to dispel any rumors of any health or safety hazards or threats at this time in the city of West," Mayor Pro Tem Steve Vanek told reporters without specifying what those rumors may have been. "It is safe, it is safe, it is safe for our citizens."
Arrangements were being made for insurance adjusters to gain access to the stricken areas, he said.
By Tom Watkins
CNN
updated 4:17 PM EDT, Sat April 20, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
West, Texas, "is safe for our citizens," Mayor Pro Tem Steve Vanek says
Residents can return home but will have limited utilities and a curfew, he says
Town of West -- population 2,800 -- grapples with loss; death toll remains at 14
(CNN) -- Days after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 14 people and leveled parts of a central Texas town, officials moved Saturday to help get residents back to their homes.
"I want to dispel any rumors of any health or safety hazards or threats at this time in the city of West," Mayor Pro Tem Steve Vanek told reporters without specifying what those rumors may have been. "It is safe, it is safe, it is safe for our citizens."
Arrangements were being made for insurance adjusters to gain access to the stricken areas, he said.
The dead included the secretary, who was also a member of the volunteer fire department, said Mayor Tommy Muska.
In total, five West firefighters died battling the blaze, along with one Dallas firefighter and four emergency responders, the State Firemen's and Fire Marshals' Association of Texas said Thursday.
read more here
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