Boston bombing event holds lessons for all

There is the fact that survivors saw what harm was caused by two people but they also saw what goodness is within more people. Total strangers rushed to help risking their own lives. One bomb blew up and they must have been aware another one could blow up too but they didn't think about themselves. Even when the second bomb blew up, more rushed to help the wounded. That goes a long way toward healing but so does the fact so many veterans have shown up at the hospitals to encourage the patients trying to recover from missing limbs and wounds that will leave scars for the rest of their lives.

The thing people always tend to overlook is how important it is to know someone gives a damn about you. The attack sites have been paved over now and the earth has been healed. The people will heal too with a lot of care. The witnesses will need care but I think the strangers that rushed to help may need a bit more.

Impact of terrorist attack varies from other tragedies
April 22, 2013
By TARA BAIRD, USC School of Journalism


Pascoe: Miranda warning not needed for suspect

At 2:50 p.m. Monday, Boston held a moment of silence to remember the victims of last week’s bombings. Read more

COLUMBIA -- Natural disasters are devastating.

Tragedies caused by man are a different kind of pain.

“There is a fundamental difference between natural events and terrorist events,” said Susan Cutter, a geography professor at the University of South Carolina.

“In most instances, you kind of know if you’re living in an area that’s prone to the forces of nature,” she said. Terrorism, on the other hand, is not anticipated.

Cutter, who is also the director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at USC, has conducted field studies on similar events, such as Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina.

“Terrorism. It can happen any time, anywhere to anyone,” she said.
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This also offers a lesson in judging others. Many employers are reluctant when it comes to hiring veterans because they are afraid of PTSD. While there is no need to fear any of them, the fact is, people do. This is a good time to point out that while employers may know a veteran has come back from combat, they never know what else other people experienced in their own lives.

Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders include panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias (social phobia, agoraphobia, and specific phobia).

Approximately 40 million American adults ages 18 and older, or about 18.1 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have an anxiety disorder.

1,2
Anxiety disorders frequently co-occur with depressive disorders or substance abuse.1 Most people with one anxiety disorder also have another anxiety disorder. Nearly three-quarters of those with an anxiety disorder will have their first episode by age 21.5

Some of the people in Boston during the bombings will end up with PTSD but no one think twice about hiring them. It just won't be an issue. So how is it an issue when it comes to hiring veterans? A lot of the people rushing to help, risking their lives for the wounded were in fact veterans. Kind of makes you stop and think about judging anyone doesn't it?

Veterans Getting Help Through Photography Class

Veterans Getting Help Through Photography Class
Class is helping former soliders cope with post-traumatic stress disorder
By Damian Trujillo
Tuesday, Apr 23, 2013

They spent the morning snapping pictures of anything that seemed interesting to them.

“Wow, that’s a nice picture,” said Ramon Ontiveros before he clicked his camera. “I’m learning to be a decent husband. I can’t believe how bad I treated my wife … I see my feelings in my pictures I take.”

Ontiveros fought in the Vietnam War, and now he’s enrolled in a photography therapy class at the Menlo Park Division of the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

The class is part of an alternative therapy program for veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental illnesses.

“It’s an alternate way for them to be able to talk about and express themselves as part of their recovery,” art therapist Jeffrey Stadler said.

The program began last summer and averages 10 veterans per 6-week class.

“I was the target of military sexual trauma in boot camp,” U.S. Army veteran Christine Stout-Holmes said.

The veteran said she held in her abuse and became a good soldier, but was no longer able to hold in her depression, and sought help at the VA.
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Death of Fort Hood Soldier under investigation

Fort Hood: Officials Release Name Of Soldier Found Dead At His Home
Our Town Texas

FORT HOOD (April 23, 2013)--Fort Hood officials on Tuesday released the name of a soldier who was found dead Sunday at his home off-post.

Spc. Elliot Rafael Davis, 26, of Georgia, was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at his Bell County home just after 7 a.m. Sunday.

Davis entered the military in January 2008 as an ammunition specialist and arrived at Fort Hood shortly after.
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Claim: Pill mill tied to Fort Riley soldier overdoses

Claim: Pill mill tied to Fort Riley soldier overdoses
Apr. 23, 2013
By Heather Hollingsworth
The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, MO. — A Kansas doctor was charged Tuesday with operating a pill mill for painkillers and antidepressants after police and Fort Riley officials raised concerns about overdoses — some of them involving soldiers and their families.

The U.S. attorney’s office alleged in a criminal complaint that Michael P. Schuster, 53, conspired to illegally distribute controlled substances. The charges were filed the same day that the FBI searched Schuster’s clinic, called Manhattan Pain and Spine. The clinic is in Manhattan, Kan., about 15 miles from Fort Riley, a U.S. Army base that is home to the 1st Infantry Division.

“Prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest growing drug problem,” said U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom in a written statement. “Health care providers are a critical part of our effort to keep the public safe. Without proper controls, prescription drugs are just as dangerous as any street drug.”
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Concern over anti-psychotic drug given to soldiers

Concern over anti-psychotic drug given to soldiers
ABC News
Lateline By Michael Vincent
April 24, 20113
Updated 11 minutes ago

Psychiatrists in Australia and the United States are calling for a review of the use of anti-psychotic medications to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

Australia's Department of Defence has confirmed an almost 600 per cent increase in the use of one particular anti-psychotic, Seroquel, in just five years.

Soldiers have told Lateline the drug, originally intended to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, is being prescribed just to help them sleep.

Lateline spoke to special forces soldiers from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. All have PTSD, and some have received psychological counselling, but others have not.

All say military doctors or GPs sanctioned by the Defence Department prescribed them Seroquel as a sedative.

One soldier, who Lateline has called Trooper M to protect his identity, has been a user of the drug for the past year.

He is only 23 and served as a special forces soldier on one tour of Afghanistan that left him with anxiety and nightmares.

Trooper M sought help when the nightmares became too much.

"So the mental health nurse liaised with one of the medical officers and from that... before I saw a psychiatrist or anything like that, they decided that Seroquel would be the choice of medication."

He says he does not know why, and just followed what he was being told.

One night, he accidentally took 400mg.

"I didn't wake up for over 24 hours. It was a bit of a wake-up call," he said.
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