Archive for September, 2009

Many Veterans have to live with memories and realities that they find unexcusable and therefore unforgivable.

When working with such deep trauma and despair, I find it important to not offer pseudo reasons or other constructs as an excuse for what happened. In my experience, Veterans don’t want to hear that there is something good about a kid that died in a cross fire, about the accidental death of civilians, or anybody, for that matter.

Even a well meaning attempt to find something good about what happened, for the sake of helping the Veteran relax, can be easily missunderstood as me just not getting it, as being fake and not trustworthy and real.

Trust is such a vulnerable thing with most Veterans, and I don’t want to risk any break in rapport.

With EFT, we don’t have to excuse what went wrong. We don’t have to find methods and strategies to live with the guilt and trauma. By tapping on the different aspects of what happened, which usually include guilt and grief, we can help a veteran find peace. Having peace does not make us not responsible for what we did in our past. It allows us to stop reliving the trauma as if it was real, and puts us in an even more powerful place of taking charge. As long as we suffer, we are so occupied with our overwhelm, that it is hard to do anything.

But when we come to a place of peace, we can see our life, and also the trauma that happened, with all the unexcusable, in context. Not because it was right, but because it happened for reasons that we often forget or don’t find valuable enough to mention.

Tapping with EFT on the unexcusable allows us to find peace and relrease the need for excuses.

In my experience, this is very acceptable for my Veterans. It makes sense and feels right. It allows them to refocus and let go of trauma, and take charge in a way that works for them. Most of my Vets decided to teach others about what they have learned, and transcend their experiences in a powerful and important way.

According to the Rand study , only about 25% of soldiers who need help for either PTSD, depression or TBI are currently receiving minimally adequate care, while the number of those who receive adequate care must be estimated to be even lower. Only about 50% of those who need help for these conditions are currently reaching out for help.

Some of the reasons why soldiers are not reaching out are:

The medication that might help have too many side effects (45%)

It could harm my career (44%)

I could be denied a security clearance (44%)

My family or friends would be more helpful  than a mental health professional (39%)

My coworkers would have less confidence inn me if they found out (38%).

When I first read these statistics, I thought: “Curious that they consider the fourth reason a barrier. I see it as a wide open door!

It is obvious that most Veterans prefer to speak with a buddy or their spouse over consulting with a mental halth professional. The numbers show clearly, and military spouses confirm this, that most of  the trauma is being dealt with within the family and circle of close friends.

But are they prepared for  this responsible and overwhelming task? What tools do they have, other than their love, compassion and willingness to help, to assist their soldier? And how are they being helped themselves, to deal with their own, intense version of  the trauma of war?

I believe, that with EFT, we have a true chance to offer profound support:

The need within the Veterans’ support system tools that:

- don’t require a background in mental health ( as most spouses don’t have that, either)

- can be taught easily to ley people and even kids

- properly applied, have no known side effects

- work without purchasing expensive equipment or training

- don’t require the focus on trauma to work

- can helpt to take the emotional edge of, even if a Veteran doesn’t want to talk

- create community

- can be used by buddies at the frontlines

- Vets can use to help others and themselves

- can be easily incorporated into other therapies

- can be used as a self help tool

- bring measurable results

- can be applied via internet and phone

- are always accessible, even in the middle of the night, when nightmares haunt

EFT does fulfill all these requirements. It is a powerful, effective self helptool, that should  be taught to everybody within the military community. IOnce all military personel and those who love and care about them, can use EFT effectively, it is my belief that the number of suizides and PTSD victims will go down.

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www.Packparachute.org (MST)

Academy Women
www.academywomen.org

Air Force Women’s Officers Association
www.afwoa.org

All Navy Women’s National Alliance
www.anwna.com

Alliance for National Defense
www.4militarywomen.org

American Nurses’ Association (ANA)
www.nursingworld.org/

Army Nurse Corps Assn
www.e-anca.org

Business and Professional Women/USA
www.bpwusa.org

CoastGuard/SPAR, Inc.,
www.uscg.mil/d17/cgcspar/

Military Women Veterans History
userpages.aug.com/captbarb /

National Association of Black Military Women
www.nabmw.com

National Association of State Women Veterans Coordinators, Inc
www.naswvc.com

Navy Nurse Corps Association
www.nnca.org

Society of Retired Air Force Nurses
www.safn.org

United Women Veterans
www.ufva.us/

US Army Women’s Foundation
www.awmfdn.org

US Army Women’s Museum
www.awm.lee.army.mil

VetWow
www.vetwow.com

Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project
www.vientamwomensmemorial. org

WASP
www.waspmuseum.org

Waves National
www.womenofthewaves.com

WAC Veterans’ Association
www.armywomen.org

Women In Military Service For America (WIMSA)
www.womensmemorial.org

Women Marines Association
www.womenmarines.org

Women Military Aviators, Inc
www.womenmilitaryaviators. org

Women’s Policy, Inc.
www.womenspolicy.org

Women Veterans of America
www.womenveteransofamerica.com

Arlington National Cemetary
www.arlingtoncemetary.org

Veteran Homestead
www.veteranhomestead.org

Bar Association Legal Assistance for Military Personnel
www.abanet.org/legalservices/helpreservists

Lioness – The Film
www.lionessthefilm.com

Funeral Ceremony Bugle
www.ceremonialbugle.com

National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
www.nchv.org

National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
www.esgr.org

National Native American Veterans Association (NNAVA)
www.nnava.org

VFW Unmet Needs Program for Active Duty, National Guard and Reserves
www.unmetneeds.com

(VA PTSD website)
www.ncptsd.org

Wounded Warrior Project
www.woundedwarriorproject.org

(Assistance with resources)
www.operationhomefront.org

Marines for Life
www.m4l.usmc.mil

7 people like this.

LeAnne Hosmer

“Womens are Veterans too” Thats funny because as I’m applying for a VA loan, they keep asking me for my husbands DD214 when actually we’re using my VA eligibility.

Wed at 8:31am

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/study-finds-post-traumatic-stress-from-911-increasing/

August 4, 2009, 4:29 pm   
Study Finds Post-Traumatic Stress From 9/11 Increasing
By Jennifer 8. Lee <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/jennifer-8-lee/>   
The number of people who have reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder <http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/overview.html> as a result of being directly exposed to the World Trade Center attacks has increased over time, according to a new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association <http://jama.ama-assn.org/> , based on a  survey of 50,000 people conducted five to six years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Overall, 19 percent of those surveyed in 2006-7 said they had developed post-traumatic stress symptoms in the five to six years after the attack, up from 14 percent in the first survey done of the group, two to three years after the attack. The increase was seen across the board — in rescue workers, office employees, residents and passers-by — but the sharpest jump was reported in the rescue workers.

The 19 percent overall rate in the second survey is roughly four times the rate of post-traumatic stress syndrome typically seen among American adults. Of the 19 percent, 9.5 percent had not reported symptoms in the earlier survey.

The study, “Asthma and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms 5 to 6 Years Following Exposure to the World Trade Center Terrorist Attack,” is one of the longest-running studies of post-traumatic stress in civilians. “There are very few studies that have looked at one-time major disaster and looked at the course of mental health over time,” said Dr. Lorna E. Thorpe, a deputy New York City health commissioner who was the senior writer of the study. The research is a collaboration between the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene <http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/home/home.shtml>  and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <http://www.cdc.gov/> .

Most studies of civilians disasters — mass shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane Katrina, for example — end at three years, but studies of combat veterans do continue longer, Dr. Thorpe said.

 Even though military combat is a different experience from one-time disasters, “Our findings are very consistent with combat veterans,” she said. Stress symptoms may increase over time because repercussions from the original event — such as job loss or health problems — may add to the strain, she said.

The interviews — drawing on a total registry of more than 71,000 people affected by the attacks — were done by phone, mail and e-mail in 2006 and 2007. The earlier survey was done in 2003 and 2004.

The participants were not asked if they had been given a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome, but were asked specific questions about mental and physical health used to evaluate post-traumatic stress. “It’s very close to a diagnosis. It correlates with a diagnosis,” Dr. Thorpe said.

The survey found that while the number of diagnosed cases of asthma had increased since the last survey, the people reporting underlying symptoms had not, suggesting that the rate of asthma cases has leveled out. As of the last survey, 10.2 percent of people and 20.5 percent of rescue and recovery workers reported a diagnosis of asthma since the attacks. Earlier studies showed that those near the World Trade Center were twice as likely to develop asthma <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/study-finds-post-traumatic-stress-from-911-increasing/%3Cbr%20/%3Ehttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/nyregion/11injuries.html>  as the general population.

Of people with no previous history of post-traumatic stress, 23.8 percent reported symptoms in at least one of the two studies. In the new study, 16.3 percent of surveyed residents and 19.1 of surveyed office workers reported symptoms; both figures were about 3 percentage points higher than in the previous survey. In contrast, rescue workers, as a group, saw post-traumatic stress jump to 19.5 percent from 12.1 percent in the earlier survey.

However, the highest rate, 23.2 percent, was reported by passers-by, which researchers considered a bit mysterious. They offered a variety of potential explanations. One possibility is that unlike office workers or rescue responders, passers-by were much harder to find because there were no systematic lists to track them. “They weren’t part of a constituency that were easily reached with services and care,” Dr. Thorpe said. Therefore, they may have less of a support network, increasing stress.

In addition, it was harder for researchers to create an exhaustive list of passers-by, so there might be bias in those who chose to participate. “Some of it might be self-selection,” Dr. Thorpe said.

The increasing incidence of post-traumatic stress symptoms continues to raise concern at the city’s health department. “This really helps us,” Dr. Thorpe said, adding that it “tells us we are still responding to 9/11.”

Louisville   CourrierJounal.com
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090913/NEWS01/909130330
Suicide takes growing toll among military, veterans
By Laura Ungar • lungar@courier-journal.com • September 13, 2009

As soon as Arylane Ala walked into her house that day in 2007, she saw blood — a red pool stretching from the coffee table to the fireplace. Then she saw her youngest son face down on the floor, an antique rifle by his side.

She didn’t approach his body, she said: “I didn’t want to see his face … his expression.”

Four tumultuous years after serving in the Middle East with the Kentucky Air National Guard, 25-year-old Bryan Ala of Louisville took his life — part of a rising number of military and veteran suicides as the Iraq war continues and fighting intensifies in Afghanistan.

“Life goes on after you lose a child,” said Bryan’s father, Rich, 60. “But sweet is never as sweet as it was. The sun’s never as bright. I’ve got a hole in my heart that will never heal up.”

The federal government estimates that 5,000 veterans commit suicide each year, and Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans could top combat deaths.

He made the statement last year at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association and cited a study by Rand Corp., a nonprofit research organization, showing as many as 20 percent of veterans returning from these conflicts will suffer major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, and seven in 10 won’t seek help from the departments of Defense or Veterans Affairs.

The toll is also rising in the active military, with the Army reporting the most confirmed suicides — 140 last year. Locally, Fort Knox reported five confirmed suicides in 2008 and 2009. Fort Campbell reported 24 suspected or confirmed suicides in the same period and in late May suspended regular duties for everyone for three days so commanders could better help soldiers at risk.

Driving these numbers are pre-existing mental illnesses, post-traumatic stress disorder and relationship or financial problems worsened by long or repeated deployments, say mental health experts, who also point to the stigma against seeking help in a culture known for toughness.

Many families and veterans organizations argue that more needs to be done to stop the deaths. And military and Veterans Affairs officials say they are taking the problem seriously, beefing up mental health resources and suicide prevention programs.

“We’ve got to hit it head on,” said Maj. Gen. Donald Campbell, Fort Knox commander.

In July, Fort Knox played host to Maj. Gen. Mark Graham of Georgia and his wife, Carol, who told a standing-room-only crowd about the 2003 suicide of their son Kevin, 21.

The ROTC cadet at the University of Kentucky suffered from depression before his sister found him hanged from a bedroom ceiling fan. The Grahams, who have made military suicide prevention a personal cause, shared Kevin’s story before attending a ceremony dedicating a building to their other son, Jeffrey, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2004.

“We lost two sons,” said Mark Graham, who spoke again on Aug. 21 in Frankfort. “Both our sons died fighting different battles.”
History of mental illness
Mental illness also proved too strong an enemy for Bryan Ala.

Growing up, he was adventurous and loved caving, rock-climbing, fishing and going to the shooting range with his father, a Vietnam vet. At 18, Bryan Ala joined the Air National Guard to help pay for college, later enrolling in the University of Louisville’s nursing school.

Depression first struck in the summer of 2002, and Ala admitted himself to Ten Broeck Hospital, now called The Brook. He was prescribed an anti-depressant, his parents said, and later in the year saw a doctor at Fort Knox who determined he was fit to stay in the Guard. He was deployed the next year to the Middle East.

Capt. Stephanie Fields, deputy state surgeon for the Kentucky National Guard, said soldiers are not deployed if they have been diagnosed with depression less than three months earlier because the soldier needs to show stability. But otherwise, she said, decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, according to Army policy, by a treating physician who consults with the soldier’s commander. If they are deemed too ill to deploy, she said, they may still be able to stay in the Guard. Fields said soldiers have two mental health evaluations before deployment.

Rich Ala said he worried that serving abroad might aggravate his son’s depression, but didn’t say anything because he figured his son was an adult who could take care of himself.

Bryan Ala spent six months as a medic in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, where his job was to care for an air crew and help at a military field hospital. He didn’t talk much with his family about what he saw during his tour, beyond the different cultures and the harsh conditions of a desert tent encampment.

Back in the United States, he served another six months as a medic with a hospital group at the Kentucky Air National Guard base in Louisville, and his parents said everything seemed fine.

But in 2004, they began to notice troubling signs. Arylane Ala said her son always wore black and went on binges with vitamins, nutritional supplements and workouts. Sometimes he would hide, saying he heard helicopters. And he would get extremely agitated while driving, occasionally slamming his car into park, and running away, disappearing for hours or even days.

In June 2005, Ala was hospitalized at the Louisville VA Medical Center and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which the VA later ruled service-connected, which made him eligible for financial benefits.

He was prescribed lithium, but his parents said he sometimes skipped his medication. At nursing school, he highlighted passages about bipolar disorder in his psychiatry textbook, writing “me” in the margins.

Finally, after a fight with his fiancee that resulted in her obtaining an emergency protective order against him, Bryan Ala went to his parents’ home. The Alas said he promised not to do anything rash. But after they went to work on Aug. 10, 2007, he took a rifle from under his father’s bed and ended his life.
Combat haunts vet
Psychologist Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology in Washington, D.C., said the military generally does a good job screening out people with severe mental conditions.

But he said many soldiers suffer pre-existing depression or develop mental illness during or after service — magnifying everyday stresses and compromising already disrupted relationships.

Berman, who serves on a federal task force to prevent military suicides, said the Iraq and Afghanistan wars pose the particularArmy Sgt. Cecil Harris of Pikeville, Ky., was one of them. After serving in Iraq in 2003, he was flown to Germany with respiratory problems, severe headaches and a bacterial illness, said his mother, Sharon Harris of Louisville.

But long after the physical healing began, she said, his combat memories haunted him, and he was diagnosed with PTSD at the Lexington VA hospital.

In May of this year, in the midst of a divorce, he called his mother in Las Vegas, where she was working as a traveling nurse. He talked about difficulties with a new medication.

On May 17, Harris, 33, was found hanged from a beam of an apartment under construction in Danville.

His mother recalled his last words to her:

“Promise me, Mom, if something happens to me, that you’ll be my voice to the boys who come back so they get better medical treatment.”
Care gets beefed up
Military and VA officials said they are trying to do just that.

Nationally, the VA has suicide prevention coordinators in each of its hospitals and in 2007 started a suicide hot line for veterans that has received more than 120,000 calls. The Louisville VA Medical Center provides mental health care and outpatient group sessions for once-suicidal veterans.

Joe Verney, suicide prevention program manager at Fort Campbell, said his was the first Army installation in the continental United States to create a council of leaders from medicine, religion, behavioral health and other disciplines, in 2007, and to hire a suicide prevention coordinator, in 2008.

The base also contracts with 29 behavioral health professionals available for round-the-clock, anonymous consultations, and trains soldiers in a suicide-prevention program called “Ask, Care, Escort,” which stresses accompanying others to help.

Fort Knox officials said they are taking similar steps, trying to eliminate the stigma against seeking help.

“Our Army is clearly moving in the right direction,” said Mark Graham, who used to command Colorado’s Fort Carson. “But it’s not moving fast enough.”

The changes come too late for the Alas, who argue that mental health needs to be treated like physical health, with the ill getting intensive treatment.

Arylane Ala said problems with mental health care in the military and VA reflect problems in the larger civilian culture. “Mental health in general … should be more readily available,” she said. “People should be treated more frequently. Having a (psychologist) to speak with every three months is not enough when the illness is serious.”

Two years after their son’s death, she and her husband often visit his ashes at a cemetery near Fort Knox, placing plastic toy soldiers nearby to symbolize his service.

“You hope nobody goes through the loss of a child,” said Arylane Ala, her eyes filling with tears. “Life’s not meant to be that way.”

Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190.