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Thread: General Mattis on PTSD

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    Malaria drug causes brain damage that mimics PTSD: case study

    The case of a service member diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder but found instead to have brain damage caused by a malaria drug raises questions about the origin of similar symptoms in other post-9/11 veterans.

    According to the case study published online in Drug Safety Case Reports in June, a U.S. military member sought treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for uncontrolled anger, insomnia, nightmares and memory loss.


    The once-active sailor, who ran marathons and deployed in 2009 to East Africa, reported stumbling frequently, arguing with his family and needing significant support from his staff while on the job due to cognitive issues.


    Physicians diagnosed the service member with anxiety, PTSD and a thiamine deficiency. But after months of treatment, including medication, behavioral therapy and daily doses of vitamins, little changed.
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    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
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    Air Force murder/suicide blamed on PTSD...

    Air Force: PTSD, Other Factors Led Airman to Kill Commander
    Jan 17, 2017 — U.S. Air Force investigators have determined that post-traumatic stress disorder led an airman to fatally shoot his commander.
    U.S. Air Force investigators have determined that post-traumatic stress disorder and the unraveling of a distinguished military career led an airman to fatally shoot his commander last year at a San Antonio base before killing himself, according to Air Force documents. The April shooting at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland prompted a lockdown and officials to abruptly end a nearby military training parade with thousands of spectators.

    Investigators determined Tech. Sgt. Steven Bellino confronted Lt. Col. William Schroeder before the two struggled and Schroeder was shot multiple times. Both men were veterans of U.S. Special Operations Command. Air Force documents given to the San Antonio Express-News by Bellino's family show he participated in an elite pararescue program with Schroeder but did not complete it.


    A battle cross is on display, April 15, 2016, at Avon Park Air Force Range. U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 93d Air Ground Operations Wing set up the cross for Lt. Col. William Schroeder, who was killed April 8.

    Investigators believe Bellino, 41, resented the outcome following a remarkable military career that included repeated tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and time as an Army Ranger and Green Beret. He also had served as an FBI agent and was a CIA contractor before enlisting in the Air Force and attempting to join the elite unit.

    Friends say Bellino was idealistic and a man of exacting fairness, according to the newspaper. He lived up to the letter of the law and expected it of others, even once accusing a sergeant major of lying in front of a roomful of soldiers. But a series of perceived slights and violations of his sense of honor had accumulated long before he arrived at Lackland. "I do not like this world, and I do not want to be a part of it any longer," Bellino wrote in August 2015, the month he quit the pararescue program and then went home to Ohio and was charged with being absent without leave. "I've searched for many years to find a home consistent with my ethics and such a place does not exist." His comments came in a note that investigators found in a flash drive and they were written about the time his PTSD symptoms appeared to intensify.

    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...commander.html
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    PTSD and Marriage: 5 Things Spouses Need to Know
    You never invited PTSD to be a part of your marriage. But there it is anyway, making everything harder.
    Sometimes you want to give up. Why does everything have to be so, so hard? Other times, you wish someone would just give you a manual for dealing with the whole thing. Surely there's a way to know how to handle this disease? Like the rest of marriage, loving someone who suffers from PTSD or who is trying to work through the ghosts of combat doesn't come with a guidebook. And although the whole thing can feel very isolating (everyone else seems fine! Is my marriage the only one in trouble?) that doesn't mean you're alone.

    Therapists who specialize in PTSD know that while some couples may put on a good show for the outside world, dealing with trauma is hard work and, no, everything is not perfect. If you're dealing with PTSD at home, you are not alone. Husband and wife team Marc and Sonja Raciti are working to help military couples work through how PTSD can impact their marriages. Marc, a veteran, has written a book on the subject, "I Just Want To See Trees: A Journey Through PTSD." Sonja is a licensed professional counselor.


    PTSD and marriage.

    The Racitis said there are five things that a spouse dealing with PTSD in marriage should know.

    1. It's normal for PTSD to impact the whole family.

    If you feel like your life has changed since PTSD came to your home, you're probably right. The habits that might help your spouse get through the day, like avoiding crowded spaces, may become your habits too. "PTSD is a disease of avoidance -- so you avoid those triggers that the person with PTSD has -- but as the partner you begin to do the same thing," Sonja Raciti said. Remember that marriage is a team sport, and it's OK to tackle together the things that impact it.

    2. Get professional help

    . The avoidance that comes with PTSD doesn't just mean avoiding certain activities -- it can also mean avoiding dealing with the trauma head on. But trying to handle PTSD alone is a mistake, the Racitis said. "We both are really big into seeking treatment, getting a professional to really help you and see what treatment you're going to benefit from," Sonja said. "Finding a clinician who you meet with, and click with and really specializes in PTSD is so, so important."

    3. No, you're not the one with PTSD. But you may have symptoms anyway.
    Last edited by waltky; 01-18-2017 at 03:45 AM.

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    How can a caregiver go about understanding PTSD in veterans?...

    Help for Caretakers: Understanding PTSD in Veterans
    Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is one of the invisible wounds of war often discussed in popular culture. But it's also a very real diagnosis. How can a caregiver go about understanding PTSD in veterans? What are the symptoms, and what can families do about PTSD?
    PsychArmor, a non-profit dedicated to bridging the military-civilian divide by providing resources to help community members and others engage veterans, has free video courses on a variety of military-related issues. This section of PsychArmor's Invisible Wounds of War at Home caretaker and family video series focuses on PTSD. In the first video, Heidi Kraft, a clinical psychologist, Navy veteran and PsychArmor's clinical director, helps caregivers and families answer the question "what is PTSD" while also discussing the stigma that still surrounds the problem.


    An Army family walks hand-in-hand

    Understanding PTSD in Veterans: What Are the Symptoms?

    Next, Kraft looks at the symptoms of PTSD to help family members get a better understanding of PTSD in veterans. Among those symptoms, Kraft says, are avoidance, negative changes in moods, and symptoms of feeling "amped up, aggravated, anxious." Another symptom, she says, is inner conflict that can lead to depression. Kraft talks in detail about how each of the symptoms looks or might be experienced by veterans, complete with real-life examples of the ways she has seen the symptoms in her patients. She also discusses why the circumstances created by these symptoms can cause major life problems that veterans cannot handle without help.

    Understanding PTSD in Veterans: What Can Families Do?

    In this final installment on PTSD, Kraft talks about what families can do to help their veterans deal with PTSD. First, she says, families should know that any given veteran's symptoms are not the fault of his or her family members, but rather a part of a traumatic event. The PTSD patient is not actually angry at the family or the kids, Kraft says, he is simply displaying the symptoms of the disease. PTSD affects the whole family. But there is hope. In this video, Kraft details what families can do to understand and assist their veterans, starting with patience and understanding. There's nothing easy about taking care of someone with PTSD, she says, but there are resources to help in your journey toward understanding PTSD.

    http://www.military.com/spouse/milit...-veterans.html

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    H.R. 918 passes House...

    Vets Mental Health Care Act Passes House
    7 Nov 2017 | The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously passed the Veteran Urgent Access to Mental Healthcare Act.
    Veterans denied basic mental health care service benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs because of an "other than honorable" discharge may soon be able to receive the care they need. The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously passed the Veteran Urgent Access to Mental Healthcare Act, spearheaded by Rep. Mike Coffman, a Colorado Republican and Marine Corps combat veteran. "Today, this House sent a critical message to our men and women in uniform," Coffman said in a release. "That message is that you are not alone. We are here to help those suffering from the 'invisible' wounds of war. "The passage of [this bill] is an important bipartisan effort to ensure that our combat veterans receive the mental health care services they need. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to get this bill across the finish line," he said.

    The legislation, H.R. 918, would require the VA to provide initial mental health assessments and services deemed necessary, including for those at risk of suicide and or of harming others, regardless of whether the individual has an "other than honorable" discharge. Currently, individuals who have such discharges, known as "bad paper," are not eligible for veteran benefits beyond some emergency mental health services. Veterans who received a dishonorable or bad-conduct discharge would still be ineligible to access the services. "It's important that we give all of our combat veterans, irrespective of the discharges they receive, access to mental health care through the Veterans [Affairs Department]," Coffman told Military.com during an interview in February, when he reintroduced the bill. He is the only House member to serve in both the first Iraq War and Operation Iraqi Freedom.


    At the time, Coffman said of the "bad-paper" separations, "I question the nature of the discharges in the first place, and I'm exploring that." A May 2017 Government Accountability Office report found 62 percent of the 91,764 service members separated for minor forms of misconduct between fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2015 had been diagnosed within two years prior to separation with post- traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or other conditions that could be associated with their misconduct, according to the release. The bill applies to those with other-than-honorable discharges who served served in a combat zone or area of hostilities; piloted unmanned aircraft; or experienced a military sexual trauma. The VA secretary can sign off on outside care if specific care at a VA facility is clinically inadvisable; or if the VA is unable to provide necessary mental health care due to geographic location barriers.

    H.R. 918 also requires the VA to establish a formal "character of service" determination process, triggering reviews of the "character of discharge" for potential eligibility of VA benefits. High Ground Veterans Advocacy, a grassroots organization training veterans to become leaders and activists in their local communities, has advocated for the move. "There are some veterans out there who've been waiting for this day for decades -- but there's still a fight ahead of us," said High Ground founder and chairman Kristofer Goldsmith. "Until the Senate passes this bill, and the president signs it -- some of our nation's most vulnerable veterans, who served between Vietnam and today's Forever Wars, are being denied the holistic care that they deserve from the VA," he said in an email.

    Goldsmith continued, "Today, the House recognized that the United States has failed to care for hundreds of thousands of veterans in the way that they deserve -- veterans who were administratively discharged and stripped of a lifetime of essential benefits without the right to due process. “But the problem isn't yet fixed. Until Congress holds hearings dedicated to looking at the problem of bad-paper discharges, we won't have all available solutions on the table," he said.

    https://www.military.com/daily-news/...ses-house.html

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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    General Mattis on PTSD

    I am not sure how I feel about this.
    Since the thread is necroed and this post is old but interesting, I kind of agree with him with the caveat that there is not a one-sized solution here. Some people, too many people, get down range stuck in their head and talking about it and such just keeps them stuck there. These are often the people no matter what you try to do for them, there is going to be nothing you can do for them. Others benefit from various forms of formal support. Others just rely on their buddies and families if needed but otherwise don't talk about it and trudge on through. While a lot of professionals disagree, sometimes intellectualizing, compartmentalizing and moving on is the very best thing for some people to do.

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