On February 12, 2015, President Obama signed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act. The purpose of this act is to provide help to US veterans suffering from PTSD.
This legislation provides funding for the study of new trauma treatment strategies as well as for recruiting more mental health practitioners to work with veterans.
When the bill was voted on, it passed with no opposition. I believe this action highlights a massive shift in thinking within this country over the past few decades.
You see, my generation is sometimes referred to as a lost generation. Thousands of young men were forever changed by their military service during the Vietnam War.
And when they returned, there were few mental health resources available for them.
Fast forward to the present when another generation of young men and women are returning from war. Although much more assistance is needed, we now have more strategies and resources available to address resulting mental trauma, including those newly made available in this bill.
Now, I want to point out that there are many stressful events that can lead to the development of PTSD, war-related events being only a few. While I applaud the passage of this bill overall, more needs to be done for all people who experience trauma and develop PTSD, not just veterans.
One of the reasons that passage of this new bill was possible could be because of new research that illustrates the causes of and harm done by PTSD. For example:
- A longitudinal cohort study published in January’s JAMA Psychiatry found that women with PTSD have twice the risk of developing type 2 Diabetes than non-traumatized women.
- According to a 2014 Frontiers in Psychology review article, PTSD accelerates physiological aging. In addition to increased risk of developing type 2 Diabetes, PTSD has been associated with increased risk of developing cancer and cardiovascular disease.
- We’ve learned that chronic PTSD has been associated with increases in epinephrine and norepinephrine. Epinephrine affects heart rate and blood pressure, while norepinephrine is associated with memory and attention.
- Overall, chronic PTSD is associated with hippocampal atrophy, which is problematic given that the hippocampus plays a role in memory.
There are plenty more negative neural and overall adverse health effects of PTSD, but you get the picture.
PTSD can be terribly debilitating, not only to the person experiencing it, but also to their friends and family members. That’s why it’s critical to learn how we can apply the most effective treatment strategies that are based on the latest research, so we can relieve suffering and help people begin to heal.
What are some of the particular challenges you’ve faced in working with patients who have PTSD? And what are some of the interventions you’ve found most effective? Please leave a comment below.
I am a service provider for TRE which is Trauma and Tension Releasing Exercises. Dr. Berceli, who developed the exercise series which induces the natural tremoring that is part of how the body deals with trauma, has worked with many veterans with great success. Please see his website, traumaprevention.com for more information.
I agree with you here!
As the author of the recently released THEY WERE FAMILIES: How War Comes Home (New Forums Press, 2015) I know that the VA is still not providing family centered support for the families of veterans. Until this happens progress will be slow. VA services to veterans are still poor and oftentimes counter-productive. We have failed our veterans and their families and this failure is historic and global. A massive paradigm shift is waiting to happen. I believe that this failure epigenetically propagates a lineage of violence. My book contains resources aimed at family members, giving them relief from Secondary Traumatization. It also offers ways family members can identify how trauma is impacting children in the home and what to do to stop that epigenetic transmission. Every family with a veteran needs a copy of THEY WERE FAMILIES: How War Comes Home by Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.
I use Brainspotting Therapy with wonderful success! PTSD is NO LONGER a diagnosis a person has to live with!!! Please share!!
I’ve been teaching Tai Chi for over 45 years. I trained for 6 years with Professor Cheng Man Ching.
I am also a Nutritional Therapist and have been working with people who’ve suffered neurological loss for much of the time. I’ve developed protocols especially for individuals who have lost neurological functions not only through trauma, but through Parkinson’s Disease, Post Polio Syndrome and from long term use of anti-depressants. It is my experience that doing “unique” slow, relaxed mindful movements and then integrating them into the way one moves daily, through the brains neuro-plasticity is able to lay down not only new software but new hardware as well. Almost all animals including cats and monkeys retain their native way of moving almost all their lives. Adult humans after childhood quickly develop rigid patterns that leave them open to rapid aging and immobility. That along with an unnatural and unhealthy way of eating makes rapid aging inevitable and recovery from injury especially neurological injury very slow and often incomplete. Working with Natural Healing Movements and Nutritional Therapy many of my students
I am looking for the session with a woman who works with Veterans; she was an innovator of this work, creating trust with the veterans.
She was great ; I think was a friend of Ruth’s. Can you tell me her name, and where to look her up?
Thank you.
Mimi Sternberg, MFT, Berkeley, California
That would be Carol Look. She is based in New York City.