New Treatment for Vets with PTSD: Always Look On The Bright Side of Life!
I mentioned before that they were looking at this "positive thinking" program for vets with PTSD - something that seems like a way to cut costs rather than treat vets' trauma.
Now psychologist Bryant Welch says the program has no scientific validity:
Johnny had been with his platoon when they were attacked by enemy fire and pinned down for the better part of two days. Much of his face was blown off. His two closest buddies died gruesome and agonizing deaths while lying on top of him.
As a psychologist, my work with him was not medical. It was to address the psychological trauma, then newly labeled as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD], that haunted him and to help him "grieve" that much of his life had been blown away along with his face.
The pain of his surgeries was nothing compared to the night terrors that undercut his every attempt at sleep. The flashbacks that occurred daily put him back in the jungles of Viet Nam and the noises in the hallways became the sounds of advancing Viet Cong. Nurses and doctors could suddenly become menacing figures who he believed had captured him and were about to torture him. He was terrified to take his medications and unexpected noises could leave him shaken for hours.
Emotionally, on the best of days Johnny fluctuated between agitated depression and complete numbness in which he was unable to feel at all. He felt cut off from his family and felt enraged and misunderstood when they tried to "cheer him up." Johnny was not actively homicidal, like some of the PTSD vets on his psychiatry ward, but he was consumed with thoughts of suicide.
Johnny showed me a picture of himself before the accident on a motorcycle with an attractive girlfriend. He said, "This was a guy who had everything." After four months on the psychiatric ward, I was transferred to a new rotation and Johnny remained.
With the President's announcement last Tuesday night, over one hundred thousand American troops will soon be in harm's way in Afghanistan. Estimates are that thirty thousand of them will come home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the same psychological condition that plagued Johnny.
This makes returning veterans a ticking time bomb for serious mental illness with a very real danger of violence to themselves, their loved ones, and the general public.
As a psychologist who has treated many serious cases of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, it was a jaw dropping experience to learn that under a new $119 million military program these young men and women who have sacrificed so much will have their PTSD addressed with a superficial, psychological treatment based loosely on Norman Vincent Peale's Power of Positive Thinking, known in this generation's iteration as "positive psychology" or the "psychology of optimism.
There is no evidence that the techniques of positive psychology can prevent or ameliorate the effects of PTSD. When its adherents' attempt to extrapolate simplistic studies done on normal junior high students to military combat troops struggling with military traumas they are misleading the military, the public, and, most importantly, the troops.
The people in our government don't give a shit if these people live or die. Ask any republican and he will tell you these people volintered to go whatever happens is their own fault!
I am so ashamed of America.
I thought thing would get better when we got rid of the bush/chenny cabal. But Obama is doing the same things, following the same insanity!
WE need to rid ourselves of these polliticians for good.
...because they are mentally ill.
It would be like telling someone who paralyzed from the waist down that if they could just somehow manage to stand up and walk around a bit, it would really help the gov't save costs on treatment.
who fought against Osama Bin Laden and his gang (when they worked for us) in Afghanistan.
The Russians would just stitch and patch these soldiers back together and send them back out. Russia finally figured out it wasn't worth the time or effort.
Why are we there?
Obama knows republicans will label him as the guy who 'lost' the war, the guy who 'surrendered' and because people are people, it will work and it will cost him his re-election in 2012.
In other words, the current war in Afghanistan is part of Obama's re-election strategy. I dunno, am I too cynical?
Who cares what the GOP labels him? At this rate, he won't be reelected because he is quickly alienating the people who elected him this time. That is if elections are not fixed. I think they are. Just responding to your point. You are not even close to being as cynical as I am, but I await your arrival.
I think no way Obama wins a re-election if RNC tars him as a war losing president. Conservatives who were demoralized last election will be out in droves this time around, a given percentage of moderates and independents will buy the bull.
I think no way Obama wins a re-election if RNC tars him as a war losing president.
"America has never lost a war." Repeat. "America has never lost a war."
I can't tell you how many times I've been told this by Americans. Losing simply won't fly with the masses.
far left loon >.<
And if Obama ends the war before 2012 with one guy left in Afghanistan who doesn't LOVE America and praise jeebus, they'll hammer him mercilessly for being the first president to lose a war (and the first black president, and a liberal, and a democrat! oh my! what a coinkydink!)
And for a country with a significant number of people who don't like Obama already it'll be huge.
The bright side of killing for a living? Not just quiet assassinations either - some of it is hands on meatball killing. The only bright side is you will go mental - if you are a normal decent person.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Anyone else read/reading Barbara Erenreich's book? This is disgusting. You'd have thought that people would have learned something about positive thinking BS when "case of the Mondays" became a meme. Regardless of your opinion of the war, this "treatment" should have no place in medicine, let alone any medicine the gov't is paying for. Then again, there were (are?) talks in the healthcare mess about covering "faith healing" (but not abortion, of course). This country is under sway of some painfully stupid people.
it up, and it should be arriving at my Kindle any second now. I'm very intrigued and interested to know what Ehrenreich has to say about this subject, since I have my own brush with this crap.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
I'm glad my rambling rant had some positive side effect, even with its horrible mangling of Ms. Ehrenreich's name. :) Seriously though, this should be required reading for people in this country.
great points! :)
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
Here's an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail (newspaper)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/barbara-...
excerpt:
far left loon >.<
Less goes out, more for bonuses and salaries.
It takes plenty of stupid to continue voting for and supporting people who actively work to skrew you.
The VA has successfully used a technique called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)to counter PTSD in several of their facilities. The The basic course for therapists is 2.5 days. Another, but underutilized process, is time line therapy (TLT), first utilized by Milton Erickson during the first half of the 20th Century and used by NLP practitioners and psychologists.
Why the hell Vets are subjected to The Power of Positive Thinking in the 21st Century is beyond me.
increasing evangelicization of the military, not just cost-cutting measures.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
I would bet you are right on the money with this. It totally ties in with the whole wealth cult mentality that is part and parcel with neocon/christian fundy (which at this point are pretty much the same thing) belief system these days. You don't need to actually act towards achieving goals, just pray and think positive thoughts and it will all come to you as if by magic. But not magic, it's because quantum physics teaches us about uncertancy and particle/wave duality! Ugh. Disgusting BS.
doing this to the Vets...
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
The ranks may have been infiltrated...
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
I am one of those vets with PTSD. I don't really blame the VA. They knew this was going to happen but no one listened. We wanted to do war on the cheap. Now the VA has the impossible task of trying to catch up and then find all of us who have slipped through the cracks.
I'm playing catch-up now myself. No one really educated me on the benefits I am entitled to. The Army is doing a much better job at this but the Navy is lagging, in my opinion.
Anyway, fuck PTSD. Fuck it in the ear. I'm so sick of waking up angry because I woke up and didn't die overnight. It's just so fucking hard.
SOrry. Had to get that off my chest.
"Better." It's what we should ask of ourselves and of our leaders.
assault related PTSD, and I hate to bring up my time as an evangelical again, but trust me, it's very pertient here, I attended a Word of Faith church. There, I was told that the solution to my symptoms of PTSD was positive confession. Now there's probably some differences between that and Norman Vincent Peale, but I feel they're close enough for me to share my experiences.
It is a huge, huge mistake to do this to Vets. Just telling people not to say that they're hurting and their world as they know it has gone to hell in a handbasket does not help. It just doesn't.
One of the symptoms of PTSD is intrusive thoughts about the trauma. In my own experience, it was impossible to be happy or positive about anything in life because I was so wore out from trying to cope with the thoughts and memories. Being told you have to deny that you are hurting only sets you up for failure, and also self-defeat, because if you can't get over what happened to you, it must be your fault.
Eventually what helped was I put on the med Celexa, and it seemed to slow down the broken record in my brain well enough that when I do have PTSD symptoms I can deal with them as they come, instead of being overwhelmed and bombarded.
Our Vets deserve to get actual, legitimate psychiatric help, not evangelical heresies* passed off as science/medicine.
* Some evangelicals consider Peale and positive confession to be heresy - felt I should point that out.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
...my sister.
"Better." It's what we should ask of ourselves and of our leaders.
Nevermind the nightmares. They'll go away.................
What is your conceptual, continuity?
TIC,TIC,TIC.
I believe there is no hope for those that have gone into combat 2, 3...4 tours. PTSD can be treated if you have had one exposure. Impossible to treat if you keep going back into the shit.
Dave
Viet Vet
Dave,
I served in the army pre Viet Nam but I knew a guy that served in Nam and was a tunnel rat. These guys got nothing from the government to help them cope with the trauma they received. Believe me, this guy was a ticking time bomb. I witnessed him when some ass-hole said something about the vets that served in Nam. He grabbed hold of the bar railing and actually made the entire bar shake while he was trying to fight off the rage that consumed him at that moment. He lost the fight. The other guy paid for his stupid ass mouth.
The vets returning from their third-fourth-fifth deployment to Iraq/Afghanistan are most certainly going to suffer from PTSD and need help. Just think what these people are going to be like after their ninth-tenth deployment.
There is going to be hell to pay for what the politicians and the generals are doing to these soldiers. Innocent people are going to die because of what GWB started and nothing is going to be done about it. THAT is the real shame.
he did a lot of patrols in the jungle. One day in the DMZ, a helicopter swooped in and they called for him. He wouldn't stand up, for obvious reasons. When he got back to his headquarters, they told him his dad was dying and he had to go home.
Less than 24 hours later, he was standing in downtown Seattle, in his military gear, and a guy tapped him on the shoulder to ask him the time. Jan nearly killed him.
me-oww!
They shouldn't try to treat soldiers with PTSD who've served more than one tour in combat?
of duty will likely lead to ghastly cases of complex PTSD which are harder to treat than acute PTSD. I get that it will be impossible to make a full recovery.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
He just kinda left it out there that it was hopeless.
*
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
On that article about that abstinence program
"Janie was not in an active relationship, like some of the girls on her campus, but she was consumed with thoughts of sex.."
PTSD cannot be treated with any "cookie cutter" therapy.
Each case is unique and different. No broadbrush of any sort will help.
I know from first hand experience.
It is like telling a depressed person to just "Cheer up" or "just pull yourself up from your boot straps"
Complete malarkey.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
others EMT, or something else, or all of the above. Who knows, maybe someone "might" be helped by the Norman Vincent Peale book, but the majority won't, and they deserve so much better from the government that put them in that situation.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
I say this is B.S.!!! They ALL trauma victims need psychotherapy, and many also need medication. The government is too cheap to do the right thing. They are only fooling themselves in looking for short-cuts. For years, the health insurance industry has attempted to take the psychotherapy out of the mix, because they don't want to pay. The government is following suit to the detriment of our military. Why do you think there have been so many suicides? During the Vietnam War, our men and women only served for one year, and they were traumatized beyond belief. Now, they are forced to do multiple deployments with no relief in sight. WE SHOULD ALL HANG OUR HEADS IN SHAME FOR ALLOWING THIS TRAVESTY!!!
One of my sibs who is dealing with depression, just told me in an email, a new therapist she's visiting told her -- this is from the email:
"when you are about to have a meltdown, put a candy in your mouth".
Wow. Just wow.
far left loon >.<
So now she can be depressed about having diabetes too. Way to go, healthcare professional.
and BAD ones. More good than bad, however.
Possibly promising, I've seen some documentaries with testimonials to the effectiveness of MDMA vs PTSD ...
http://www.maps.org/research/mdma/protocol/
Which went into the horrific details of My Lai and similar S&D missions, no wonder so many Vietnam vets have PTSD after the fact, when they came home and faced the reality of what they had done.
My sister is in a cult, and this is the same language they use.
It would not be surprising if they brought E-meters into Walter Reed,
at least they are cheap, and if they do not work, it is the patients fault for thinking negative thoughts.
I'm sorry, but anyone who conflates Positive Psychology with "the Power of Positive Thinking" is either horribly misinformed, or deceitful. Positive Psychology is a legitimate therapeutic modality with over a decade of research behind it.
There are plenty of critiques one can level against Positive Psychology - but only after one invests the time to find out what it actually *is*
Positive psychology is--generally speaking--an approach to therapy based on coping skills and resiliency factors. It is not "loosely based" on Peale's pop psychology. That's flatly false.
It is also somewhat disingenuous to say that NO research has been done on positive psychology as a treatment for adults with PTSD. Researchers at Washington University conducted a study with 50 Kosovo war refugees in 2007 (The Journal of Positive Psychology). Also, researchers in the UK did a descriptive study of resiliency following trauma with 57 adults in 2008 (Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology). So there is SOME research, but it's inconclusive. The author is correct in arguing that positive therapy for PTSD is an unproven strategy, and that it's probably a misallocation of resources for our gov't to fund it.
The evidence-based therapy is clearly cognitive behavioral therapy, as is true for most anxiety disorders. But it IS more expensive.
Beware of anyone promising a future full of yesterdays.
I just don't get it! In this stupid fucking country where the vast majority of people are ready to send our children to war at a drop of a hat but for some reason we can never really take care of these same children when they come back from doing our bidding in some god-awful place.
I never want to hear "America is the greatest country" again until we have this problem resolved.
*We should be able to do a lot more, but most of these right-wing idiots just don't believe in our ability to do anything except murder civilians from miles away.
of the "Fall of the U. S. Empire!"
The Demorats have as much blood on their hands as the Repugs do. The Repugs are probably a bit more honest; the Demorats are just cowards for not standing up to Bush/Cheney/Obama..
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