Spc. Virgadamo, wounded to death

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spc. Travis M. Virgadamo, 19, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Aug. 30 in Taji, Iraq, in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 3d Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2d Brigade Combat Team, 3d Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
The circumstances surrounding the death are under investigation.

This is how the military reports a suicide death. Under investigation. They leave it up to the media to do follow ups. In this case, they did and so did the family. This is what is needed to fully tell their stories. Stories of deaths just as related to combat as a bullet or a bomb.

Sep. 05, 2007 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Soldier from LV dies in Iraq REVIEW-JOURNAL
Operation Iraqi FreedomA special package of news updates, local coverage, multimedia and more.
A soldier from Las Vegas died Thursday in Taji, Iraq, of a non-combat related incident, Department of Defense officials said in a statement.
An Army official told the family that 19-year-old Spc. Travis M. Virgadamo died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that the circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.
The statement posted Monday on the Pentagon's Web site said Virgadamo was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Stewart, Ga.
The family prefers donations be made to the Disabled American Veterans.

PTSD is a wound to the mind. How do they send soldiers back into combat with a wounded mind? What are they thinking? Are they thinking at all?

Rushed back to the front: Experts say depressed soldier on drug needed more time
By Ed Koch and Mary ManningPublished in the Sun on Sept. 6

A Las Vegas Army infantryman who was prescribed Prozac for depression and several weeks later killed himself in Iraq should have undergone at least three months of observation before returning to normal duties, psychiatrists and other medical experts said in interviews Wednesday.

Family and friends of Pfc. Travis Virgadamo say he told them he was prescribed daily doses of 12.5 milligrams of the antidepressant Prozac beginning in July. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound last Thursday outside of Baghdad, the military said.
Medical experts interviewed by the Sun said anyone given prescription antidepressants should be watched carefully and kept out of high-stress duty for at least three months.

Las Vegas psychiatrist Dr. Mark Collins said anyone on Prozac needs to be checked regularly for 90 days before being returned “to combat — the most stressful of all situations.”

Collins said he has treated many firefighters and police officers with Prozac. “I would return them to light duty or partial duty for a three-month period.”

Experts also noted that research has found that the drugs pose a special risk to teenagers. Virgadamo was 19.

Prozac’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly and Company of Indianapolis, says in its warning that clinical studies indicate that antidepressants “increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents and young adults with depression and other psychiatric disorders.”

Dr. Andrew Leuchter, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, said young combat soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are often treated with antidepressants and sent back into the field despite the risks.

“Unfortunately, they take kids out of these situations and put them right back in,” Leuchter said. “The major factor for suicide is to have a major depressive episode.”
http://politics.lasvegassun.com/2007/09/rushed-back-to-.html

Early intervention and treatment saves lives. If they simply give them a couple of sessions with a psychologist and prescription, it is as if they gave them the ammunition to kill themselves. Medications need to be monitored. If they wait until the veteran has healed enough and is truly ready to go back to "work" then they put a dedicated solider back to where they can thrive. This should not be sending them back into combat. It will only make the wound deeper and stronger. There are other jobs the military has for those who want to stay and they do not all involve combat. Whatever they are thinking by putting these wounded soldiers into positions where they are traumatized even more is a disgrace. They are not machines!

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

The killing of Jamie Dean

The killing of Jamie Dean
Police in rural Maryland staged a military stakeout and shot a troubled Army vet. As his family plans to sue, they are asking how a soldier being treated for PTSD could be shipped to Iraq.

By Julia Dahl


Photo: Muriel Dean

Jamie Dean, Dec. 17, 2006.

Sept. 5, 2007 | Jamie Dean had been holed up in his childhood home for six hours when the tear gas canisters came crashing through the windows. It was a little after 4 a.m., the day after Christmas 2006, and Sgt. James Emerick Dean, 29, formerly of the 25th Infantry Division, knew he was surrounded. The white farmhouse was tucked beside a grove of trees in Leonardtown, a rural hamlet in southern Maryland, where Dean's family once raised tobacco. Now, from behind the blinds, Dean could see cops with flashlights creeping around his backyard. He could see police cars on the dirt road outside the house. He could hear the sirens and the shouting and the buzz of the police radios.

It had been a month since Dean had gotten word he'd have to go back to war. He had already served a year in Afghanistan. He'd done and seen things over there he couldn't talk about, and now they were sending him to Iraq. Like tens of thousands of soldiers fighting the post-9/11 wars, Dean was being treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs for post-traumatic stress disorder -- but the Army didn't know that because the Army and the V.A. don't typically share medical records.

Soprano's Gandolfini takes on PTSD and the troops

James Gandolfini's Iraq documentary Sept. 5: Learn more about the HBO documentary that will be featured on tonight's Nightly News broadcast. "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini talks to Brian Williams about taking on a new role -- advocating for the wounded.
Today show

James Gandolfini returns to HBO with new documentary
Posted Jun 30th 2007 11:30AM

by Richard Keller

Filed under: Programming, Celebrities, The Sopranos
Remember that exclusive three-year deal that James Gandolfini signed with HBO last year? Well, it's finally bearing fruit in the form of a documentary that focuses on the wounded soldiers of the Iraq War.

Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq is Gandolfini's first post-Sopranos project for HBO as well as the first project from his new production company, Attaboy Films. The documentary, which will debut on Sunday, September 9, will focus on the new generation of wounded veterans who have returned from Iraq. Gandolfini, the documentary's executive producer, interviews ten of the wounded veterans who reveal their severe disabilities and their plans for the future.

This will be the third HBO Documentary Films production focusing on the Iraq War. The first, Baghdad ER, focused on the personnel of a Combat Support Hospital and won an Emmy and Peabody award. The second, Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops from the Battlefields of Iraq, featured the letters of ten men and women killed in action over in the Middle East.

click post title for the rest of this

From HBO
From Executive Producer James Gandolfini
Alive Day Memories
Home From Iraq
Premieres Sunday, September 9 at 10:30PM
In a war that has left more than 25,000 wounded,
ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ looks at a new generation of veterans. Executive Producer James Gandolfini interviews ten Soldiers and Marines who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America. The documentary surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their "alive day," the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq.
Watch the entire ALIVE DAY MEMORIES special on HBO.com beginning Sunday, September 9 at 11:30pm, immediately following the premiere.Watch the Entire Film-->
> Interview with Executive Producer James Gandolfini
READ THEIR STORIES

Veteran good enough to fight, get wounded, but not good enough for congresswoman to meet

Wronged vet fighting for justice here, in D.C.


FORT WAYNE-More than a decade ago, U.S. Army veteran John Evans was trying to alert the nation to a serious healthcare crisis when it came to treating military men who had served their nation admirably in times of war. He largely was ignored. Now with recent startling and embarrassing revelations about conditions and treatment at once-highly regarded military healthcare facilities such as Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., Evans finally is being vindicated by many who once tried to ignore him-including some politicians. But, rather than retiring from the fight, Evans is planning to step up his battle to find justice for veterans. That includes organizing a public protest for Sept. 5 through Sept. 7 in front of the Federal Building, 1300 S. Harrison St.-right here in Fort Wayne, where it all began.

In 1994, Evans, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who said he had been declared 100 percent disabled due to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, woke up to find his world had collapsed around him. His veteran's benefits mysteriously had disappeared leaving him unable to pay his bills and his bank account had been closed. After frantically calling the Veterans Administration and the bank, Evans discovered that he mistakenly had been declared dead by the Social Security Administration, which had confused him with his son, John Patrick Logan, who had passed away. According to Evans, it was two months before he received a letter informing him that he had been-mistakenly-declared dead. During that time, stress began to mount until he suffered a severe heart attack.

The situation went from bad to worse. While having the heart attack, Evans instructed his brother to take him to Parkview Hospital on Randallia Drive-just blocks away from the local Veterans Administration Medical Center on Lake Avenue. Evans said he made the decision to be taken there because he knew the VA didn't have the facilities for critical heart care and credits that decision-along with doctors, he said-with saving his life through emergency bypass surgery. But, not having a fee–based medical card, which allows veterans to seek care from private sources under various circumstances, the Veterans Administration refused to pay his hospital bills, leaving Evans under even more stress.

He moved to Washington to get things done for veterans, but when it came to his own member of Congress, he was screaming in an empty room (just like most of us have been)

For a time, he lived in Maryland, where he met with congressional representatives there, before moving officially to Washington, D.C., where he's organized protests in front of the White House. But in a bit of bitter irony, Evans said he hasn't gotten any support from his Washington representative-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who like Evans, is black. According to Evans, he's been trying to get a meeting with Norton for about a year and has received no word back.

"I'm good enough to fight for our country and get wounded, but I'm not good enough to meet with my congresswoman," said Evans.

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Bike trip from Seattle to Gloucester to raise awareness of PTSD

Vacation Spent Helping Veterans
Cyclist Rides Across Country

By LORETTA WALDMAN | Courant Staff Writer
September 5, 2007

SIMSBURY - In mid-June, 53-year-old Tariffville resident Wayne Coste began a 4,200-mile coast-to-coast bicycle trip.

The 64-day journey, which took him and 25 other cyclists through 13 states and a Canadian province, began in Seattle and ended Aug. 18 in Gloucester, Mass.

That may seem less than relaxing as vacations go, but Coste wasn't looking to kick back.

He was on a mission to raise awareness about the plight of returning military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, an invisible but devastating psychological wound affecting one in five veterans returning from Iraq.

Coste, an engineer with ISO New England, is not a veteran, nor is he close to anyone diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His interest in the condition, he said, began with reading articles about how difficult it can be for veterans to get treatment. It solidified in October when he attended a presentation by Dr. Edward Tick, director of Soldier's Heart, an Albany, N.Y.-based nonprofit that promotes community-based efforts helping service personnel and their families heal from the effects of war.
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Traumatised soldier admits hitting wife

TRAUMATISED SOLDIER ADMITS HITTING WIFE
South Wales Evening Post - Swansea,Wales,UK
He said Storey "had come to accept that he is exhibiting the archetypal symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder". Mr Harrett went on to say: "As is usual ...

Colonel draws fire for study on recruit stress

Colonel draws fire for study on recruit stress

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Sep 4, 2007 7:38:20 EDT

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A decorated Army colonel who served as a combat surgeon in Afghanistan is now at odds with the Army over a scientific study aimed at identifying the impact of stress on recruits.

Col. Richard Gonzales earned a Bronze Star and other Army accolades for his service and was recognized for volunteering for an extra year in the Middle East but has since been demoted and is under investigation for arranging a researcher’s no-bid contract and conducting an unapproved study, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday.

Army documents show the research board that first approved the study shares blame for miscommunication and mistakes, and did not explain study requirements or properly supervise Gonzales, who was a first-time researcher. The research board is now investigating Gonzales’ team.

At issue is whether intensely private details shared by recruits — including accounts of childhood abuse and molestation — have been disclosed. In the course of the investigation, the Army removed the recruits’ private files so it could turn Gonzales’ locked study office into an employee break room without his knowledge. The Army wouldn’t tell him where the study’s computer was, according to records.
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Lawmaker Seeks “De-Boot” Camp Following Tour

Lawmaker Seeks “De-Boot” Camp Following Tour
Terri
September 4th, 2007
In The News, Military

When reading this story, I was reminded of the program that the Minnesota National Guard does with their Troops as they return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon their return, they stay in the barracks for 3-6 weeks where they undergo debriefing and decompression time. Their families are an integral part of this process and it appears to be extremely successful; so much so, that it’s being considered as a program that may be used nationwide.

I’m all for anything that will assist our Troops in being able make the transition back into life at home easier for them. The more interventions that are in place and the more preventative programs that are in place from the start, the less problems we’re likely to see. I think the program that Representative Filner describes here would be a wonderful addition to programs that are already in place. I know that it would be tough, having to spend that much more time away from their homes, but having seen some of the problems that can result from suddenly thrusting our Warriors immediately back into life here at home, I think it’s something that should be given some heavy consideration.

In a speech he made on Wednesday, Representative Bob Filner, a Democrat from California announced that he will push a bill in Congress, to open camps that can possibly help prepare veterans for some of the difficulties that they face as they return from the war-torn regions of Iraq and Afghanistan. These camps, called “de-boot camps” or “Heroes Homecoming Camps” could be made a mandatory requirement for active duty Soldiers and could include their family members as well as others in their unit, according to Rep. Filner.

“When you leave the combat zone, you can be in Baghdad yesterday and tomorrow you are taking your kids to a soccer game. There is no time for decompression,” he said, pointing to the high rates of domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, increases in teh diasnosis of PTSD and TBI and a increase in the suicide rate. “We’re releasing a time bomb to the community.”
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Part of being tough is admitting you need help with PTSD

"Many Vietnam vets died miserable, alone and young," he said. "This is not going to happen to these guys."


Army taking stress out of seeking help
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
By NIKI DOYLE
Times Staff Writer niki.doyle@htimes.com

Program aims to fight idea that it's a sign of weakness

More than 30 years after thousands of "shell-shocked" soldiers left Vietnam, the U.S. Army is taking steps to help soldiers leaving Iraq adjust successfully to civilian life.

The Army is requiring all its employees - soldiers and civilians - to participate in a seminar on post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and mild traumatic brain injury.

........"Soldiers don't want to appear weak," Battle said. "That's the kind of statement that leaders want to fight against. Part of being tough is admitting you need help."
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Soldiers Urged to Get Treatment for Stress

Soldiers Urged to Get Treatment for Stress
Stars and Stripes | Erik Slavin | August 31, 2007

CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — U.S. Army Garrison Red Cloud officials urged soldiers and civilians at a Thursday briefing in the theater to get help if they are dealing with post-combat stress.

Camp Stanley operations officer Capt. Lis-Mary Wilson’s briefing also encouraged supervisors to watch for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder in their workers.

The message was delivered, but its success ultimately depends on soldiers and civilians feeling comfortable enough to seek help from chaplains, doctors and social workers.

PTSD News and Resources

“No one has the right to judge you. They don’t know what you saw or what you’ve done,” Wilson told the 30 to 40 soldiers and civilians in attendance, along with about 20 South Korean soldiers.

Soldiers won’t be punished for seeking help, Wilson said. But how will a soldier who misses time at his post for long-term care be seen in the eyes of a commander? What will care from a psychiatrist mean to a promotion board?

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Suicide, is something we can live without

Suicide: ‘People think it’s a choice’

West Virginia has eighth-highest rate in country

By Mary Wade Burnside
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT — Rebecca Wells saw her husband transform from a motivated business executive who enjoyed working out to someone overcome by depression, which ran in his family.

He sought counseling, took medication and even tried shock therapy. But one day in March 2006, the Huntington man told his wife he was going out of town. Instead, he went to a nearby lake and killed himself. Authorities found him just after Wells filed a missing person report.

“I have days that I have anger, but I’m not angry at him,” she said. “I watched him struggle to get out of bed and I watched him cry.

“What really makes me angry is when people think it’s a choice. He didn’t go through what he did because he wanted to.”

Because Wells wants to spread the word about suicide, she has become a bit of an activist. She has organized a walk called “Out of the Darkness” that will take place Oct. 6 in Ritter Park in Huntington, and she also joined the board of the Morgantown-based West Virginia Council for the Prevention of Suicide.

Bob Musick, executive director of the council, which he runs from his office at Valley Healthcare System in Morgantown, began the group in 2001 to reach out statewide to help people, both those considering suicide and those who have experienced the self-imposed death of a loved one.

West Virginia, he noted, has the eighth-highest suicide rate per capita of all 50 states, he noted. Alaska ranks No. 1.

“One reason is we rank high in guns in the home,” Musick said. “We also rank high in rural areas and we rank high in the number of senior citizens. Each one adds on to it.”

To commemorate National Suicide Prevention Week, which takes place Sept. 9-15, the council will begin a Suicide Survivors Group, which will meet from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at Valley Healthcare System, 301 Scott Ave., Morgantown.

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Luke 10
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou?

27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt alive.

29 But he, willing to ajustify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise

Veterans deserve needed care for life

Editorial: Veterans deserve needed care for life

Eagle Editorial



Byron Hancock is a hero, a veteran of battles foreign and domestic who continues to struggle with emotional wounds suffered in defense of this country.

His war in Iraq is over, but we fear his war with his own government for the treatment he deserves will continue well into the future. Like far too many other service men and women, he has had to fight for the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder he has received so far.

A four-part series in The Eagle this past week (www.theeagle.com) told Hancock's story in dramatic and often frustrating detail. Parts of the saga make you want to cheer. Others make you want to weep for a country that would do so little for those who have done so much for us all. It is a cautionary tale about the cost of waging war and the obligation we have to those who fight our battles.

Hancock joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1988, while still a senior in high school near Nacogdoches. At boot camp, he was named his platoon's top graduate and earned the marksmanship and physical fitness awards. In 1992, Hancock was sent to the extremely difficult Marine Corps Sniper School. Of the 32 men who started the training, Hancock was one of only six to finish, graduating second in the class and becoming one of the elite of the elite. The next year, he became the first Reservist and the first corporal to be invited to return for advanced training.

Being a sniper requires great patience, outstanding skills and the ability to kill, even when not directly threatened. It is a thankless job, but a necessary one.

Hancock spent the next few years as part of the 15-member Marine Reserve Rifle Team, during which he continued to hone his sniper skills.

Eventually, though, he decided to return full time to his job with the Bryan Police Department. He was named Officer of the Year by the Bryan Police Officers Association in 1997 and again in 1998. Eventually, Hancock left the Marine Corps Reserves - that is, until after Sept. 11, 2001. He rejoined the active Reserves and, after service teaching sniper tactics to South American militaries, Hancock was sent to Iraq in August 2004. He fought in Fallujah, killing an enemy insurgent from 1,050 yards away - believed to be the longest successful sniper shot of this war. Months later, after six days lying in a cold, wet ditch observing suspicious activity, Hancock was ordered to kill a teenage boy who was trying to connect several improvised explosive devices that could have killed many American soldiers.

Eventually, Hancock came home, bringing with him an emotional burden that would haunt him and his family in the months to come. He began having flashbacks and nightmare images of slitting throats - events that never happened. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, an illness once denied by the government but one that continues to haunt many veterans of the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and, increasingly, veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Doctors still struggle to learn all its ramifications, but treatment is available, although success rates vary with the individual.

The real problem is that the Veterans Administration is unable to handle the growing number of current and former service members needing assistance. Hancock learned that when he tried to get help for his illness from the VA. Amazingly, he was put on a waiting list for the post-traumatic stress disorder program at the Temple Veterans Administration Hospital.

The VA says between 12 percent and 20 percent of Iraq war veterans suffer from the disorder, although a study cited by a Department of Defense task force puts that number at 38 percent for Army soldiers and 31 percent for Marines. Alarmingly, the study found that 49 percent of its respondents in the National Guard reported problems.

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WOUNDS OF WAR Mental troubles plagued man before suicide

WOUNDS OF WAR
For one veteran, struggle didn't end
Mental troubles plagued man before suicide
By Laura Ungar
lungar@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal



RELATED VIDEO: Derek Henderson Interviews

Derek Henderson's hands shook as he held the railing on the Clark Memorial Bridge and stared down at the dark waters of the Ohio River.

A few feet away stood Aisha "Nikki" McGuire and her boyfriend, Patrick Craig, who had spotted Henderson while driving by. They begged him not to jump -- "It's not worth it," they said.

Henderson wouldn't say what brought him there. "I don't want to talk about it," he told Craig, before climbing over the railing and hanging for a moment off the other side.

McGuire looked at his face and saw fear. She ran to police officers who were just pulling up, as the big clock on the Colgate plant across the river in Indiana showed a few minutes before midnight.

Craig kept pleading with Henderson: "God is with you, man. Come on."

"Thank you, brother," Henderson said.

Then he let go.

On that night in mid-June, Henderson, a 27-year-old Louisville resident who'd served with the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, surrendered to an enemy that has tormented thousands of veterans.

Like nearly one out of every five Americans who have served in the conflicts, Henderson suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And like many of them, he had made the rounds of veterans' hospitals and psychiatric wards but still was unable to defeat his demons.

Although it's unclear exactly when he was diagnosed.

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also from this site

MORE PHOTOS
Iraqi war veteran Derek Henderson

RELATED STORIES

• Video: Derek Henderson Interviews [9.2.07]
• Brain injuries haunt soldiers [7.15.07]
• Veterans' ills may show MS link to Gulf War [6.3.07]
• Iraq news brings on relapses for earlier war's vets [5.28.07]
• Hospitals plagued by long waits, low staffing [5.28.07]
• More war vets bring disabling stress home [5.28.07]
• Fighting financial wounds [5.23.07]
• War widow serves by attending funerals [5.23.07]
• Army vows to inspect its hospitals [5.23.07]
• Problems at Walter Reed spark criticism [5.23.07]
• Getting 'back to normal' [5.23.07]
• Many vets lose health benefits [5.23.07]
• VA backs directive against recruiting [5.23.07]
• Days marked by duty, dismay, death [5.23.07]
• VA's ban on recruiting vets angers activists [5.23.07]

FULL COVERAGE: Wounds of War

How many times is this going to happen? How much more do we need to know before we do whatever it takes to stop them from killing themselves? When will I be able to read the reports and stop asking "why" there still isn't enough being done?

Military PTSD support for spouse on line

Spouse Calls
Stripes columnist Terri Barnes offers advice and an understanding ear to her fellow military spouses.
EMDR treatments for PTSD

Posted August 19th, 2007

by Terri Barnes
in
Spouse Calls
A Spouse Calls reader who suffered from PTSD wrote recently to tell me that she had found relief from her debilitating symptoms through eye movement desensitizing and reprocessing (EMDR). She had been following the Spouse Calls blog regarding PTSD, and wondered if her experience could help others.

A story by Steve Mraz in Stars & Stripes details how medical professionals at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany are being trained to administer EMDR to returning veterans. The treatment has been around since the late 1980's.
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If you have a family member in the military or veteran, go there and find some support. You need it as much as they do.

If you want some help understanding that what you're going through is not just you, click the link on this blog for the free book. It's about 18 years of our life together. My husband is a Vietnam Vet with PTSD. The book is For The Love Of Jack His War/My Battle. It opens in Adobe. I've been doing outreach work ever since the day I fell in love with him and my father said he had "shell shock"

As you read it, keep in mind one really important thing to find some hope. This month we've been married for 23 years.

The videos I've done are also here whenever you need them.

Clergy in New Orleans need PTSD counseling

Clergy in New Orleans need counseling

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 31, 5:20 PM ET



NEW ORLEANS - Clergymen struggling to comfort the afflicted in New Orleans are finding they, too, need someone to listen to their troubles.


By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 31, 5:20 PM ET



NEW ORLEANS - Clergymen struggling to comfort the afflicted in New Orleans are finding they, too, need someone to listen to their troubles.

The sight of misery all around them — and the combined burden of helping others put their lives back together while repairing their own homes and places of worship — are taking a spiritual and psychological toll on the city's ministers, priests and rabbis, many of whom are in counseling two years after Hurricane Katrina.

Almost every local Episcopal minister is in counseling, including Bishop Charles Jenkins himself, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jenkins, whose home in suburban Slidell was so badly damaged by Katrina that it was 10 months before he and his wife could move back in, said he has suffered from depression, faulty short-term memory, and difficulty concentrating or sleeping.

Low-flying helicopters sometimes cause flashbacks to the near-despair — the "dark night of the soul" — into which he was once plunged, he said. He said the experience felt "like the absence of God" — a lonely and frightening sensation.

Churches and synagogues have played an important role in New Orleans' recovery, supplying money and thousands of volunteers to rebuild homes and resettle families. But an April survey found 444 places of worship in metropolitan New Orleans — about 30 percent — were still closed 20 months after the storm because they were damaged or their congregations scattered. click post title for the rest.

Even clergy can feel the absence of God after trauma. It is not the only outcome of PTSD but it shows that a strong faith will not prevent PTSD. It has nothing to do with faith, nothing to do with courage, or bravery, education, intelligence, patriotism or anything else other than a human being exposed to trauma.

Think of what this event in New Orleans is teaching us about combat. Think of the results from this one storm and the flood that followed when the waters came rushing in. Leaving politics out of it ( which is very hard for me to do) this event left scars that will last a lifetime that no one else can see with their eyes.

September 11, 2001, is engrained in the soul's of the people from New York more than anyone else in the nation, while the nation feels the heart tug, we were not there. Some felt as if their lives were in danger across the nation, but they were not there witnessing it in real time. We are still seeing the numbers increase from those exposed to this one day's events.

Now add in these traumatic days, acknowledge the wounds the people exposed to them carry, then think about experiencing them everyday for a year or now for fifteen months, and still knowing that when you go home, the safety of home will not last because you will be re-attacked all over again in the next round of redeployments. Some are on their fifth tour.

Then think of the people having to live in Iraq. Those who do not get to go home for a rest because it is their homes being attacked on a daily basis. They did nothing wrong and they lived in relative peaceful neighborhoods before the invasion. The Iraqi people have traumatic events happen daily, horrifically and without end.

Why is it we can understand the effects of Post Traumatic Stress when it happens here but we can never accept it when it happens someplace else? Each time this nation experiences a traumatic event, there are after shocks reverberating for many years and yet this nation still regards PTSD as if it were some kind of personal defect.

The plain simple truth is, you cannot expose a human to trauma and expect them to just get over it. No one ever lives their lives the same way after trauma. A part of them changes. Sometimes it is only slight changes but other times it is truly life altering.