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| A chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?' The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity. The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms - just a little at a time. One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself. Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life, then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut! In this 'very important' election year, listen closely to what the candidates are promising you! Just maybe you will be able to tell who is about to slam the gate on America. 'A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have. ‘ Thomas Jefferson |
PTSD finding your own way
How did you find your way out of the insanity of your PTSD? I get this question quite often. After I give them my "act your way into right thinking" speech I give them a copy of my book PTSD: Pathways through the Secret Door. Lulu Press shameless plug buy it at Amazon.com
Within its 84 pages there are simple solutions to overcome, heal, and live a meaningful life.
When I was escaping from the shrinks and docs who wanted to lock me up when I was leaving Iraq. I felt nothing mainly because I had a bottle of Johnny Walker Red in me. I call that self medicating.
After years of seeing doctors and other professionals (from 93-04) I found the only way to find my way, was to find my own way. I realize that sounds a bit odd.
I tried everything that is until I drilled into my own mind and my own memories.
I was not about to share nothing with any one. I read books I went to seminars.
The only reason I took that Job in Iraq with the DOD was because I was flat broke and didn't get along with anyone because of my PTSD.
I could damn sure act though and that is what I did to get that job. Was it an unjust war? I don't know. I knew that I would be at home in that element and that I would have money. I found no WMD's by the way.
I wanted to face a demon that had haunted me since Somalia in 93.
My motives were not that pure. I loved my country yes, I had sweat and bled all over the world for America. But now it was personal. My family life was crap and I could not keep a job so I went back. This was at the beginning of OIF. Most of it is a blur of memories.
I came back in a shambles. My wife received one phone call from a flight attendant and that was it. They just said. Your husband is coming home.
Little did they know the lies and sneaking deceit I had to go through to get the hell out of that mess after they wanted to institutionalize me? Imagine me crazy, Hell I knew what was wrong with me.
When I came home in 04 I began to retrain my body and my brain. I began my own search by reading tons of books and talking to a few trusted people that would listen. Very damn few.
I noticed something when I delved into my subconscious I found many things about me and my scars or "bullets in my soul", that's what I call them, that forced me to heal. Massive action was my plan and if something did not work I tried something else. There was so much pain I had all of the leverage I needed to keep going until I found solutions.
So today I find that by helping others I help myself more than I could have ever imagined.
I am still a voracious reader and sometimes in my bed at night or in the day a trigger will remind me that I must always continue to grow.
One of my mottos is Grow or Die. Everyday we move closer to what we want or farther away. Nothing stands still.
And once again what you give you get to keep.
Today I offer love, hope, peace, prosperity, and happiness to everyone I meet instead of what my wife use to call "that look".
"That look" she talks about is when the crazy warrior would return.
Yes, I am Grateful "that look" in my eyes is very rare anymore.
Thank you
Peace be with you
Within its 84 pages there are simple solutions to overcome, heal, and live a meaningful life.
When I was escaping from the shrinks and docs who wanted to lock me up when I was leaving Iraq. I felt nothing mainly because I had a bottle of Johnny Walker Red in me. I call that self medicating.
After years of seeing doctors and other professionals (from 93-04) I found the only way to find my way, was to find my own way. I realize that sounds a bit odd.
I tried everything that is until I drilled into my own mind and my own memories.
I was not about to share nothing with any one. I read books I went to seminars.
The only reason I took that Job in Iraq with the DOD was because I was flat broke and didn't get along with anyone because of my PTSD.
I could damn sure act though and that is what I did to get that job. Was it an unjust war? I don't know. I knew that I would be at home in that element and that I would have money. I found no WMD's by the way.
I wanted to face a demon that had haunted me since Somalia in 93.
My motives were not that pure. I loved my country yes, I had sweat and bled all over the world for America. But now it was personal. My family life was crap and I could not keep a job so I went back. This was at the beginning of OIF. Most of it is a blur of memories.
I came back in a shambles. My wife received one phone call from a flight attendant and that was it. They just said. Your husband is coming home.
Little did they know the lies and sneaking deceit I had to go through to get the hell out of that mess after they wanted to institutionalize me? Imagine me crazy, Hell I knew what was wrong with me.
When I came home in 04 I began to retrain my body and my brain. I began my own search by reading tons of books and talking to a few trusted people that would listen. Very damn few.
I noticed something when I delved into my subconscious I found many things about me and my scars or "bullets in my soul", that's what I call them, that forced me to heal. Massive action was my plan and if something did not work I tried something else. There was so much pain I had all of the leverage I needed to keep going until I found solutions.
So today I find that by helping others I help myself more than I could have ever imagined.
I am still a voracious reader and sometimes in my bed at night or in the day a trigger will remind me that I must always continue to grow.
One of my mottos is Grow or Die. Everyday we move closer to what we want or farther away. Nothing stands still.
And once again what you give you get to keep.
Today I offer love, hope, peace, prosperity, and happiness to everyone I meet instead of what my wife use to call "that look".
"That look" she talks about is when the crazy warrior would return.
Yes, I am Grateful "that look" in my eyes is very rare anymore.
Thank you
Peace be with you
Why is the U.S. Army on So Many Prescription Drugs?
Why is the U.S. Army on So Many Prescription Drugs?
Why is the U.S. Army on So Many Prescription Drugs?
For the first time in history, a sizable number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy combat tours.
Data from the army's Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that about 12 percent of combat troops in Iraq and 17 percent of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope.
The survey probably underestimates antidepressant use. But even if the Army numbers are correct, they could mean that as many as 20,000 troops in all services in the two regions were on such medications last fall.
Troops have historically been barred from using such drugs in combat, and soldiers have usually been prescreened for mental illnesses before enlisting. The increase in the use of medication among U.S. troops suggests the heavy mental and psychological price being paid by soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Military doctors have said that the drugs help to "conserve the fighting strength" of soldiers in combat. But at least one soldier, Sergeant Christopher LeJeune, said the drugs may be creating unfit soldiers.
"There were more than a few convoys going out in a total daze," LeJeune said.
Sources
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I can think of few events that even come close to causing the mental anguish that combat troops experience during war.
Even under the best circumstances it's easy to understand how a person's mental health could break down in wartime, but add in repeated combat tours and not enough time at home between deployments and you're really asking for trouble.
Military troops are not machines, and in the face of so much repeated trauma their brains are doing what is only natural -- showing the wear and tear they've been through. Using prescription drugs to try and override this natural response may get a soldier up and ready for the next fight, but it certainly doesn't address the cause or sustain him indefinitely.
Nor will it solve any of the emotional damage that's been done.
In my opinion, these troops who are showing signs of mental illness and seeking help from the only resources they have available -- only to be fed mind-altering drugs in return -- are just one more casualty of the Iraq War.
If this doesn't resemble a sinister plot out of some deranged made for TV conspiracy movie, I don't know what else could qualify better.
The Military's Concern is For the Mission, Not the Soldier
This is, of course, stating the obvious, but it bears repeating.
It should surprise no one that the military nods with approval when asked whether antidepressants and sleeping pills should be given to troops. They will applaud just about anything that keeps the troops going longer and stronger.
But in the case of antidepressants and sleeping pills, this is the equivalent of patching a leak at the Hoover Dam with super glue. Sooner or later, something's gotta give.
Whether or not it's the "right" thing to do all depends on how you look at it. If you're a military strategist, perhaps it is "right" to medicate troops and keep them at the front lines, rather than to send them home to recover. But from my perspective as a doctor, and even as a human being, medicating these young soldiers for their deteriorating mental health is an atrocity.
Antidepressants and sleeping pills have potentially life-threatening side effects that, when coupled with combat, could be a fatal synergy. It's bad enough to wake up drowsy from a sleeping pill when you're in your own bed -- or to feel dazed from an antidepressant when you're working in an office -- but if you're depending on quick reaction times to save your life, well those pills could easily get you killed.
Not to mention that antidepressants have been linked to suicide in young adults aged 18-24, which is the prime age range of these combat troops.
Is it a coincidence that nearly 40 percent of Army suicide victims in 2006 and 2007 took psychotropic drugs, including antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft?
Not in my opinion.
If You or Someone You Love Has Just Returned From Military Duty …
Please make sure that they are taking steps to heal their emotional wounds. Left untended, emotional trauma like experiencing battle can lead to serious health problems down the road -- anything from cancer to heart attacks and depression is possible.
For anyone in the military, I highly suggest working with a practitioner of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to restore and protect your mental health.
An optimized mental health strategy would do wonders to boost the military readiness of the United States, and giving troops access to simple and quick tools like EFT would provide greater energy, sense of purpose and overall positive emotions for soldiers, without any risky side effects.
Introducing 88 pages that might just change your life
PTSD: Pathways through the Secret Door
By Timothy Kendrick
Paperback: 88 pages
Publisher: Lulu.com (July 27, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1430313196
ISBN-13: 978-1430313199
I spent half my life with the U.S. Army and the Federal Government going places and doing things that haunt me at times to this day.
I was gifted with more brains than brawn and am grateful for all the blessings in my life today.
I have traveled the globe 5 and one-half times and have found solutions for individuals who suffer from PTSD and Bipolar Disorders.
Life is not a dress rehearsal. You get one ticket to make the most or least out of your experience here that the divinity has given you. I have found through years of research and my own ailments ways to clean out your subconscious of all the garbage that it may hold onto. In PTSD you will discover ways to release these things forever and re anchor those thoughts to something more empowering than anything you have in the past.
Buy this book at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Target, Borders, or Waldenbooks
I guarantee this book will enhance your life or I will give you double, YES double your money back!
Hire Heroes USA helps link our nation’s returning veterans to employment opportunities that match their interests and skills.
Hire Heroes USA helps link our nation’s returning veterans to employment opportunities that match their interests and skills. We are a non-profit program and provide our career placement services at no charge. We’re here to help returning veterans succeed in achieving their career goals, as well as help make their transition back to civilian life a smooth one.If you are a veteran with any level of disability as determined by the VA from any branch of the military who is returning from Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom, Hire Heroes USA is here for you.To develop your profile, please click “register now” and fill out all pertinent information and submit a resume. Once you have completed this step, a representative from the Sierra Group, a Hire Heroes partner, will contact you via email and phone to discuss your background, what career you are interested in and how Hire Heroes USA may help. You will also receive periodic emails from the Hire Heroes USA recruiters notifying you of all jobs available in your state. You may also check the job board frequently for opportunities nationwide.
http://www.hireheroesusa.org/
Discounted Housing for Wounded Warriors
Discounted Housing for Wounded Warriors
Week of February 11, 2008
Operation Homefront is obtaining very special discounts for injured servicemembers and wounded vets on new homes in neighborhoods around the nation. Some homebuilders are offering up to $50,000 off and in some cases that money can be used for the down payment or upgrades to accommodate disabilities. Lenders are also working to provide excellent terms on 30-year loans. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for many young military families. Anyone may qualify who has been injured, wounded or has some degree of PTSD -- verified with an official letter. Operation Homefront's purpose is to get discounts on homes for military families who deserve a break. More information can be found at Operation Homefront.
Week of February 11, 2008
Operation Homefront is obtaining very special discounts for injured servicemembers and wounded vets on new homes in neighborhoods around the nation. Some homebuilders are offering up to $50,000 off and in some cases that money can be used for the down payment or upgrades to accommodate disabilities. Lenders are also working to provide excellent terms on 30-year loans. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for many young military families. Anyone may qualify who has been injured, wounded or has some degree of PTSD -- verified with an official letter. Operation Homefront's purpose is to get discounts on homes for military families who deserve a break. More information can be found at Operation Homefront.
Volunteer therapists aid war-stressed families
Volunteer therapists aid war-stressed families
They are the other casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: spouses - mostly wives - of military personnel as well as their children, parents and even siblings struggling with the fear that accompanies combat separations or the wrenching readjustment that often marks the return home. Some are troops themselves, home for good or for a while between deployments, trying to cope with depression, anxiety, alcoholism or re-entry.
Stressed by financial concerns and worries that seeking psychological counseling, especially through official channels, could jeopardize a loved one's military career, many relatives are reluctant to seek help. Others don't know where to find it.
Now a nonprofit group called Give an Hour, launched by Washington area clinical psychologist Barbara V. Romberg, is providing free counseling for soldiers and their families, as well as their unmarried partners. More than 720 licensed psychologists, social workers and other counselors from 40 states and the District of Columbia have volunteered to donate an hour a week of therapy time for a minimum of one year to those affected by the twin conflicts.
In the program's first two months, about 50 clients - including one soldier on active duty in Iraq - have contacted the program to find a therapist. Romberg hopes this trickle will turn into a steady stream as word of the program spreads.
The pro bono effort is underwritten by several grants, including one from the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, a nonprofit group based in Ossining, N.Y., that assists severely wounded soldiers. Romberg's group also has forged partnerships with several military family organizations, including the Silver Star Families of America and the Washington-based Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, which aids relatives of those who die while on duty.
The goal, Romberg said, is not to supplant the psychological services the military offers but to supplement them.
"We provide help to people they don't," among them parents and siblings of troops, she said. Because it operates independently of the Department of Defense and VA health systems, the program hopes to remove what some consider a key obstacle confronting those who need help.
Sometimes troops return home utterly changed or obviously damaged by what they have experienced but resist seeking help, leaving it to their families to cope with the aftermath.
A 2004 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine of 6,000 soldiers and Marines involved in ground combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan found that of those whose responses indicated a mental disorder, only 23 to 40 percent sought psychiatric help. Many who did not cited fear of being stigmatized as a reason.
"In the military, there are unique factors that contribute to resistance to seeking such help, particularly concern about how a soldier will be perceived by peers and by the leadership," concluded the research team, headed by psychiatrist Charles W. Hoge of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md.
In June, top Bush administration and military officials, acknowledging "shortfalls" in mental health treatment, pledged to improve psychiatric care for military personnel. Among the improvements mentioned is a program to reduce stigma.
"It was just very clear to me that there was going to be a tidal wave of (psychologically) damaged folks coming back," said Romberg, who founded Give an Hour and is its president. The military is trying to cope, "but it was clear to me they weren't going to be able to stay ahead" of the accelerating demand for psychological services.
Last year, a study co-written by Hoge of 300,000 returning troops found that one in three of those who served in Iraq later sought help for mental health problems. The Iraq veterans consistently reported more psychological distress than those returning from Afghanistan, Bosnia or Kosovo.
The repercussions of that suffering can hit families hard.
Bonnie Carroll, executive director of TAPS, said her group has referred relatives struggling with the death of a service member to Give an Hour.
"It's a wonderful resource," said Carroll, who adds that counseling services available through the military to eligible spouses and children are typically limited to a few sessions and not offered to other relatives.
Although the Department of Veterans Affairs operates 207 specialized Vet Centers around the country that offer counseling, not everyone who needs help lives near one, Carroll said.
Researchers affiliated with Harvard reported recently that 1.8 million veterans and 3.8 million people who live in their households lacked health insurance in 2004.
The match between therapist and client is made online through the group's Web site, www.giveanhour.org. Potential clients search for practitioners on the basis of their location. Listings include information about specialty or expertise, such as grief counseling, marital therapy or substance abuse, as well as a willingness to participate in telephone sessions in the event that in-person meetings are not feasible.
Give an Hour does not screen therapists, Romberg said, but it does verify they have a license in good standing.
To protect confidentiality, the Web site contains no "cookies" that could identify people seeking help, Romberg said. The site also includes information for patients about what to expect during therapy sessions and how to choose a counselor. For therapists, there is information about the unique culture of the military.
Demand for counselors, many of whom are social workers, has been slow in the Washington area where more than 100 therapists have signed on, but brisk in other parts of the country that have large military populations, including the Southwest, Romberg said.
Dawn Beatty, a licensed professional counselor in Mesa, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, said she has treated two clients this year through Give an Hour and talked by phone to a third. For the past two months she has been meeting with the wife of a National Guard member who recently returned from Iraq and may face a second deployment.
The couple had been married only a few weeks when the husband shipped out. Recently returned after 18 months, his wife describes him as "a different person." He has refused to discuss his experiences overseas and is having trouble coping with being married and with her two children from a previous marriage who live with them.
Beatty said the woman has said her husband is "upset with her for coming in. He thinks they should be able to work it out. There's a lot of anger and frustration."
One young soldier, recently returned from multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, kept his first appointment with Beatty but did not return for a second, she said. "He had a lot of PTSD" and was drinking heavily, she said.
Beatty, who said her usual fee is $115 per hour, said that she volunteered for Give an Hour and plans to provide free treatment beyond the one-year minimum for as long as it takes for those who seek her help. "No matter what a financial struggle it is for me I'll do it," she said.
Among military clients, she said, "there is a real pride issue. They feel very guilty about coming in and accepting free counseling," but often their insurance won't cover it.
Clients seeking to give back are encouraged to volunteer at local organizations listed on the program's Web site.
Romberg said the group reflects her experience as the daughter of a World War II veteran who grew up in a small town in California and watched as her neighbors went off to fight in Vietnam.
Several years ago she was mulling over what she could do after hearing a radio report about the number of Americans who have not been personally touched by the war.
Her resolve to do something, she said, was strengthened when her then-9-year-old daughter asked her about a homeless veteran dressed in camouflage fatigues.
"I could not look at her and say we knew but didn't do anything," Romberg said. "It seemed to me if the mental health community had an easy way to participate, they would."
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jan/07/volunteer-therapists-aid-war-stressed-families/
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