Hope for Veterans Suffering from PTSD

New Treatment for Veterans with PTSD.

Since June is National PTSD Awareness Month, I though it appropriate to share my story and a list of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms from the PTSD Alliance:

  • Recreating the traumatic event over and over. These flashbacks can happen through nightmares or mental images that pop into the mind during the day.
  • Avoidance of people, places, or activities that trigger memories of the traumatic event. (For example, if the trauma was a deadly car accident, it may be difficult for someone to drive or ride in a car after the incident. Or fireworks may upset a veteran with PTSD.)
  • Vigilance and attentiveness all the time for danger. This can cause a PTSD sufferer to be irritable, angry, and easily startled.
Courtesy of CNN

This is where the story begins. You’ve seen the pictures and videos of women and children waiting to be reunited with their husbands, boyfriends and sons or daughters who have returned home from war. The tears begin to flow as they embrace each other and their children with long hugs, kisses and relief that they made it home safely. However, they quickly begin to realize that neither of them are prepared for what happens next. The flashbacks, noises that trigger aggressive behavior, screaming, crying and sleepless nights leave the whole family on edge and it seems to continue with no end in sight.

The husband’s extreme and heightened sense of continually surveying his surroundings leaves him on edge, angry and ready to jump like a tiger on his prey. One woman shared that her husband believed everyone in the grocery store wanted to kill him. He was prepared to fight at a moment’s notice. The wife felt embarrassed and soon does not want to take him anywhere. The relationship begins to unravel as the reality of living with someone suffering from PTSD affects the entire family. Quickly the wife realizes that the man who left for deployment is not the same man who returned home from the war.

Like many other Veterans, it is extremely difficult for military service men to assimilate back into the culture because of what they have seen, heard and experienced in war. For example, one man drove in the middle of a road while under a bridge with cars swerving, horns honking and brakes slamming to miss them because that’s how you had to drive in Afghanistan in order to stay alive. In Iraq, even children were used to throw explosives at the U.S. military. Unlike growing up in the United States, service men have to grapple with the reality that everyone was the enemy if he wanted to stay alive. This included women and children who were also recruited to kill American soldiers. Each day brought new challenges to overcome while coping with PTSD.

Statistics regarding PTSD and Veterans:

  • The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that nearly 40,000 Veterans are homeless with PTSD being the contributing factor.
  • Between 11 and 20 percent of veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom struggle with PTSD.
  • An estimated 12 percent of Gulf War veterans experience PTSD.
  • Approximately 30 percent of Vietnam veterans have experienced PTSD.

Fortunately, there are new treatments available using technology as well as psychology.

New treatment for Veterans using Virtual Reality. By using Virtual Reality, a person is able to confront situations that they fear most. Thanks to one group at the University of Central Florida, Veterans and first responders suffering from PTSD are getting help. The program is called UCF RESTORES. Early program results have proven so successful that the U.S. Army has now funded UCF RESTORES to establish programs at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Georgia, Naval Medical Hospital Portsmouth in Virginia and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

According to Deborah Beidel, a University of Central Florida Professor of psychology and medical education, “This is a wonderful opportunity to take this program to active-duty military personnel and treat them on their own bases, right where they are. Our early research results show our program to be more effective than traditional PTSD treatment, and this gives us the opportunity to get some additional data to demonstrate it on a larger scale, while providing treatment in a convenient way for our patients.” (Update: The program has received a $10 million grant in 2018 from the military to expand its work.)

The UCF RESTORES team has developed and combined virtual reality and exposure therapy for anger, depression, guilt, and social isolation since 2011. To-date, the clinic has treated first responders from multiple states, Pulse survivors (Orlando Nightclub tragedy), and 300 Veterans and active-duty personnel. The treatment results reveal significant improvements in most patients with two-thirds no longer meeting the clinical criteria for PTSD diagnosis. I believe this is an important step in the right direction for sufferers of PTSD and there are other programs out there who also offer assistance.

Do you need help with PTSD? If you’re a veteran and would like to know more about treatment or information, please contact the providers listed below.

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