PTSD diagnosis carries hope
I want to tell you about a new film that’s of interest to me and other veterans. It’s about the unseen injuries of combat: Post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is not a new phenomenon, but it’s one that is being talked about more now than ever in recent memory. I know people’s eyes may glaze over, because we don’t like to talk about disorders, and especially disorders of the mind.
But PTSD is a risk factor for those of us who experience traumatic situations and events. As Dr. Frank Ochberg, a psychiatrist who’s led research into PTSD, explains, it happens to normal people reacting to things that are terribly abnormal.
And when the actual traumatic event has passed, it seems impossible to regain your former sense of normalcy. It’s like my friend, war correspondent Darrin Mortenson, said, if you’re back home or between tours but you just can’t wait to get back over to the fight, that might be a sign that what was once normal to you has changed in a very serious way. Some of the most common symptoms of PTSD are sudden, intrusive memories of terrifying events — memories that you wish would go away but won’t and which leave your heart racing; irritability; an inability to reconnect with loved ones; irrational fears; and hypervigilance. More information about PTSD can be found here: http://www.ptsdinfo.org/
Plenty of returning veterans are resilient and don’t succumb to PTSD, but others do — the levels of stress endured in war are different for everyone. And just because you might have PTSD doesn’t mean you’re not tough or strong or able to do your job – in fact, it takes a tough person to admit that they need help when they’re struck with this.
In his new DVD, “PTSD & Veterans,” Frank actually calls a PTSD diagnosis “hopeful,” because people who have PTSD alone have an excellent chance of going on to lead good lives. Coming from him, it should put a lot of people’s minds at ease. He and other therapists have been studying the disorder for at least three decades, and there are now so many techniques to pry this injury out of the psyche and deal with it directly — or indirectly — that a returning war veteran does not have to become the memory he or she fears, but instead can have control over it.
A bit about Frank Ochberg: He founded the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma; an organization called Gift From Within; the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies; PTSDinfo.org; and other organizations which work hard to end human cruelty — or at least make us all better people.
You can check out a portion of the video, or order a copy of the video here: http://www.giftfromwithin.org/html/video13.html#13
There’s so much known about these types of injuries now. So many therapists know how to deal with PTSD, and proper treatment can make the difference between someone who is broken and someone who will become whole once again.
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