How many active military personal suffer from Post Traumatic Stress? And how are they treated for it?
402592
The historical rate of PTSD is about 15% of soldiers exposed to combat get it.  Apparently the war in Iraq is producing cases of PTSD at this rate.  \n\nHow it is treated depends on the individual and the symptoms.  Generally the patient will see a psycologist who will then develop a treatment program.\n\nFrequently - educating the patient about what is happing, why it is happening and training him/her in coping skills will resolve the majority of the symptoms.  Other patients go to regular group therapy sessions where they assist and are themselves assisted by other patients.\n\nSome require medications to cope with secondary symptoms such as depression or sleeplessness.
198453
If this is the case and there are records of these things, it is possible that you may not be eligible for military service.\n\nPrior drug used and the bipolar disorder, not the scars.  \n\n-  First off, is there a record of the drug use?  If not, the only way they will find out is if you tell them.  If you have had treatment for this, it is not likely they will find the records.  Be adivsed you will be tested for drugs. If you test positive after you are in, you will be treated like a criminal and discharged with a bad record.  So dont go there\n-  Bipolar disorder will disqualify you from military service if it results in a permanant 3 profile or they know about it before you enlist.  You might get in without them knowing.  However, if this problem manifests while you are on active duty you will have to be evaluated for continued active duty.  Likely you will have to meet a Medical Evalutation Board and then a Physical Evaluation Board.  If your problem is classified as EPT (existed prior to service) you will be discharged with no benefits.  Consider how bad this is and weather or not you can deal with the rigors of military service, dont put yourself in a no-win situation if it will be to much for you.
883941
It depends on a number of factors, for instance whether the person has received appropriate treatment. \nIt is possible to recover from PTSD which is a syndrome (a collection of symptoms occurring at the same time), that can be the result of having been in a (perceived) life-threatening situation.\nHowever, even when the person no longer meets the diagnostic criteria for PTSD (s)he may very well still be suffering from the emotional and/physical trauma that caused the PTSD, and the person can still be experiencing, for instance, depression and anxiety.\nI hope this was helpful.
498797
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for certain psychological consequences of exposure to, or confrontation with, stressful experiences that the person experiences as highly traumatic. [1] These experiences can involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury, or a threat to physical and/or psychological integrity. It is occasionally called post-traumatic stress reaction to emphasize that it is a routine result of traumatic experience rather than a manifestation of a pre-existing psychological weakness on the part of the patient.\n\nIt is possible for individuals to experience Traumatic Stress without manifesting a full-blown Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as indicated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.\n\nSymptoms of PTSD can include the following: Nightmares, flashbacks, emotional detachment or numbing of feelings (emotional self-mortification or dissociation), insomnia, avoidance of reminders and extreme distress when exposed to the reminders ("triggers"), irritability, hypervigilance, memory loss, and excessive startle response.\n\nExperiences likely to induce the condition include:\n\nchildhood physical/emotional or sexual abuse \nadult experiences of rape, war and combat exposure (the latter often called combat stress reaction) \nviolent attacks \na serious motor accident \nWitnessing the sudden death of a loved one \nnatural catastrophes, such as an earthquake or tsunami \nlife-threatening childbirth complications \nFor most people, the emotional effects of traumatic events will tend to subside after several months. If they last longer, then diagnosing a psychiatric disorder is generally advised. Most people who experience traumatic events will not develop PTSD. PTSD is thought to be primarily an anxiety disorder, and should not be confused with normal grief and adjustment after traumatic events. There is also the possibility of simultaneous suffering of other psychiatric disorders (i.e. comorbidity). These disorders often include major depression, general anxiety disorder and a variety of addictions.\n\nPTSD may have a "delayed onset" of years, or even decades, and may even be triggered by a specific body movement if the trauma was stored in the procedural memory, by another stressful event, such as the death of a family member or someone else close, or by the diagnosis of a life-threatening medical condition.\n\nAlso, doctors have conducted clinical studies indicating traumatized children with PTSD are more likely to later engage in criminal activities than those who do not have PTSD.\n\nBackground\nPsychological distress after trauma was reported in 1900 BCE by an Egyptian physician who described hysterical reactions to trauma (Veith 1965). Hysteria was also related to "traumatic reminiscences" a century ago (Janet 1901). At that time, Sigmund Freud's pupil, Kardiner, was the first to describe what later became known as post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (Lamprecht & Sack 2002).\n\nHippocrates utilized a homeostasis theory to explain illness, and stress is often defined as the reaction to a situation that threatens the balance or homeostasis of a system (Antonovsky 1981). The situation causing the stress reaction is defined as the "stressor", but the stress reaction, and not the stressor is what jeopardizes the homeostasis (Aardal-Eriksson 2002). Post-traumatic stress can thus be seen as a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters, according to stress theory.\n\nHowever, PTSD per se is a relatively recent diagnosis in psychiatric nosology, first appearing in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1980. It is said development of the PTSD concept partly has socio-economic and political implications (Mezey & Robbins 2001). War veterans were to a great deal incapacitated by psychiatric illness, including post-traumatic stress in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. However, they had difficulties rece
628780
If you have not experienced PTSD, it's hard to explain the feeling.  If you know any older citizens who served in the Gulf War,  Vietnam War or even World War II, for instance, you can ask them about being "shell shocked", or PTSD.  For some people it never goes away.  I know from experience (an almost fatal auto accident that crippled me and took my professional life away at no fault of my own) that it's still there, under the surface, after 5 years.  However, I made myself get in the car and deal with it.  I think your b/f is on the right track and I'm impressed that he's willing to face his greatest fears.  You go ahead and encourage him every way you can and let him be a man and have a full life again without being co-dependent on anyone else.  He doesn't need to be an emotional cripple. What would he do if you weren't there to drive him??  He'll be proud of himself before long.  A pat on the back goes a long way.  So he might have stressful moment or two; he can learn to deal with it and get stronger and should continue to get professional help as long as he needs it.  He probably is feeling guilty as hell because he lived; not to mention every thing else involved.  Let him go...give him a nudge and hold him when he needs it.  Encourage him to help others with this problem.  Helping is great healing therapy for him and others.  He'll be living with this for a long time.  God bless you both.
693086
When I was in Iraq, I didn't have any combat experiences, but we were mortared/rocketed a lot, dealt with VBIEDs and IEDs, etc.  I too was jumpy when I first got home, but only for a couple of months.  I was pretty irritable for awhile, but now I am back to my "normal" level of crankiness.  I had a lot of problems sleeping -- it took me a long time to fall asleep at night and I was tired most days.  That has also resolved.
983505
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat.\n\nEncourage your mom to get counselling, and to see a doctor.  There are medications that, while they will not get rid of the memories and the experiences, they may help reduce the amount of fear and pain she is feeling-medications may be able to help her sleep and to help her anxiety/depression.  Counselling, especially with a therapist who is skilled in working with Gulf War veterans, is also very important to help her work through what she saw and experienced over in Iraq.\n\nI have PTSD from non-military issues, and it can be a very scary disorder to live with.  Memories of the trauma can come back unnpredictably and sometimes the strangest things can trigger the memories-a certain smell or day on the calendar. \n\nI also know it can get better-and while some people can get past PTSD on their own, most need help from a doctor, therapist and possibly a psychiatrist.  Your mom will probably need help from all three, given the severity of her symptoms.\n\nThe links below desribe PTSD a bit more and give tips on how to help.  Don't forget to also take care of yourself and be gentle with yourself during this time-you may also want to explore counselling to give you a safe outlet to express some of your feelings over what your mom is going through.
347666
Check out MedLinePlus.gov site and type in PTSD on the SEARCH box, it will give you all the information you need.  Hope this helps.
773164
PTSD is a serious form of anxiety, your specialists should be able to prescribe medicine to help with the symptoms on the short term.  If not and you think it would help seek out a new doctor.   Also I think you would benift greatly to learn some self meditation techniques and maybe some breathing excercises.  They help alot in the long term and the more you practice the more natural it becomes.  Here is a great site, I think it's called all about depression but it has some good excercises that work for anxiety as well.\n\nhttp://www.allaboutdepression.com/relax/
368088
I'm a Marine who fought in Iraq.  I'm out now, but you could say I'm lonely in a much different way.  After returning to civilian life, few people understand life in the military, let alone a war.  They don't know what it's like to be shot at, to be the hunter, to be the prey.  It's hard to relate to people sometimes.  But, best to our troops that are fighting the fight now, and for their fight to come.
728567
Most of the treatment is Veterans only, but there are counseling and support programs for the spouses and children of disabled and traumatized veterans.\n\nSome of the VA Hospitals also host psychological and counseling programs for the families of veterans on active duty in war zones. \n\nIf we are going to demand a vast, wartime army, it is our responsibility to provide for the care of the Veteran after the war.
1112205
I don't think it's necessarily the military that makes men unable to communicate their emotions. I think the military (especially the USMC) tends to attract the sort of people who tend to withold their feelings, i.e., the macho types.\n\nThe military does offer a lot of resources for mental health for problems like PSTD and depression. But it's up to soldiers to recognize they have problems before they can get help.\n\nIn your case, your guy has trouble articulating his feelings. It could be that he's too immature to describe what he's feeling, or that he's just being macho and think tht feelings are or wimps (happens to a lot of folks). I doubt it's the USMC that's keeping him from opening up.\n\nJust coax it out of him slowly. Let him know that it's okay to describe things in small, simple bits. The more he practices describing his thoughts and feelnigs, the better he will be with it.
1070214
As a survivor I think that that not only is PTSD something you can control, I believe that it can be life altering and in a good way.  Through all the usual "stuff" of a survivor (i.e., therapy, sometimes medications, therapy, meditation, therapy....well you get the picture) if you can learn to take what happened to you and all the "fallout" from it and make it work for you it can end up being much more a whole person.  After all the years one spends in pain and turmoil there has to be a payoff and knowing oneself and knowing how to make the best of a very un-best situation can be the flip side of the "blackness".  It is all up to you and, although it is not even close to a picnic, it can make you strong and so very much together.
1102279
I was married to a Marine...after any major deployment all you had to do was go to a bar or club, to see all the wives that were crying as the bus left, with another Marine to keep her company.  It is a HUGE problem.
317977
don't worry about stuff like that until you know for sure, my husband is infantry and he has lost 8 guys with about 12 seriously wounded, if i was scared all day long, i would be crazy by the time he came home, plus, i have been there, not infantry but transportation, and i can picture his day to day life right now, so it is hard, but hang on, he will be home soon.  Also, I deal with it this way, if my husband does not make it home,  i know he was doing something he thought was right and wanted to be there and i would honor him for that.   go to the department of defense website, they list causalties. the address is dod.gov/releases/
81474
all are very treatable.the diabetes and ptsd may be the limiting factors.but even these ,if properly treated can give you a somewhat normalife span. but the diabetes will probably do you in a little earlier.\nbut what the hell you're still alive.the time you have left is gravy.i know several who didn't come back alive.
494651
He needs therapy and medicine. And a lot of love and patience, if you can muster it. His reaction is common to battle experienced veterans. I'm not in the military, but I'm sure he has a military doctor he can consult with. \n  War is Hell. That is a fact, and every war is the same: Hell.  \n  Being shot is a horror. It's not something that anyone can get over quickly. \n  The best thing for him would be to get OUT of there ASAP and start therapy stateside. If that is possible.............. Battle induced PTSD does appear to lessen with time, but not in all cases. Prozac REALLY helps the condition. \n  Here are two sites that should be helpful: http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ \nhttp://www.ptsdalliance.org/