- Joined
- Dec 14, 2005
- Messages
- 1,704
- Reaction score
- 10
- Location
- New Hampshire
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Conservative
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been with me for 43 years. Associated symptoms of the disorder began developing soon after the first traumatic adolescent (age 11) beatings from the hands of my father.
The personal traumatic coup de grace came during one year of combat in Vietnam. So I have had about 34 years as an adult to ponder the psychological nuances that make up my emotional , somatic and disassociate distortions.
I was admitted into a locked psychiatric ward of a Veterans Hospital in 1973. There they kept me pumped up with liquid valium so as to help calm the nerves. The final diagnosis there (before PTSD) had been ‘Extreme Anxiousness’.
It wasn’t until 19 years later after that first psyche ward experience that I reentered the wonderful world of institutionalized living. This new inpatient stay was a 1992 PTSD cohort, 4 months in duration at another VA Hospital. This particular program refused to administer psychotropic drugs to any of it’s patients.
The hospital staff substituted individual and group PTSD coping classes in lieu of psychotropic/anti-depressant drugs. Classes consisted of music therapy, relaxation therapy, psycho drama, writing/biographical therapy, knowing your father, dream study, debating techniques, oral review, life focus, 10 steps to letting go, trauma revelations, acting in a play, art therapy, and anger management.
I left that first PTSD cohort in 1992. Since then I have been admitted into numerous 3-week PTSD inpatient tune-ups at various VA facilities. Here your personal psychiatrist tries to create a psychotropic drug profile on you, so as to fulfill his or her primary work-related obligation. Just my luck that I had always been assigned to the most impersonal shrinks’ of the entire VA system. Their motto for after your release from the program, seems to be to prescribe mind altering drugs first, and later let the out patient psychologists iron out any nagging emotional problems while you’re still somewhat comatose from the after affects of a 3-week drug intake.
We PTSD combat veterans had to walk a fine line while playing the VA game. Most of us have financial obligations with families or with paying child support etc. We knew that we would never again be able to function properly in society. We all have had problems staying married or in maintaining viable employment. So our first basic instinct was to file a claim for PTSD, then to prove to the VA that we are unfit to join in with society by being perpetually unemployable. Once we secured the 100% total and permanent disability rating with it’s financial security, we were then free to seek proper coping and treatment plans for each individual’s precise needs. Until the 100% service connection became final, we were subjected to taking every known anti depressant and sleep medicines available so as to make the medical paper work look more promising for a favorable outcome in front of the adjudication board.
My symptoms from the force feeding of psychotropic drugs had escalated. I was substituting one pill in lieu of a promise that another state-of-the-art drug would guarantee the cure of my ills. Weaning off of the sleep pill Ambien only created more difficulties as I began to have extreme panic attacks. Bottom line, I do not trust psycho drugs, and they do nothing to address the real emotional, somatic, and dissociate problems that I have had. In fact, my symptoms worsened because of the drugs.
I am drug and alcohol abuse free today. I tend to engage in a regimented personal exercise program. Exercise is the greatest stress release option available. All psychological/emotional problems are handled by confrontation.
For Example: Many traumatized victims (including myself) tend to avoid socializing. I joined a writers’ group where each person reads aloud their 2 or 3 page personal story in front of others, so as to get grammatical feedback on every aspect of your work. I’ve gone from being an in my bunker recluse--to engaging in public discourse at various venues.
Just like there is no cure for Down’s Syndrome--there is no cure for PTSD. The level of debility or seriousness to each affliction is only measured in how much desire you have to personally fight and conquer it’s most trying symptoms.
The personal traumatic coup de grace came during one year of combat in Vietnam. So I have had about 34 years as an adult to ponder the psychological nuances that make up my emotional , somatic and disassociate distortions.
I was admitted into a locked psychiatric ward of a Veterans Hospital in 1973. There they kept me pumped up with liquid valium so as to help calm the nerves. The final diagnosis there (before PTSD) had been ‘Extreme Anxiousness’.
It wasn’t until 19 years later after that first psyche ward experience that I reentered the wonderful world of institutionalized living. This new inpatient stay was a 1992 PTSD cohort, 4 months in duration at another VA Hospital. This particular program refused to administer psychotropic drugs to any of it’s patients.
The hospital staff substituted individual and group PTSD coping classes in lieu of psychotropic/anti-depressant drugs. Classes consisted of music therapy, relaxation therapy, psycho drama, writing/biographical therapy, knowing your father, dream study, debating techniques, oral review, life focus, 10 steps to letting go, trauma revelations, acting in a play, art therapy, and anger management.
I left that first PTSD cohort in 1992. Since then I have been admitted into numerous 3-week PTSD inpatient tune-ups at various VA facilities. Here your personal psychiatrist tries to create a psychotropic drug profile on you, so as to fulfill his or her primary work-related obligation. Just my luck that I had always been assigned to the most impersonal shrinks’ of the entire VA system. Their motto for after your release from the program, seems to be to prescribe mind altering drugs first, and later let the out patient psychologists iron out any nagging emotional problems while you’re still somewhat comatose from the after affects of a 3-week drug intake.
We PTSD combat veterans had to walk a fine line while playing the VA game. Most of us have financial obligations with families or with paying child support etc. We knew that we would never again be able to function properly in society. We all have had problems staying married or in maintaining viable employment. So our first basic instinct was to file a claim for PTSD, then to prove to the VA that we are unfit to join in with society by being perpetually unemployable. Once we secured the 100% total and permanent disability rating with it’s financial security, we were then free to seek proper coping and treatment plans for each individual’s precise needs. Until the 100% service connection became final, we were subjected to taking every known anti depressant and sleep medicines available so as to make the medical paper work look more promising for a favorable outcome in front of the adjudication board.
My symptoms from the force feeding of psychotropic drugs had escalated. I was substituting one pill in lieu of a promise that another state-of-the-art drug would guarantee the cure of my ills. Weaning off of the sleep pill Ambien only created more difficulties as I began to have extreme panic attacks. Bottom line, I do not trust psycho drugs, and they do nothing to address the real emotional, somatic, and dissociate problems that I have had. In fact, my symptoms worsened because of the drugs.
I am drug and alcohol abuse free today. I tend to engage in a regimented personal exercise program. Exercise is the greatest stress release option available. All psychological/emotional problems are handled by confrontation.
For Example: Many traumatized victims (including myself) tend to avoid socializing. I joined a writers’ group where each person reads aloud their 2 or 3 page personal story in front of others, so as to get grammatical feedback on every aspect of your work. I’ve gone from being an in my bunker recluse--to engaging in public discourse at various venues.
Just like there is no cure for Down’s Syndrome--there is no cure for PTSD. The level of debility or seriousness to each affliction is only measured in how much desire you have to personally fight and conquer it’s most trying symptoms.
