Veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Mental health is a level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness. It is the "psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment". Wikipedia When dealing with mental health there are a lot of topics and disorders like, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and suicide just to name a few. Mental health disorders or mental illness are A wide range of conditions that affect mood, thinking, and behavior. Anybody can experience any of this mental illness even people that are within the military. Soldiers and veterans aren't given the proper resources to help them with their mental health. Post-traumatic stress disorder also known as PTSD is one of many health conditions that occurs when a person has experienced or witnessed something horrific.

PTSD can be caused by anything that deals with trauma which can include sexual or physical assault, natural disasters, or even just military combat. PTSD has been talked about for years now, the first case goes back to the Greeks and then within the American Civil War, PTSD was more noticeable than ever before, the soldiers experienced lots of trauma and ended up having physical and emotional injuries. According to Reisman (2016), The symptoms and syndrome of PTSD became increasingly evident during the American Civil War (1861“1865), left those who survived with a myriad of physical and psychological injuries. Also the Civil War was the first atempt to start diagonostics and treatment. Reisman (2016) states The Civil War also marked the start of formal medical attempts to address the psychological effects of combat on military veterans.

If soliders back then were experincing these conditions and giving sorts of treatments where is the evidence in which these treaments are working and also how is it that the number of suicide rates are still increaseing in veterans. According to the National Center for PTSD, there are 4 symptoms of PTSD. The first one is reliving the moment, which is a flashback of the event that a veteran had experienced. This usually comes from a trigger that reminds a person of what they had gone through. The second type is avoiding things that remind you of the event. In the web document Understanding PTSD and PTSD Treatment, an example was provided for someone who was assaulted should avoid crowded places because being around so many people can feel dangerous. The third symptom is having more negative thoughts and feelings than before. In this case, people's emotions are low and they don't have the same feelings or interest in certain activities. The last symptom is feeling on edge, which is hyperarousal and that is keeping people jittery. If these symptoms are noticeable something should be put in place that can help people deal with this mental illness.

PTSD can affect anybody but I want to talk about how it affects people within the military and also veterans. It is estimated 500,000 of this generation of wounded veterans live with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Another 320,000 suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). That is a lot of wounded veterans dealing with both PTSD and TBI. I got hooked on watching this show called Grey's Anantomy and on the show we were introudced to a U.S. Army trauma suregeon named Owen Hunt. On the show Dr. Hunt has a secret: he suffers from PTSD. In the episode: Elevator Love Letter, Owen is asleep and he is having nightmares about the war which is triggered by the blades of the ceiling fan going around and around, in that moment he doesn't know that he is choking his girlfreind: Christina Yang which she concludes to Owen that he is suffering from PTSD. Owen then seeks conusling. From watching this show and now writing a paper on PTSD I wonder if veterans take in to conderation that what they have can cause serious problems like the one Dr. Hunt went through.

I believe that some veterans are scared to seek help or just don't want it or the treatments that they have been provided don't really work. Suicide is an issue that people in this soceity dont really talk about. Fox states from NBC news that Veterans are twice as likely as civilians to die by suicide, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday in its latest report on suicide. Veterans make up more than 14 percent of all suicides, although they account for only 8 percent of the total population. Wow this is surprsigly I never knew that the largest portion of people who take their lifes by suicide is the veteran population until reasearching on this topic. With dealing with PTSD in veterans they have different treatments and organizations that can help with this illness, one organization that provides treatment for PTSD is the Wounded Warrior Project which is a charity organization that was designed to help wounded veterans.

On their website, they have stated that veterans and service members who incurred a physical or mental injury, illness, or wound while serving in the military on or after September 11, 2001. You are our focus. You are our mission. Here, you're not a member “ you're an alumnus, a valued part of a community that's been where you've been, and understands what you need. Everything we offer is free because there's no dollar value to finding recovery and no limit to what you can achieve. (We Serve Injured Post 9/11 American Veterans & Service Members | WWP. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/mission). I love that this organization values and supports the veterans to come in and seek help from others that have been through the same thing. The wonded warrior project has an outside workshop that is called Project Oddsey. Within the two different proejcts you have All-Male or Female Project Odyssey and Couples Project Odyssey both go through a 90 day program in which to help these veterans challenge theirselves, over come their feers, with partipicating in outside activities while bonding with the project oddsey staff, other veterans and also trained counselors. Once the program is finished the staff follows up for 3 months and still gives support. Does every veteran know about this one program, does your superior tell you about different kinds of treatment and organazation you can check yourself into.

While researching I came upon a treatment that might be suprisignt to eveerybody. Studies have been shown that they are now trying to use Ecstasy as a treatment for people with PTSD. Phillips (2018) stated Research published Tuesday in the British journal The Lancet Psychiatry found that after two sessions of psychotherapy with the party drug, officially known as MDMA, a majority of 26 combat veterans and first responders with chronic PTSD who had not been helped by traditional methods saw dramatic decreases in symptoms. If this is possible how would this generation of veterans and past and future ones be affected by this? Would this turn into a drug addiction for them?

There are many questions that can come from this and if this treatments is brought into the society who would be resposinble if this gets out of hand. If approved by the F.D.A., MDMA would only be administered by a licensed therapist. First, a patient goes through three sessions of psychotherapy. In the fourth session, the patient takes a pill. Phillips (2018). If the treatments go wrong what happens? Would these veterans have to sign a consent form or anything? Overall soldiers and veterans are most likely given the proper resources to help them with their mental health but it still doesnt matter if the suicide population is increasing. I believe that every veteran should be check if they have a mental illness regardless if they want the help or not. The armed forces mission is to protect and serve right? So is that mission still implied after they have left the forces?

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