CitizenSugar -- Breaking News, Together.

Farm Offers Horseback Riding Therapy For Vets with PTSD

LibertySugar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:00:52 -0700

A New York farm is offering horseback riding as a form of therapy to veterans suffering from mental and emotional wounds like post-traumatic stress disorder. The farm offers veterans free horseback-riding lessons, as a way for them to relax and take their minds off their memories of war. Participants say the calm helps reduce anxiety.

Seaside Therapeutic Riding says that the horse and human bond is renowned for its healing quality, and that a horse's non-judgmental acceptance allows students, including veterans and disabled adults and children, to learn and to grow. The therapy is popular — the farm currently has a waiting list, and relies on donations to give the experience to more veterans.

The horse riding therapy sounds much more comforting than the Iraq war simulation video game therapy, which calls for prolonged virtual-exposure to the source of the trauma (including smells and sounds). Which idea sounds more promising to you?

Source

Study Finds Long-Term 9-11 Stress in Lower Manhattan

CitizenSugar — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:00:35 -0700

Coming up on the seventh anniversary of September 11, the New York City health department wanted to know how those affected are coping today. They released findings from the first study to assess 9-11's long-term effect on mental health today.

The results illuminate the day's lingering impact and the staggering difference between those living near the World Trade Center compared with the rest of Manhattan.

One in eight Lower Manhattan residents reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — 12.6 percent — three to four years after the attacks. Considering within six months only 1 percent of Manhattan as a whole reported PTSD symptoms, this is a significant finding. To see what else they found,

Painful Solution — Self-Harm Rising Among Desperate Soldiers

CitizenSugar — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:30:13 -0700

A pen in a stomach. A bullet in the toe. A jump off a roof. These incidents all end with a trip to the ER, but never in a tour of Iraq. For soldiers desperate to avoid a repeat tour in the Middle East, these "accidents" are missions accomplished.

Self-harm is a rising, and alarming, trend among soldiers headed to Iraq — especially those on their second or third trip. "Some soldiers," said Col. Kathy Platoni, an Army Reserve psychologist, "will do almost anything not to go back."

It's a shocking, though sadly not new, trend. To see when it began,

Wounded Soldiers' Barracks Located Right in the Line of Fire

CitizenSugar — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:00:58 -0700

At Fort Benning, GA, recovering soldiers housed in the newly constructed "warrior transition" barracks have an additional challenge piercing recovery. Many of the soldiers suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the real estate adage about location applies here in full force — the recovery barracks are situated 200 yards from one of the Army infantry's main firing ranges.

Gun fire hails morning and night, hampering recovery for those afflicted. One such soldier who spent a year with an infantry platoon in Iraq and emerged with a diagnosis of PTSD said, "You hear a lot of shots, it puts you in a defensive mode. My heart starts racing and I get all excited and irritable [it] puts me back in that mind frame that I am actually there." Another said, "it makes me crazy. It makes me jump and I get flashbacks." To see what the Army says,

Grand-Theft Auto It's Not. Video Games Ease Soldiers' PTSD

CitizenSugar — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:00:52 -0700

Soldiers and Marines are iron tough in battle — though the biggest enemy they face sometimes doesn't show up until they get home. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or major depression afflicts nearly 20 percent of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. One-half don't seek treatment. But a new treatment, Virtual Iraq, allows troops to delve into their trauma without landing on the couch.

With many soldiers avoiding treatment out of fear of stigma, a customized version of the best-selling videogame Full Spectrum Warrior has become a promising option. Since 2005, the Department of Defense has poured funding into it and two other virtual-reality programs targeting PTSD. And psychologists like JoAnn Difede — who treated Sept. 11 victims with a similar program called Virtual WTC — are hopeful. She said:

You don't have to do any work. You don't have to engage in any mental effort. We'll do it for you and then, gradually, we'll let you get involved in the experience in sensory detail.

Slow and steady wins the race with this therapy. A patient's readiness to move on must be carefully assessed. Looking at an Iraqi street scene may begin and end the first session, but slowly sounds and smells and actions are added. It can take months.

How is this even helpful? To see how,

Soldier Suicide Deaths Could Surpass Combat Deaths

LibertySugar — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:30:41 -0700

The harsh reality that suicides may outnumber combat deaths among those who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq is prompting preventative action.

Yesterday, the head of the National Institute on Mental Health offered depressing figures to the American Psychiatric Association. Of the 1.6 million troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, almost 20 percent show symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, or both. They estimate that 70 percent do not seek treatment for these conditions, which can lead to substance abuse and suicide. Mental health professionals, who treat veterans, were urged to proactively recognize and treat such symptoms.

In a hopeful move, last week the Secretary of Defense announced that military personnel seeking help for PTSD will no longer get that positive action counted against them for security clearance purposes.

In addition, some want a PTSD diagnosis to make a servicemember eligible for the Purple Heart, bringing the hidden wound out of the shadows.

Are you aware of this long-term cost of war? Do members of society have an obligation to support returning veterans? If so, how can we fulfill such duty? Are you happy to see that both the military and mental health professionals are trying to address the psychological scars of warfare?

Source