PTSD passed on from one generation to the next

Writing for Indian Country Today Media Network, Beverly Cook (Wolf Clan Mohawk) discusses how acts of genocide perpetrated upon Native Americans has passed "toxic stress" down the line from one generation to the next and how the evils of the past continue to hurt the people of today:

Toxic stress experienced by children can alter their brain, their genes and organ development if they do not have the caring support of an adult. So a young girl’s childhood experiences, her health and her diet will not only effect the outcome of her future pregnancies but also can effect her future grandchildren. She is not alone in this as the genes that come from the father have also been imprinted by his childhood and his environment in his mother’s womb. Combined, the mother and father lay the groundwork for their baby to grow and still the actual outcome can change depending on the environment in the womb. Imagine no worries or concerns, having nutritious food, adequate exercise, a loving partner, happiness and peace. The baby would form itself based on that particular environment as opposed to an environment laced with anger, fear, frustration or grief.

Read more here:

The Toxic Effects of Stress on American Indians

Fearless Journalism: How Violent Sex Helped Ease My PTSD

http://www.good.is/post/how-violent-sex-helped-ease-my-ptsd/Journalist Mac McClelland covers the human rights beat for Mother Jones magazine, and the experiences of her profession led to her developing PTSD. Here's her account, for Good magazine, about how it affected her. It's fearless journalism, and not easy to read, but well worth your time:

How Violent Sex Helped Ease My PTSD

Driver's ed to cope with PTSD

This is an excellent article about the challenges people with PTSD face while driving, and what one VA hospital is doing to help:

Palo Alto's VA Hospital offers driver's ed to cope with PTSD

96% of 9/11 Survivors Suffer PTSD Symptoms

A survey of 3,271 evacuees of the World Trade Center found that almost all of them -- 95.6% -- had displayed at least one symptom of PTSD.

A full 15% of survivors tested positive for PTSD in the 2-3 years following 9/11.

"PTSD risk was greater among survivors who experienced serious life threat as defined by location in the towers, time of evacuation initiation, or dust cloud exposures," said the study's first author, Laura DiGrande, in a prepared release. "As one would expect, individuals who were exposed to several of the most troubling and life-threatening events during the disaster were at the greatest risk of PTSD."

The study found a few interesting statistics: lower-income survivors were more likely to develop PTSD, as were blacks and Hispanics. People whose employers were killed also seemed to develop PTSD at a greater rate.

Meanwhile, exactly what each of these survivors encountered seemed to affect their changes of developing PTSD. Some where injured, some saw "horror," others were caught in the dust cloud, some were on very high floors of the Twin Towers. Those who experienced more than one of these situations had significantly greater levels of PTSD, to the point where the authors could even come up with a mathematical formula for the risk of PTSD based on the number of factors the individuals encountered.

The study appears in the online edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The full paper is behind a subscription firewall, but you can read the abstract here.

University of Connecticut Tries New Approach to Educating Vets with PTSD

This is one of the most interesting and in-depth articles about the troubles vets with PTSD have re-integrating into society that we've seen in a while. Take this passage about one vet who tried to start taking classes:

Looking to continue the physical discipline of the Army, Matt enrolled in a six-month program to become a personal trainer. However, his conduct in the classroom caused his classmates to recoil and ultimately keep their distance. He repeatedly buttonholed them to listen to his ravings and tales from Iraq. He screamed at the television when an Arabic speaker came on and jumped when someone dropped a pan in the training school’s pantry.

He was a stocky, sinewy soldier, with a martial arts Ultimate- Fighting-Championship build, who always donned the same GI-Joe cartoon T-shirt and stocking hat. He had a brooding and sullen stare and remarked, incessantly and uncontrollably, on the stressors of his war experience as his one and only life experience. His classmates gave him the nickname “McMurphy” after Jack Nicholson’s iconoclastic, charismatic mental patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

“Those guys on the side of the road with the cardboard signs — I can see how they get there,” Matt says. “I’m afraid of losing everything I came home to.” The 35-year-old soldier bitterly calls himself a poster child for PTSD.

To help better understand how to offer education to people with PTSD, the University of Connecticut is studying a new technique called Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET). The two-year study will be funded by a $750,000 grant from from the U.S. Justice Department, and the school is seeking 90 male vets to participate.

The study will put half of the participants through "traditional" therapy ("prolonged exposure" therapy, which we haven't actually heard as having many good results), while the rest will be taught techniques to increase skills for controlling anger and other emotions.

Click the link above to read more.

Lethal Warriors: New Book Examines How PTSD Turned Veterans Violent

The Atlantic magazine has an excellent review/essay about the new book Lethal Warriors, about how PTSD can make soldiers self-destruct and turn violent.

You can find out more about the book itself here:

Children Can Get PTSD from Their Parents

A Canadian study focusing on the families of returning vets indicates that parents can pass PTSD along to their children.

"Isolation, depression and trauma are among the symptoms soldiers pass on to their kids, according to preliminary results from a Canadian study," according to a report on the study at the website Parent Dish. Kids also risk "physical abuse, emotional neglect and unpredictable rage."

The study was very small -- just four teenagers whose parents, three of whom had PTSD, had served in recent conflicts, but it echoes other studies and real-world examples we've heard too much about.

Read more:

Children Getting More PTSD, Less TLC From Parents Returning From War

Fly fishing: A learning experience for people with PTSD

A program called Project Healing Waters is teaching veterans fly fishing as a way to potentially control the symptoms of their PTSD.

In Hot Springs, South Dakota, the program, taught by Korean War veteran Jim Phoenix, who told the Rapid City Journal "You have to have a little humor to go along with it. We don’t dwell on their battle problems."

Clinical social worker Loree Greco has brought the Healing Waters program to the Hot Sprints PTSD clinic. She told the newspaper, "It teaches them to look at power and control differently because you can’t just hurry and bully this. It takes time to learn the technique. A lot say they can't trust anyone. Through this process, they can trust others. The world isn't black and white anymore; they start seeing trust on a continuum."

Check out that link above for more on the program in South Dakota, or visit the main Project Healing Waters website to learn more and find a program near you.

Monitoring prison officers with PTSD

According to a recent article from The Associated Press, a number of veterans returning to work in the States have found jobs as prison guards. And that can set them up for a fall.

Police and corrections officers are loath to show weakness, and few seek help to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, said Caterina Spinaris Tudor, founder of Desert Waters Correctional Outreach in Canon City. She said PTSD developed abroad can be retriggered on the job by varying scenarios, including assaults, hostage situations or suicides by inmates or fellow officers.

But prison officials in Colorado, New Jersey and other states are looking at this as a problem that can be addressed, and are adding counselors to help corrections officers to deal with their PTSD and the stress of their jobs.

Read all about it at the link above.

Accupuncture as treatment for PTSD

A unique program at Camp Lejeune called the Wounded Warriors Battalion brings helps vets with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries through acupuncture, all at no cost to the veterans or the Marines. Soldiers interviewed in this article say the treatments help them to deal with stress, anger, and memory issues.

Compassion Fatigue -- Similar to PTSD

Oprah.com looks at the growing condition of "compassion fatigue" -- something experienced by many nurses, but also by people caring for loved ones.

Unlike burnout, which is caused by everyday work stresses (dealing with insurance companies, making treatment choices), compassion fatigue results from taking on the emotional burden of a patient's agony.

In a way, it's similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, except that the stress is a reaction to the trauma of another. As with PTSD, symptoms include irritability, disturbed sleep, outbursts of anger, intrusive thoughts, and a desire to avoid anything having to do with the patient's struggle.

Read more here.