2nd Annual 24-hour PTSD Awareness Event This Weekend

The second annual worldwide "Be Fearless!" event to raise awareness, educate the public and banish stigma about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will be held online on November 6, 2010.

The 24-hour event, hosted by Fearless Nation PTSD Support, Inc., a nonprofit organization hailing from the USA, will focus on fact-based PTSD information and two simultaneous live stage events with internationally popular musicians and DJs. People from around the globe can attend the event via Second Life, the virtual online community. The entire "Be Fearless!" event will be broadcast live online through the Fearless Nation website.

The "Be Fearless" event begins at 00:00 Pacific Coast Time (-7 GMT/UTC) on November 6 and will run for 24 hours.

Visit the links above for more information!

'Violin Doc' helps treat PTSD with music

At a New Jersey VA clinic, Dr. Mary Rorro is helping vets with PTSD by playing music. The goal: help the vets to relax before they begin talk therapy.

Music therapy is gaining acceptance, based in part on some new research:

"...recent findings from McGill University’s Neuropsychology department suggest that specific parts of the brain are activated when patients listen to music which they like. And when the nucleus accumbens and the caudate nucleus, which are part of the reward, motivation and emotion systems, get jazzed up, a person starts feeling better. These same circuits release powerful chemicals when someone falls in love, eats good food, does drugs or has sex."

Rorro, nicknamed the "Violin Doc" (despite the fact that she plays a viola) says that live music, played slowly on lower-pitched instruments, with no lyrics and with a steady beat, connects best with the people she is treating.

You can read more about this, and watch some videos of Rorro playing, here, thanks to New York's WNYC:

Music Therapy Helps Vets Control Symptoms of PTSD