Vets, PTSD, and Depression

  • An estimated 300,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars — nearly 20 percent of the total returning troops — suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression.
  • Coping with PTSD in family members can be difficult, and studies have shown that families where a parent has PTSD are characterized by more anxiety, unhappiness, marital problems, and behavioral problems among children in the family as compared to families where a parent does not have PTSD.
  • People with PTSD may experience higher levels of anger than most of us and in some cases may not be able to handle or control it.
  • Researchers have found that a new approach called Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy resulted in significant reductions in PTSD symptoms for military service members after an average of just seven treatment sessions.

Recommended Websites

The Soldier’s Project (thesoldiersproject.org) — a private, non-profit group of volunteer licensed mental health professionals who provide free counseling and support to military service members who have served or who expect to serve in the Iraq and/or Afghanistan conflicts, and to veterans of those conflicts.
MyBackToTheWall — for children with PTSD Parents
VeteransChildren.com — this site has everything for parents that suffer with Combat PTSD
PactPTSD.org — great for children and active duty parents that suffer from PTSD
RealWarriors.net — help for building resiliency
Comprehensive Solider Fitness — psychology tools for soldiers, leaders and families
PTSDMedication.com
LivingWithPTSD
MyCombatPTSD.com
FamilyOfAVet.com
PTSD.gov

Recommended Books

The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
In The PTSD Workbook, two psychologists and trauma experts gather together techniques and interventions used by PTSD experts from around the world to offer trauma survivors the most effective tools available to conquer their most distressing trauma-related symptoms. Readers learn how to determine the type of trauma they experienced, identify their symptoms, and learn the most effective strategies they can use to overcome them.

Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops 
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in our returning combat troops is one of the most catastrophic issues confronting our nation. Yet, despite the fact that nearly 20 percent of the over half million troops that have left the military since 2003 have been diagnosed with PTSD, and that many who suffer symptoms are unlikely to seek help because of the stigma of this terrible disease, our government and media have remained silent.

Down Range: To Iraq and Back
Trauma changes people: It changes values, priorities, worldviews, and most of it changes how we relate to others. Painful, life-threatening experiences take people beyond the normal day-to-day life, leaving them stuck behind defensive walls that keep them from re-entering the world they have always known as home. So how does it happen? How do we lose the loving closeness with those around us? And better yet, how do we re-gain what pain has robbed us of? Down Range is not only a book explaining war trauma  it is required reading for anyone seriously interested about how to make healthy transitions from war to peace. Bridget C. Cantrell, Ph.D. and Vietnam veteran, Chuck Dean have joined forces to present this vital information and resource manual for both returning troops and their loved ones. Here you will find answers, explanations, and insights as to why so many combat veterans suffer from flashbacks, depression, fits of rage, nightmares, anxiety, emotional numbing, and other troubling aspects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Purple Hearts: Back from Iraq
A Purple Heart is the token honor given to soldiers for their wounds. It makes them heroes. It is the title that Nina Berman has given to her photographs of American soldiers gravely wounded in the Iraq war, who have returned home to face life away from the waving flags and heroic send-offs. The images are accompanied by first-person interviews with the soldiers, who discuss their lives, reasons for enlisting, and experience in Iraq. They provide a glimpse into the myths of warfare as glorious spectacle through the minds of young men desperate to believe in the righteousness of their actions.

Resilience Trilogy
Military institutions (including supporting civilian contract agencies) are wrestling mightily with tragically high suicide, post traumatic stress, and mental disorder incidence rates; as well as what some would term “an unraveling of military families.” All the Military Services are devoting significant resources and leadership focus towards programs and protocols that mitigate these alarming trends. They are making progress, but the challenges are daunting. For all the Services, “bouncing back” (soon to be defined as resilience) has surfaced as a highly relevant and desirable characteristic for those facing the challenges of protracted and globally pervasive conflict.