PTSD/CTE

[Dory]

This is a very real disease.

Absolutely! Thank you for posting this, BklynMom. I'm sure there's plenty of military families going through these same circumstances in our M, it hadn't even occurred to me how prevalent an issue PTSD could be within this community.

Although I would like to point out that PTSD isn't exclusive to military personnel. There's also a reasonable rate of diagnosis among survivors of child abuse, with symptoms sometimes not manifesting until much later in adulthood.

The good news is that there's some relatively new breakthroughs in understanding how to treat the disorder and reduce symptoms, if not eliminate the symptoms altogether. EMDR (Eye Movement desensitization and Reprocessing) looks like a very promising treatment for PTSD. It is not fully understood on how it works, the science just isn't there yet. Due to the brain's plasticity, it's theorized that since we can develop new neural pathways, EMDR can weaken the offending pathways and help the patient restructure the brain's neural connections. But then again, I don't think it really matters too much on how it works, just that it does work.

One of the reasons PTSD is much more prevalent in Iraq/Afganastan Vets vs. Vietnam Vets is IUDs and surviving blasts.

Personally, I think this is debatable. I don't think current war veterans are any more or less susceptable to the condition as those in past wars; I believe the increase in rate of diagnoses could be better explained by the reasearch and understanding of the affliction over the past few decades. Of course, this is just my opinion.

I am certainly no expert on brian trauma but I urge all spouses of vets to do some serious investigation into the problem through google and the military. Get your spouse the same help you would if they had cancer.

I couldn't have said this ^^^^ better. Thanks, BklynMom.