PTS Fact Sheet:
Summary of Veterans Statistics for PTS, Depression and Suicide.
- there are over 2.3 million American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (compared to 2.6 million Vietnam veterans who fought in Vietnam; there are 8.2 million “Vietnam Era Veterans” (personnel who served anywhere during any time of the Vietnam War)
- at least 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have PTSD and/or Depression. (460,000 veterans with PTS and Depression)
- 50% of those with PTSD do not seek treatment
- out of the half that seek treatment, only half of them get “minimally adequate” treatment (RAND study)
- 7% of veterans have both post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury
- rates of post-traumatic stress are greater for these wars than prior conflicts
- in times of peace, in any given year, about 4% (actually 3.6%) of the general population have PTSD (caused by natural disasters, car accidents, abuse, etc.)
- recent statistical studies show that rates of veteran suicide are much higher than previously thought. The U.S. military acknowledged that suicides hit a record in 2012, outpacing combat deaths. An estimated 22 veterans committed suicide in America each day in 2010, according to a report released Friday by the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs.
- PTSD distribution between services for OND, OIF, and OEF: Army 67% of cases, Air Force 9%, Navy 11%, and Marines 13%. (Congressional Research Service, Sept. 2010)
- recent sample of 600 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan found: 14% post-traumatic stress disorder; 39% alcohol abuse; 3% drug abuse. Major depression also a problem. “Mental and Physical Health Status and Alcohol and Drug Use Following Return From Deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.” Susan V. Eisen, PhD
- More active duty personnel died by own hand than combat in 2012 (New York Times).
- The wives, husbands, children, family and friends of the 460,000 recent veterans with PTS and Depression enlarge effects this problem into the millions. Historically, data show that veterans who suffer from PTSD are likely to experience “difficulties maintaining emotional intimacy,” and have a “greatly elevated risk of divorce.” Children of deployed parents, even those as young as three, have been shown to have increased behavioral health problems compared with children without a deployed parent. Deployments may also lead to an increase in the rates of child abuse in military families.
PTS: Simple and Complex
Steve Andreas
The term PTSD is sometimes applied very loosely to any unpleasant memory of an event that continues to trouble someone. Having a deprived childhood, repeated failure in school or business, or being dumped by a lover may be very unpleasant, but it is not usually a life-threatening event. The DSM 5 criteria for PTSD are fairly specific: an exposure to a terrifying life-threatening event, followed by multiple symptoms that persist and don’t resolve over time.
Bill was driving the lead Humvee in a convoy in Iraq when an IED exploded by the roadside, killing several men in the vehicle. Ever since this, Bill has had trouble sleeping because of nightmares reliving the explosion, and frequent daytime flashbacks whenever he hears a loud noise. Since then he has been isolated, drinking too much, feeling depressed, and sometimes exploding into rage.
Bill’s experience satisfies all the DSM 5 criteria for PTSD: The core of PTSD is essentially a phobic response to the terrifying event itself, and can usually be successfully treated using the RTM phobia cure, in which Bill can learn how to view the event as if he were an uninvolved bystander seeing himself going through it from the outside. This is the core of PTSD, and for some sufferers, that’s all there is. The description of John, in chapter 7 ofHeart of the Mind, (pp. 61-63) is an example. One session with the phobia cure resolved all his symptoms.
However, there may be many other aspects that contribute to PTSD, and these are often confused with the core phobic response, even by “experts” in the field. These additional aspects are very different from the core phobic response, and each requires a different intervention to achieve resolution. Some of these are closely associated with the incident itself, while others occur before or after the traumatic event. Let’s explore Bill’s experience further to illustrate these additional aspects.
Aspects closely associated in time. Bill knew that a pop bottle at the side of the road could be a marker for an IED, but he chose to ignore it, so he feels regret for not stopping, and constantly berates himself for his poor judgment, and feels guilty for the deaths that resulted. Bill’s best buddy was killed in the Humvee explosion, and Bill is grieving this loss. In the frenzy of the attack that followed, Bill shot at anything that moved, including two women and several children, and he feels great shame about having caused their deaths.
Aspects that developed afterward. Bill’s legs were severely damaged in the explosion, and had to be amputated, so Bill is also grieving this loss of many different treasured sports and activities. In addition he has TBI, and he is depressed by the formidable task of adapting to these disabilities. He was engaged to a woman with whom he was intensely involved. When she found out about his injuries, she dropped him like a hot rock, and it was as if a part of him died, depriving him of love and support when he needed it most. This is when he started drinking too much, and his rages became worse and more frequent.
Aspects that developed beforehand. Long before Bill joined the army, he suffered repeated verbal (and some physical) abuse from his father, and he internalized this voice, which constantly criticized him no matter what he did. Bill had spent almost a year in the red zone, under constant threat of attack 24/7. The constant anxiety had already made him habitually hypervigilant, sleeping poorly, and reacting instantly to any surprise by becoming fully alert and ready to respond with violence. Bill entered the army as an idealistic gung-ho warrior, but he had already become disillusioned by the gritty reality of war, and had decided that it was a tragic and futile waste, making his burdens utterly meaningless.
Regret, grief, guilt, shame, physical disability, loneliness, insomnia, rages, drug use, self-criticism, depression, generalized anxiety, hypervigilance, violence, disillusion — all of these (and more) may be part of what is often called PTSD. Each of these tends to make the other aspects worse, in a “perfect storm” that often seems to the sufferer to be part of one confusing and tangled ball of chaos and emotional instability. To work successfully with this it is vitally important to be able to separate the different aspects and work with each using different processes that are appropriate.
There are a great many PTSD sufferers, and there is a desperate need for rapid and effective ways of working with them. Most current treatment approaches are simplistic and grossly ineffective. When I asked an Iraq vet I worked with recently about her previous 5 years of treatment, she said:
“I think I saw 8 or 9 different shrinks, and all they wanted to do was give me meds, and then they had all these stupid things they wanted to do, like a tapping thing where you thought about the war and they did this tapping thing, and that was supposed to make it lessen. And they had this finger thing, follow the finger while you thought about the bad — it was stupid! That didn’t do anything; it just kind of pissed me off — and then off to the next shrink. That was a waste of my time… . I like having tools [that I taught her] now because they didn’t give you any of this when we came back… Now I have a way to cope with everything — something to do at least to make it better.”
Frank’s PTS 9-11 Work:
Frank worked in NYC from September 2011 to August 2012. He had responsibility for the psychological rehabilitation of 850 survivors of the AON Corporation all of whom were above the 100th floor of the World Trade Center and 250 of whom had severe PTS symptoms. It was during this time that he realized the effectiveness of the RTM protocol and the need for its’ widespread utilization for traumatized clients.
Nearly a Quarter of New York Veterans Face Mental Health Challenges; More Coordination of Resources Needed, Study Finds
January 26, 2011 (Albany)—Military veterans from New York state who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are at high risk for mental health problems, according to a new study conducted by the RAND Corporation and funded by the New York State Health Foundation.
Nearly a quarter of veterans (22 percent) in New York State were found to have a probable diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and/or major depression. Compared to similar individuals in the general population, the veterans studied were at an eight-fold greater risk of probable PTSD and a two- to four-fold greater risk of major depression.
While many services are available to those in need, more than 40 percent of veterans report being unaware of what help is available or uncertain about how to navigate the systems that provide assistance. Outreach to connect veterans with services and better coordination among government and community agencies is needed, according to the study, which is the first to look at the needs of returning veterans and their families in New York State.
“This study underscores that many returning veterans have mental health needs that require substantial attention from both the Department of Veterans Affairs and other service providers in New York State,” said Terry Schell, the study’s lead author and a senior social scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “While many services are available, more needs to be done to make sure veterans get the help they need.”
Since October 2001, approximately 2 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and an estimated 85,000 of the troops have returned to New York. Previous national research by RAND has shown that returning veterans are at high risk for mental health disorders and other types of impairments following deployment. (2013 estimates 22,000 PTS affected Veterans in NYS).
“Veterans who have served our country deserve a health system that is easy to understand and easy to access,” said James R. Knickman, president and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation. “This study helps us to understand where there are gaps in services. It should be a priority for the Veterans Administration to improve outreach and coordination of services for all veterans in need.”
The study found that 26 percent of veterans were unsure how to get answers for their questions about treatment. In addition, almost half of the veterans surveyed indicated that they prefer to receive services in the community rather than through the VA system.
In contrast to the high rates of PTSD and depression among veterans, the rate of veterans’ illicit drug use was lower than in the general population, and alcohol misuse was similar to the rate found among comparable individuals in the general population. However, a considerable number of veterans misuse alcohol and might benefit from treatment, according to researchers.
The study also assessed the needs of veterans’ spouses. Spouses reported experiencing several challenges after their veterans return from deployment. Nearly half reported problems dealing with their veteran spouse’s mood changes and 42 percent were worried about the possibility of future military deployments.
RAND researchers say one clear finding from the study is that veterans’ health and well-being are the responsibility of more than just the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans are frequently using providers from government-run programs other than the VA and from the civilian health care system.
“The needs of veterans are not addressed solely through the VA,” said study co-authorTerri Tanielian, co-director of the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research. “Veterans need services that may be better accessed through private providers, non-profit organizations or public health programs. These different systems must work together with the VA to provide veterans access to high-quality, coordinated care.”
Researchers recommend more effort be put into connecting veterans with care coordinators who can provide personalized assistance across a range of service sectors. The existing system often misses the veterans most in need of outreach — those who have not yet enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration.
The study focused on people living in New York state who deployed overseas, then returned to the community. Unlike most other studies of veterans, RAND researchers drew from all veterans across the state, not just those receiving services from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Researchers surveyed 913 veterans and 293 spouses of veterans from New York, and conducted six focus groups of veterans and their family members across the state. In addition, they documented services for veterans that are currently available in New York state.
The report, “A Needs Assessment of New York State Veterans: Final Report to the New York State Health Foundation,” can be found at
www.rand.org. The study is part of the New York State Health Foundation’s Initiative for Returning Veterans and Their Families, which aims to advance solutions to address the needs of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.
RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation, is the nation’s largest independent health policy research program, with a broad research portfolio that focuses on quality, costs and health services delivery, among other topics.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. To sign up for RAND e-mail alerts:http://www.rand.org/newsletters.html. RAND is a registered trademark
The New York State Health Foundation is a private Foundation dedicated to improving the health of all New Yorkers. NYSHealth has a three-part mission: expanding health insurance coverage, increasing access to high-quality health care services, and improving public and community health by educating New Yorkers about health issues and empowering communities to address them. It was established with charitable funds from the privatization of Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
New York State Health Foundation 1385 Broadway, 23rd Floor | New York, NY 10018 | 212-664-7656
Moral guilt:
- The “elephant in the room” with recent veterans mental problems is the lack of meaning in the recent “discretionary wars” and the effect wars hell has on individuals who do not believe in the underlying purpose of the conflict. See the articles below.
The true Author/Authors of this are not known by Veterans PTSD. This article was found on a Facebook Page:
The Research and Recognition Project-The Road Back. We did, however, find the results interesting. We do not endorse, nor support, the findings without knowledge of their legitimacy. We do believe the that the authors intentions are on the right-side of the topic. Please take what you wish from this, and leave the rest behind. #TYFYS
