What Is Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. The symptoms of the injury can vary. Mild or moderate TBI symptoms can include mood changes, trouble with concentration, headaches, difficulty with sleep, and reduced motor coordination. Severe TBI can cause greatly reduced or lack of motor control, greatly reduced ability or inability to speak, and restlessness or agitation.
There are three main types of TBI that doctors consider:
- Mild TBI that occurs when a person loses consciousness for 30 minutes or less
- Moderate TBI a person loses consciousness for more than 30 minutes but wakes up within 24 hours
- Severe if they remain unconscious for 24 hours or longer.
- TBI does not always cause loss of consciousness. Someone with a mild TBI may not lose consciousness but they can experience confusion while awake.
- TBI symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder can overlap. The effects of TBI may impact the way a person reacts to PTSD symptoms, therefore, treating the person with a comprehensive approach is best.
- Even in the military, TBI is not always caused by explosions or blasts. Military training, physical exercise, or engaging in off-duty sports can expose servicemen and women to potential TBI.
- All injuries are not the same and every TBI diagnosis must be treated differently. Two people can be involved in the same event but have different symptoms.
What Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Posttraumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, or rape or who have been threatened with death, sexual violence or serious injury.
PTSD has been known by many names in the past, such as shell shock during the years of World War I and combat fatigue after World War II, but PTSD does not just happen to combat veterans. PTSD can occur in all people, of any ethnicity, nationality or culture, and at any age. PTSD affects approximately 3.5 percent of U.S. adults every year, and an estimated one in 11 people will be diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime. Women are twice as likely as men to have PTSD. Three ethnic groups U.S. Latinos, African Americans, and American Indians are disproportionately affected and have higher rates of PTSD than non-Latino whites.
People with PTSD have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that last long after the traumatic event has ended. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares they may feel sadness, fear or anger and they may feel detached or estranged from other people. People with PTSD may avoid situations or people that remind them of the traumatic event, and they may have strong negative reactions to something as ordinary as a loud noise or an accidental touch.
Symptoms Of Ptsd In Veterans
While you can develop symptoms of PTSD in the hours or days following a traumatic event, sometimes symptoms dont surface for months or even years after you return from deployment. While PTSD develops differently in each veteran, there are four symptom clusters:
Suicide prevention in veterans with PTSD
Its common for veterans with PTSD to experience suicidal thoughts. Feeling suicidal is not a character defect, and it doesnt mean that you are crazy, weak, or flawed.
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What You Need What You Need To Know
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder has always been a potential result of time spent in military service. After World War I, many returning soldiers were called shellshocked, a polite term that largely covered the symptoms that today we would recognize as being PTSD.
Those filing a VA Disability claim for PTSD may be worried about how to prove a disorder that may feel difficult to provide concrete evidence of. Dont worry. When you work with a legal representative who has experience in VA claims for PTSD, you will be working with a partner who has been down this road before.
First, youll submit all the evidence you have when you initially file your claim, establishing service-connection right from the start. Report any CIB, Combat Action Ribbon, Purple Heart, or decoration for Valor , or for Vietnam veterans, use the information off your DD-214 to list your tours.
Youll be asked to describe the stressors that lead to your Military Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and its important to emphasize specifics. It may be difficult to think or speak about the traumatic event, but the more information you provide the VA from the outset, the more able they will be to come to an accurate conclusion as to your PTSDs service-connection.
Be sure to include any and all medical records that relate to the traumatic event, injuries sustained if any, or resulting PTSD.
Ptsd As A Result Of Military Sexual Trauma
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder after military service can be caused by many things: exposure to violent events, grievous injury, or even the day-to-day realities of a uniquely stressful life. One type of PTSD that is far too rarely discussed? PTSD as a result of Military Sexual Trauma .
Military Sexual Trauma is far more than direct sexual assault as defined by Veterans Affairs, military sexual trauma includes sexual assault and also repeated, threatening sexual harassment that occurs while the veteran in question was a member of the military.
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Ptsd Symptoms: What Affected Veterans Experiences
Individuals with PTSD experience a diverse array of symptoms, and veterans with a diagnosis of PTSD may face several kinds of challenging thoughts and feelings. However, PTSD is generally characterized by a few distinct categories of symptoms, which mental health professionals use to assess and treat the disorder.These symptom categories, as described in the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , capture the kinds of mental health problems that veterans with PTSD experience to differing degrees. These DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for PTSD are widely accepted in psychiatry and related mental health fields. To understand the daily struggles that PTSD can entail or to assess whether you might be experiencing this condition yourself consider the following:
Risk Factors For Ptsd In Veterans
A number of factors have been shown to increase the risk of PTSD in the veteran population, including younger age at the time of the trauma, racial minority status, lower socioeconomic status, lower military rank, lower education, higher number of deployments, longer deployments, prior psychological problems, and lack of social support from family, friends, and community . PTSD is also strongly associated with generalized physical and cognitive health symptoms attributed to mild traumatic brain injury .
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Problems Associated With Combat Stress & Trauma
Exposure to combat and operational stress can leave emotional scars that linger after deployment. While every individual reacts differently, some problems service members and veterans may notice after combat or operational stress are listed below.
- Anger or Aggressive Behavior
- Although anger is a natural and healthy emotion that may have helped you do your job while deployed, intense anger can scare people and push them away. Aggressive, hurtful behavior can also cause problems with family, friends, co-workers, and the legal system.
Many Vietnam Veterans Still Suffer From Ptsd Decades Later
Philip Paolini served four years in the Vietnam War as a marine. In the years since then, he’s faced a number of hardships, including post-traumatic stress disorder , substance abuse and homelessness.
And Paolini’s story is far from uncommon. New research shows that four decades after the Vietnam War ended, more than 270,000 veterans who served in the war zone suffer from symptoms of PTSD, a mental health condition characterized by painful flashbacks, severe anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts about the disturbing events they experienced.
The study, published online Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, also found that at least one-third of those veterans exhibiting symptoms of PTSD suffer from major depression, as well.
Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center followed up with Vietnam War veterans who had participated in a study from 1984 to 1988. Of the 1,839 men and women still alive from the original study, over 1,400 participated in at least one phase of the new study, which involved a health questionnaire, health interview and clinical interview.
The study authors used three different scales to measure PTSD. Depending on the method, the results suggest that between 4.5 percent and 11.2 percent of the male Vietnam veterans and 6.1 and 8.7 percent of the female vets are experiencing serious PTSD symptoms today.
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What Do I Do If I Get Triggered
Try the RID tool:
First, do something to help yourself Relax
Second, identify what the trigger is . Then identify hownow is different from then .
Third, decide what to do. For example, if being in a crowd upset you, recognize that this crowd isnot hostile: maybe youre celebrating. You can decide to stay in the crowd and see that youare safe now.
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Ptsd In Iraq And Afghanistan Veterans
PTSD is a significant public health problem in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom deployed and non-deployed Veterans and should not be considered an outcome solely related to deployment.
This study finds that 15.7% of OEF/OIF deployed Veterans screened positive for PTSD compared to 10.9% of non-deployed Veterans. Overall 13.5% of study participants screened positive for PTSD.
Researchers determined if Veterans screened positive for PTSD by looking at survey answers to the PTSD Checklist Civilian Version . The PCL-C is a screening instrument routinely used in VA.
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Yes You Absolutely Can Develop Ptsd Without Ever Seeing Active Combat
PTSD develops as a result of exposure to traumatic events, and as we saw earlier when going over the basics of PTSD, there is a lot of variation to what types of trauma linger in this way.
After the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, more than 15,000 American military servicemembers were sent to help with the cleanup and recovery efforts. Soldiers who returned after serving as part of Operation Unified Response had, in many cases, been exposed to potentially traumatic events that could lead them to develop PTSD, even though combat was never part of their duties there.
Physical assaults, military sexual trauma, non-combat accidents, and the deaths or suicides of fellow soldiers are all non-combat situations that can lead a veteran to develop Military Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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A Short History Of Veterans And Ptsd
The PTSD/ war relationship is deep and generational. From as far back as the times of the Mesopotamian civilizations, veterans with PTSD have existed. Although we may assume that PTSD existed before that point, the ancient Sumerians were the first to have a written record, in the form of the Epic of Gilgamesh, of soldiers and former soldiers being affected by memories of their experiences war. The memories did not always need a physical injury to be given to the soldier himself typically, it was enough to just have an intense fear overcome them suddenly or be met by the sight of a fellow soldier being killed in combat. In Roman poet Lucretiuss work De Rerum Natura he recounts this information as given to him by Hippocrates, a Greek physician. In this poem, he also speaks of how frightening dreams are also common experiences among former soldiers.
Even Shakespeare seemed to have some knowledge of PTSD, as many scholars believe that his character of Henry IV displays symptoms or common thoughts and feelings among those suffering from PTSD.
During the end of the 1790s, psychiatrist Philippe Panel was recorded as the first person to formally give a name to PTSD, though he did not specifically call it. Panel referred to it as cardiorespiratory neurosis and used that term to diagnose individuals who suffered from PTSD because of the violence and the events of the brutal French Revolution.
What Symptoms Are Associated With PTSD?
Avoidance Symptoms
Avoidance symptoms include:
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Ptsd Is Not Just For Veterans Its A Trauma Disorder That Affects Millions
Research shows that individuals who suffer with post-traumatic stress disorder, better known as PTSD, have experienced severe trauma at some point in their lives. The trauma could come in the form of sexual assault, a natural disaster, a car accident or anything that would prompt someone to have a harrowing reaction.
However, many believe that PTSD is a mental health condition that affects only those who have come back home from war, but this is not the case.
We must see PTSD, and other trauma-related disorders, as mental health issues that face many survivors of human rights violations, said Tina Kempin Reuter, associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birminghams College of Arts and Sciences and director for UAB Institute for Human Rights. Whether theyre survivors of genocide, ethnic cleansing, racial or ethnic persecution, and other forms of direct and indirect violence, many of these individuals continue to battle their traumas across their lifetime.
PTSD affects 3.5 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or approximately 8 million Americans who live with the condition. Approximately 37 percent of people diagnosed with PTSD display serious symptoms.
Symptoms can include flashbacks, night sweats, insomnia, panic attacks, and isolating themselves from friends and family.
Many who experience PTSD also may struggle with suicidal ideation and may attempt to take their life.
How to cope with trauma
Tips & Resources For Helping Veterans With Ptsd
During their time serving our country, military personnel can encounter many kinds of traumatic events. Millions of veterans will carry that trauma with them, resulting in a condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition thats triggered by a terrifying event either experiencing it or witnessing it, according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.
PTSD in veterans is a serious issue, but many former service members and their loved ones do not know how to identify the condition or seek treatment. Because PTSD affects mental health and can be hidden, it can be difficult for health practitioners and other individuals to gauge its severity. Additionally, PTSD in veterans is often misunderstood by the public to be a condition that only affects combat veterans or those who have encountered violence firsthand. And even those who understand PTSD in veterans and its potential long-lasting harms still may not know all of its wide-ranging symptoms.
Included here are tips, tools and resources that can help friends and families of veterans who may be suffering from PTSD. Ideas range from offering assistance to veterans after they have returned home from service, encouraging former service members to seek mental health treatment and simply having friendly conversations with veterans to see how theyre feeling.
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Veterans Mental Health And Post
When it comes to veterans, mental health issues encompass a wide range. The psychological effects of war on soldiers extends beyond responses to trauma and can result in an array of other mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Some of this is due to the experience itself, while other times, post-war mental illness is a result of a traumatic brain injury incurred during service.
Its important to note that mental illness does not only affect the veteran but their family as well. Many soldiers have spouses, and nearly half have children who are under 18. Ina review of parental deployments published in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, researchers found a strong incidence of behavioral and psychological issues among children who had a parent who served or is serving in the military. And the stress of post-war trauma can reach even further, affecting not just children and spouses but parents, siblings, and other extended relatives.
The costs of war arent relegated solely to veterans, and this is especially true when mental illness is involved. Many of the symptoms of PTSD in particular, such as anger and isolation, have marked effects on a veterans loved ones, who may or may not understand the psychology of what is going on.