Treatments For Veterans With PTSD

In 2004 an American soldier named Carlos Huerta returned home from serving in Iraq.  Carlos served as a Chaplain in the military and therefore had the difficult responsibility of telling families about their loved ones passing away at war. After a couple years the images of the battlefield still haunted Huerta, making him feel as if he had never returned home (4). Huerta suffered from a disease called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a common disease affecting veterans. “PTSD is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event.  Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event (5).” One in five veterans or currently active soldiers has or will experience PTSD (1).  Many PTSD victims are mistreated by caretakers after diagnosis, resulting in one-third of those affected never fully recovering.  Active soldiers should be routinely tested for PTSD symptoms upon arriving back home by the government. To prevent soldiers or veterans diagnosed with PTSD from getting worse over time and leading to later serious problems, the government should implement group psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy.  This strategy would help reduce the tragedies that result from PTSD such as depression, substance abuse, divorce, suicide, and homelessness.
 
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, if untreated can lead to the destruction of a veteran’s life due to haunting memories eating away at an individual and influencing their everyday attitude and outlook on life.  Although many soldiers come back home and continue living their lives as they did before, this is not always the case.  When Huerta returned home from the war in Iraq he knew that his life wasn’t the same and that he had a problem but he decided to not be open about it.  Many soldiers have a “stick it out” attitude that they develop while serving and Huerta was no exception (4).  He felt that suppressing his painful memories was the key to them going away and his life going back to normal (4).   Some soldiers come home as drastically changed people due to one or many traumatic events that they experience while overseas.  Huerta admits to being haunted by images such as seeing a mother hang herself, being covered in the blood of an Iraqi child, and having to tell families that someone important to them had passed away.  There have been many cases of veterans not being diagnosed with PTSD when they actually have it and other cases of not receiving the proper treatment for the disease.  When a veteran has PTSD and doesn’t do anything to treat it, the disease tends to get worse over time since holding these painful memories inside eats away at someone (1).  One day, five years after Huerta returned home from the war, he began to experience feelings of claustrophobia and chest pain which he compared to as having a heart attack (4).  After visiting a doctor’s office and speaking to mental health specialist Huerta was diagnosed with PTSD.  This shows that the condition must be treated eventually and attempting to combat it by staying quiet is ineffective.   Common results of depression and anxiety that result from the disease are suicide, becoming homeless, divorce, and an overall decrease in a satisfactory life.  Statistics show that 18 veterans commit suicide every day and fifty percent of current homeless veterans have a serious mental illness such as PTSD (1&2).  Huerta states that “I cannot say that a piece of me at one time did not wonder if the world, my family, would have been better off without me (4).”  Huerta also admits to purposely not trying to get too close to his new babies when he got home because he didn’t want to become personally attached and then be deployed again (4).  The personal relationships of Carlos Huerta’s life were deeply affected as a result of his condition.  PTSD needs to be taken more seriously by our government so there are less cases of veterans being untreated and suffering through hard times when they come home.  The people who risk their lives to protect our country are often finding themselves in negative states of mind due to a poor testing and treatment system.  Every soldier should be tested for it routinely while overseas and when they get home in order to prevent tragedies that tear apart lives and families.

When a veteran or a soldier is diagnosed with PTSD they should be required to return home and receive government compensation so they can participate in group psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy without worrying about their financial situation.  Since the veterans wouldn’t be distracted by their duty’s at work they would be able to put all their effort and concentration into combatting their disease.  

Group psychotherapy with other veterans has been found to be the most effective treatment for veterans that were recently diagnosed with the disease (3).  Group psychotherapy is when a group of people who are dealing with similar problems share their experiences and help each other through the problems that they are dealing with.  This kind of treatment allows the victims to feel secure because they are around people who have experienced similar traumatic events.  There is a sense of unified empathy and trust in this type of group therapy which allows everyone participating to feel comfortable sharing their experiences.  Group therapy is helpful because everyone involved feels as if they are all working towards the same goal and are there for each other.  This unity helps reduce the amount of loneliness and helplessness that many PTSD victims typically feel. Huerta said that when he came home he felt like “something important was stolen from me and there was nobody I could talk to about it except the guys I was over there with (4).”  Huerta explains that even though everyone had different experiences the one thing that they shared is that they all felt like they were different from people who were not in the war. The sense of unity in group therapy with other veterans is something that is nonexistent in one on one therapy.  Huerta says that he and the over veterans he talked to were “reluctant about “officially” talking to someone (4).”  It’s been pointed out that it’s hard for veterans to trust a professional therapist to the same extent since they didn’t go through the same experiences first hand (3).  


While PTSD victims are participating in group psychotherapy they should also be receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy which instructs the patients on how to help themselves get over the disease.  This kind of therapy involves the therapist and patient creating goals together and the patient doing “homework exercises” that emphasize what was discussed during a section (3).  The therapist teaches the patient skills that are necessary to know in situations such as being tempted by substance abuse and effectively communicating with people (3).  Huerta did not receive this kind of treatment but it would have benefitted him immensely since he was unable to effectively communicate with his family about the events that were bothering him.  Huerta talks about feeling guilty due to delivering devastating news to families during his time as a chaplain.  Huerta expresses that “I know I can’t change their (families related to dead soldiers) pain, but I can change mine and the pain I inflicted on my family due to war (4).”  If Huerta had participated in cognitive-behavioral therapy then he would have most likely been a better communicator and not put his family through as much stress as he did.   Other skills that are taught include self-talk and relaxation that can help prevent a PTSD victim from having an episode like the one Huerta experienced. One of the most effective methods of cognitive-behavioral therapy is exposure therapy.  This involves facing the memories of the traumatic event and learning to not fear it.  If this method is effective the patient will eventually be able to return to the place where the traumatic event occurred and not be phased by it.  


Through the support of fellow veterans that also have PTSD and learning how to control and manage thoughts through cognitive-behavioral therapy, the cases of PTSD causing serious life problems for veterans should decrease.  Veterans like Carlos Huerta admit that soldiers are reluctant about admitting they are suffering from PTSD (4).  Due to Huerta not being tested and treated for the disease he spent many years of his life being haunted by frightening memories with no one to help him cope with his problem. Our government needs to act on this epidemic that has plagued our veterans war after war and caused the deterioration of lives and families by installing a routine testing and treating system for the disease.


Bibliography
(1) "What Many Veterans already Know and You Should." Quick Facts about PTSD. Expedition Balance, 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

(2) "FAQ About Homeless Veterans." National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

(3) Cohen, Harold. "Psychotherapy Treatment for PTSD | Psych Central." Psych Central.com. PsychCentral, 2006. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

(4) Huerta, Carlos. "Leaving the Battlefield: Soldier Shares Story of PTSD."WWW.ARMY.MIL. US Army, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

(5) "Post-traumatic Stress Disorder." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 08 Apr. 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.