Healing Combat Trauma

Drug-Free Breathing and Relaxation Study for Veterans with PTSD

Here's a study that may be of interest to veterans with PTSD who are in the Bay Area (San Francisco). Biofeedback is a useful technique in the stress-management toolkit. It's hard to say whether it will really help with PTSD but learning it will help with stress levels in general; and there are other ways to learn it/practice it even if you can't be part of the study. More on that separately.

From the study description:

Have you experienced a traumatic event? Do you experience:

• Recurrent dreams or memories of the event?
• Avoidance of people, places, or things that remind you of the event?
• Hypervigilance or are easily startled?
• Difficulty falling or staying asleep?

If you have any of these or similar symptoms, you may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

You may be eligible to participate in a drug-free Breathing and Relaxation Therapy study using a biofeedback device at no cost.

The study is conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the VA Health Care System, Palo Alto. Services provided to participants include free psychiatric and physiological evaluation. Financial compensation also provided. To participate in the study you must be between ages 18-65

For general information about participant rights, contact 1-866-680-2906

For further information, please contact (650) 493-5000 ext 69995 or [email protected].

Embracing the Warrior Spirit: Native Americans and Storytelling for Healing

Did you know that "large numbers of Native Americans enlist for military service and represent the highest per capita enlistment of any ethnic group in the United States?" It's true. 

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Administration for Native Americans, "Tribes view service, sacrifice, and courage as important values and part of an individual’s journey to becoming a leader, protector, and agent of change for his/her family or tribe."

I'd heard through the grapevine that a national museum devoted to Native American culture had a special exhibit about warrior veterans telling their stories. The Smithsonian exhibit, "Native Words, Native Warriors," is still on tour, through 2011. (In January through July of 2011, it will be at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.) Find out more about the exhibit, here.

In the meantime, I've uncovered some good resources about Native American warriors as veterans, and the extent to which their culture celebrates them and welcomes them home.

From the National Museum of the American Indian (part of the Smithsonian), a "workbook" online called "Coming Home: Strength through Culture."

From a segment entitled, "Healing after the War": 

"According to American Indian traditional beliefs, war affects a soldier’s well being, and makes it difficult for him to live in the everyday world. For American Indians, returning home means returning to a place — a land, a community, a family, and a culture — that you are part of, a place that you have a special relationship with. Participating in war interferes with your ability to be part of this place. It upsets the balance of life. This is why American Indian cultures have special ceremonies to help bring the soldier’s life back into balance — to make it possible for the soldier to once again live in peace and to be physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally healthy."

From a segment entitled, "Giving Honor to Veterans":

"American Indian communities remember their veterans’ sacrifices forever. Veterans are always respected and honored. Sometimes they are remembered in special songs that are sung in their honor. Native people often go to veterans for advice because they have strong mental abilities as a result of their many experiences. Depending on the community, veterans are given special prominence at different kinds of tribal events. For example, at powwows veterans always lead the grand entry of dancers. They carry the American Indian Eagle Staff, the flag of the United States, their tribal flag, and other important banners. Veterans are recognized and honored on special occasions with ceremonies and dances that relate their sacrifices to the community. For example, the Comanche Gourd Dance honors veterans. Sometimes a family member or a friend might hold a special dance or ceremony to honor a veteran. These are the lasting traditions that show respect to veterans for what they have done for the people."

In another section it describes how a Native American Marine Corps veteran of World War II, Navajo Code Talker Carl Gorman, experienced a ceremony upon returning home that helped allow him to put the past behind him and move on with his life:

"After the war, Carl Gorman returned home to Arizona for a short time. Even though he had been raised as a Christian, he talked about how the traditional Navajo ceremonies for warriors became important to him: "I didn't have a ceremony when I came home," he said. "I didn't quite believe in it anymore. A medicine man that was an old friend suggested that I have one, but I didn't have the money to pay him to perform it. He agreed to do a one-night sing over me for free. I participated in the sing and felt a great weight leave my mind and body. I felt very rested afterwards. I realized then that I needed to make peace with what I had experienced during the war." (Navajo Weapon by Sally McClain, 2001)

And from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Administration for Native Americans, an entire resource guide online about storytelling for Native American veterans. Segments include:  

• The healing power of stories;
• Tips on using storytelling for healing (with facilitation questions);
• Native American service in the U.S. military;
• Resources for Native veterans; and a
• Native American Veterans: Storytelling for Healing DVD that can be ordered, here.

We'll be developing this segment more in the weeks and months ahead, but for now this should provide some useful resources to start thinking about Native Americans and ceremony -- particularly storytelling -- for healing in community.

Editor's note: The painting at top is "First Furlough," by Native American artist Quincy Tahoma.

One Very Easy, Doable Meditation Exercise: Soft-Belly Breathing

There's a very simple, straight-forward meditation that those of us who attended the "Healing the Troops" program as part of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine's practitioner training and advanced training sessions learned. It's called "Soft Belly Breathing," and in a few minutes you can master it. All meditation helps with stress reduction, so whether you want to pursue learning meditation more thoroughly as a practice, or whether you just want a simple tool you can use to reduce anxiety and stress, this meditation is worth trying...if only to see how simple it is. The instructions are linked here. 

Editor's note: The Center for Mind-Body Medicine's "Healing the Troops" program is linked here.

Quotable Quotes -- Jon Kabat-Zinn on Meditation -- and -- Healing

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., is familiar to viewers of the Bill Moyers' PBS series, "Healing and the Mind," from the early 1990s. He brought "mindfulness" or "mindfulness meditation" to the attention of the U.S. public through that series, focusing on his work at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He's also the author of a number of books, including "Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness," from which the following two quotes are taken.

And here's what he has to say about healing:

"Healing is a coming to terms with things as they are, rather than struggling to force them to be as they once were, or as we would like them to be, to feel secure or to have what we sometimes think of as our own way." -- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.

And here's what he has to say about the power of meditation, which is part of how we are able to reach that equanimity:

"More than anything else I have come to see meditation as a radical act of love, an inward gesture of benevolence and kindness toward ourselves and toward others, a gesture of the heart that recognizes our perfection even in our obvious imperfection, with all our shortcomings, our wounds, our attachments, our vexations, and our persistent habits of unawareness." -- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.

Editor's note: Kabat-Zinn founded the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, an outgrowth of the famed Stress Reduction Clinic, "the oldest and largest academic medical center-based stress reduction program in the world." About that clinic: "Since 1979 more than 18,000 people have completed our eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, an intensive training that asks participants to draw on their inner resources and natural capacity to actively engage in caring for themselves and finding greater balance, ease, and peace of mind."

The Center also has an outstanding bibliography of material about mindfulness-based approaches to various medical conditions, linked here. If you'd like to search their directory for a mindfulness-based stress reduction practitioner in your geographical area, click here.

More on Meditation: Learning How to Meditate

Learning to meditate is a powerful tool in the arsenal of self-care. We talked about it yesterday in a post linked here about tools that veterans with PTSD could learn to manage their stress and attempt to gain some inner peace (and sometimes freedom from pain).  

The current issue of the magazine at left, Shambhala Sun, on newsstands now, is directed toward beginners in mediation, and has a cover story entitled, "How to Meditate," linked here. It also has helpful articles about "beginner's mind," "why meditate," "getting started," and "mindfulness: the most direct path." Most of the material seems to be available online. Enjoy!

Editor's note: There are also CDs and DVDs about meditation, such as Gaiam's "Meditation for Beginners," linked here, in the "healing multimedia" section of this website, in the lower left hand side of the far left column of books and multimedia.

Going to the Bunker: A Combat Veteran with PTSD on the Purpose of Protective Isolation

Every combat veteran with PTSD knows what is meant by their "bunker," or what "going to their bunker" means. It's a walled-off, isolated situation that allows them to get some space to themselves, away from other people (including family and friends), when they feel particularly triggered, and they need to stay in there for, well, as long as they're going to. They come out when they're ready, and not a moment before. Obviously this situation can be very frustrating to others in the vet's life, but for the vet it affords him or her some very necessary, protective isolation.

The rest of us who aren't combat vets with PTSD I suppose could think of it as the vet putting himself or herself in a time-out from the world, by taking themselves out of the mix, and away from people and stimulation, both bad and good. And the time-out will be over when it's over, because they decide when it's up.

The recent Fourth of July with its fireworks that remind many vets of combat was a classic bunker situation. Many, many vets were making plans before the Fourth for how to protect and insulate themselves from being triggered by the fireworks (noise, smoke, crowds). One Gulf War vet with PTSD who had already isolated himself, wrote of putting a pillow over his head and just wanting it to be over, so that he didn't have to experience it. The next day, fireworks all exploded, he was better. But during, he had to be in the bunker. Another combat vet with PTSD, from the Iraq war this time, talked about staying in her bunker for days, making brief provision runs, every fourth day or so, to the grocery store and then...back to her bunker. When she needed to be in her bunker...

The bunker concept/construct is so typical to combat vets with PTSD that I thought I'd ask one who I know fairly well how he'd describe it. He has decades of PTSD "experience" under his belt, and I've also seen him retreat to his bunker at various times. A month one time, a week another time, the last time, a day. Sometimes even a few hours. But however long the episode lasts, during that time: totally unreachable. And realistically, you better not even try...because it just makes the situation worse. 

The more chances I've had to experience this with him, the more certain I can be that, short time or long, he'll emerge from his bunker, when he's good and ready, and with a new and improved outlook on why he went in the bunker in the first place. (For those who don't know, the bunker can be anywhere...a shed, a garage, a spot in the woods, a room in a house, even a chair. But it's sacred, inviolate, untouchable space...and the vet goes there in retreat, partly to spare those around him, but also strongly to get control over what he's feeling. (He or she, obviously.) So I figured he'd be able to offer his personal/expert advice on this.

Here's how the conversation went.

Me: "What typically sends vets to their bunkers?"

Him: "Any situation -– losing a job, losing their cool, a fight with their kid -- that makes them lose control sends them back to their bunker, so they can regain control. It may not be much, but while they're there, at least they have control over that little room they're in."

Me: "What's the longest time you've ever spent in your bunker?"

Him: "A year."

Me:  "!!!"

And then he clarified. (Remember, this is just his opinion, but it's worth sharing, because of the number of vets he knows and has observed, as well as what he knows about himself.) "Each time a vet goes into their bunker, they go in for a longer period of time. Until one time they go in and they don’t come out." (He does know an awful lot of other vets who have sadly killed themselves. That happens in bunkers, too. No wonder families and friends are justifiably concerned.)

The progression he just mentioned...vets spending longer and longer times each time in their bunkers...is actually the opposite of what he's been doing, since I've known him (which coincides with his getting better). Each time he goes to his bunker, it's both less frequent, and for shorter and shorter times each time, to the point that the last "bunker" episode I observed him in was actually only about half an hour.

In the middle of a frustrating conversation, not quite an argument, but one where emotions were high and we weren't communicating smoothly, he "withdrew" to his bunker of self-enclosed, protective space -- without moving from the couch he'd been sitting on. I saw him cross his arms, very agitated, close his eyes, and start doing something that looked like huffing and puffing. Even on an animal instinct level I knew, give this person his space. All the body language was daggers. I stepped away, and a short while later, he bounced back, and resumed where things left off, able to manage the conflict without any undue strain. Turns out what he'd been doing during the huffing and puffing phase was actually deep breathing, to calm himself down and regain control. Very smart. On the outside, he looked furious. On the inside, he was doing what he could to get back under control. As a result, he was able to "emerge" from his bunker in record time -- which speaks to the tremendous benefits of learning coping skills and stress-reduction techniques, as he has.

When I first knew this vet, he talked about what he'd learned at an inpatient PTSD program at the VA years ago. It was the cutting-edge program at the time, and he speaks of it with great appreciation, even though many of the guys he went through the program with sadly did not make it. ("Did not make it" is euphemistic code for "sadly, later killed themselves.") One of the biggest things he learned in the program, according to him, was about "red flags" and "triggers," and how to get away before you make things worse. Heading for the bunker, just like in the description of the vet with the pillow over his head,  is one way to keep things from getting worse. For the vet, that is -- for the family or loved ones, it's very difficult to experience, and hard to ignore, though one of the secrets seems to be, going on with your own life, while maintaining a compassionate (but not nagging) concern for how they're doing.

One of the distinctions he likes to make, though, between what he learned from the behavioral modification skills, above, in the VA program, and what he's learned since then, following more of a healing path, is that now he has some ability to not just "avoid" triggers but also "deal with" situations as they come up. The red flags still show that the problem is coming, but instead of being ONLY triggered, there are now new ways to deal with it that don't only involve avoiding or isolating.

The situation above, of being in conflict but being able to "be" with it, and breathe through it, meant that the conflict didn't have to explode into a multi-day saga or a physical exit to an actual bunker, which could last for weeks or months -- or even a year(!) Ahhh, progress is a beautiful thing...

Editor's note: For Part II, "Busting Out of the Bunker at Last," go here.

---

© 2010 by Lily Casura / Healing Combat Trauma. All rights reserved. Use with attribution.

Quotable Quotes -- Andrew Weil on the Secret Wisdom of the Body, a Key Participant in Health and Healing

"It is a misnomer to call medicine 'the healing art.' The healing art is the secret wisdom of the body. Medicine can do no more than facilitate it. That is all healers can do, too." -- Andrew Weil, M.D., "Health and Healing."
  

Belleruth Naparstek to Mental Health Colleagues: "Please Stop Saying PTSD is Incurable."

Note to mental health colleagues: "You can recover from posttraumatic stress. Certainly, you can significantly reduce - not just manage - its symptoms. But - and here's the thing - not with traditional treatment. The problem is, a lot of my colleagues don't know this yet. So they go about it in traditional ways and pronounce the condition incurable, based on the results they get." -- Belleruth Naparstek, from her article "Note to Colleagues: Please Stop Saying Post-Traumatic Stress is Incurable," just published in The Huffington Post on May 1, 2010, and linked here. The whole article is excellent; please give it a read and a think as well...

Editor's note: We've written about Naparstek before on this site, here. Her guided imagery tapes, CDs and DVDs, including "Health Journeys: A Guided Meditation for Healing Trauma (PTSD)," and her book, "Invisible Heroes : Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal," are loved by many.

Yoga for Veterans is Back in the News...

Yoga classes for veterans -- offered, in many cases, free of charge, at least initially, by practitioners nationally -- is back in the news.

(For a link to previous articles about the topic, including the work being done at Walter Reed, click here.)

"Yoga Warriors" is based in Central Massachusetts, and they offer classes to veterans but also train yoga teachers to work with veterans. From their website:

"The Yoga Warriors program was established at the Central Mass Yoga and Wellness in West Boylston, MA, and has been ongoing since 2005.  Yoga Warriors programs are being established in different parts of the country.  Interested vets can contact the Central Mass Yoga and Wellness at 508-835-1176 to put their name on the contact list.  Some of the classes are free to all vets. Registered yoga teachers that wish to become certified in the Yoga Warriors method can also call the above number to register for an upcoming teacher training workshop." (For a link to their website, click here.)

Paul Zipes, based in Florida, has a  "Yoga For Vets" program that he started a few years ago. We've written about it, here, and are about to again. His program connects yoga practitioners who want to offer a limited number of free classes to veterans of combat or conflict with the veterans who want to take them. For a link to Yoga for Vets, click here.

Former Marine Anuradha Bhagwati started Yoga for Vets NYC started in July, 2008 "as a service for NYC veterans." She says, "the program is designed specifically for veterans dealing with injuries or trauma, but every veteran is welcome, regardless of age, era or experience." For a link to this program, click here.

CBS News had a short segment today called "Yoga Soothes War Vets." Watch it below:

The video shows Vietnam veterans enjoying the experience, but one Vietnam veteran I know didn't take to yoga too enthusiastically. Too many aches and pains for him to enjoy it very much, he said. However, he's a much bigger fan of Qi Gong -- which is sometimes called "the Chinese yoga." For more information about Qi Gong, also called Qigong or Chi Kung, read two recent posts on the subject: here and here. Both yoga and qi gong offer demonstrable health benefits and encourage a more relaxed, calmer mind, and lowered anxiety and tension.

More Recommendations for Qi Gong DVDs for Veterans with PTSD from PBS' Lee Holden

Following up on a post from over the weekend, I was able to find my earlier notes which list the rest of the recommendations from Qi Gong expert Lee Holden, featured on PBS. This was the list in full of what he recommended for veterans suffering from PTSD. (Read the earlier post, linked here, called "The Beneficial 'Moving Meditation' of Qi Gong," for why Qi Gong is a great stress-reduction technique.) Lee Holden's DVDs are only available through his website, and VERY occasionally, used, from Amazon.com. His website is linked here. If you order more than one DVD, look for a shipping special (current at this time) for ordering four. 

(His newest DVD, due to be released in August of 2010, is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It's not necessarily one of his recommendations for PTSD, but if you grow to like his material, here's one more. Usually you have to order his DVDs from his site alone, but this one will also be available for Amazon, which will probably help with the distribution of it, too.) Here's the link to that DVD.

Qi Gong for Stress Relief (previously mentioned, the #1 recommendation:

Qi Gong for Upper Back and Neck Pain:

Qi Gong Flow for Beginners: ("The PBS favorite...")

Qi Gong The Flow Continues:

The Beneficial "Moving Meditation" of Qi Gong

When April Fool's Day rolled around, one world-famous T'ai Chi teacher had this as his status update: "April 24th is 'World T'ai Chi and Qi Gong Day. (It is, by the way.) Brazil has declared it a national holiday, Utah has recognized it, and [name of giant pharmaceutical company] has filed a preliminary injunction against it."

(Anyone who's ever observed the battle between Western medicine and Complementary and Alternative medicine or "CAM" would get that joke... We've come to expect peace of mind in a pill, not in a lifestyle practice or an exercise that can reduce stress and improve immunity.)

T'ai Chi and Qi Gong are both ancient Chinese practices. T'ai Chi is more correctly a type of martial arts, and Qi Gong is often termed "a moving meditation." "Qi" is the word for what the Chinese see as the "life-force energy." This same Qi (or Chi) is what acupuncture moves along energy meridians. Qi Gong is one of several practices, including T'ai Chi and Yoga, that are effective at relaxing "body, mind and spirit." Unlike the other two, however, Qi Gong is less demanding physically, so can be done by a broader range of people, including seniors and the disabled.

In "The Complete Illustrated Guide to Chinese Medicine," Tom Williams, Ph.D., writes about these arts, "In many ways Qi Gong and T'ai Chi represent the paradox that is central to the whole way of thinking in Chinese medicine. These practices are so gentle and apparently effortless, yet they are in fact inordinately powerful and bring tremendous benefit to anyone who adopts them as part of a regular healthcare strategy."

As the Wall Street Journal reported last year, "Alternative medicine is mainstream. The evidence is mounting that diet and lifestyle (including practices such as Qi Gong, T'ai Chi and Yoga) are the best cures for the worst afflictions."

There's much to be said on behalf of this multi-thousand-year-old practice, which 100 million Chinese who practice it daily in parks, both morning and evening. It's a low-cost "health care system" that's available to all. Unlike the more rigorous T'ai Chi, Qi Gong can be done standing, or even sitting in a chair. It can be learned in a class, or at home with a DVD. There is a selection of DVDs likely to be found at your local library; and online at Amazon.com, at Gaiam.com, and at ExerciseToHeal.com. 

Lee Holden, who had a show on PBS about Qi Gong, talks about how Qi Gong leaves you "relaxed, balanced and energized." When I asked Holden which of his dozen or more DVDs he would suggest for people struggling with PTSD, he recommended "Stress Relief Qi Gong," among others. (His DVDs are available on his website, linked here.) 

Why would Qi Gong practice be particularly beneficial for veterans with PTSD? Holden clarifies:

"Qi Gong switches the nervous system from the stress related ‘fight or flight’ mode to the restorative healing mode of the parasympathetic branch. EEG shows that, in people practicing Qi Gong, the cerebral cortex enters a state of calm that few people experience, even in sleep."

(Holden is also the author of "Seven Minutes of Magic: Recharge Your Body Each Day with Qi Gong," linked here.)

Here's a sample from that DVD:

Aspects of Qi Gong, especially its less rigorous nature, combined with its health benefits, including stress reduction, make it a good fit for veterans. Leading a Vietnam combat veteran through some a Qi Gong routine, as we both followed along with a Lee Holden DVD, I asked him how he felt afterwards: "Great!" was his response. He had tried T'ai Chi, but found that he and other vets could not adapt quickly enough to it.

In my own battle with chronic fatigue syndrome years ago, after trying the best of Western and Eastern medicine, I found that it was T'ai Chi and Qi Gong that "built energy" and "moved energy" that allowed me finally to recover.I had the good fortune to take instruction in person from a wonderful instructor who adapted her instruction to even those in chronic pain, and I remember that we could do the Qi Gong exercises sitting down, and yet still experience the benefits. If you're in the Seattle, Wash. area and you can go in person to a class, I recommend Kim Ivy at Embrace the Moon, because I know her work. But if you have to get your instruction from a DVD, Lee Holden and Francisco Garripoli are highly recommended.

For more information about Qi Gong and its health benefits, there's one website in particular that's a treasure trove of information: the Qigong Institute, and it's linked here. I would also suggest reading what Lee Holden has written about it, linked here.

(Note that you may find Qi Gong spelled several different ways, including "Qigong" and "Chi Kung.")

Finally, here are two informational videos that describe a little bit more about what Qi Gong is and what the experience of practicing it is like:

and

The Dept. of "No Real Surprises Here": Chiropractic Doesn't Help Veterans Suffering from PTSD

An article in the current issue -- June, 2009 -- of Military Medicine takes a look at the effects of chiropractic on veterans with PTSD, and finds the results lacking.  The study is called "A cross-sectional analysis of clinical outcomes following chiropractic care in veterans with and without post-traumatic stress disorder,” and it was authored by Drs. Andrew Dunn, Steven Passmore, Jeanmarie Burke and New York Chiropractic College student David Chicoine.

According to an article in trade publication ChiroEco.com, that study "investigates clinical outcomes for 130 veteran patients with neck or low back complaints at the VA of Western New York. This study found that patients with post-traumatic stress disorder had significantly lower lower levels of improvement than those without post-traumatic stress disorder on self-reported outcome measures of neck and low back disability."

These results are not really surprising, because -- unlike another form of bodywork, massage therapy, which does have proven results for helping PTSD symptoms -- there's nothing about chiropractic per se that indicates it would be helpful. Spinal subluxations, while combat veterans may be experiencing them, aren't really part of the PTSD profile, and relieving them wouldn't necessarily have any effect whatsoever on reducing PTSD symptoms.  They're just not related. That said, it's progress that chiropractic is offered in military health care settings, and we're sure it brings combat veterans some relief -- in the appropriate context, which PTSD is not.

For a look at complementary and alternative medicine therapies ("CAM") that have shown benefit in treating PTSD, click here.  For a look at bodywork therapies, click here.  For a look at mind-body medicine approaches, click here.  To read the article in ChiroEco.com, click here.

Puget Sound Veterans Hospital Tries Meditation for PTSD

The Seattle Times reports in today's paper that a veterans hospital in the Seattle area is trying a version of mindfulness meditation for combat veterans with PTSD.  The article is called, "Seattle hospital teaches meditation to troubled vets," by Michelle Ma.  The eight-week course, which has been held for a year, has proved to be of some value to veterans, and current plans are to study the effects more in-depth. 

The article in the Seattle Times is linked here.

For links to other posts we've done about mind-body medicine, including meditation, and PTSD, click here.

Chronic Life Stress as a Predictor of Illness: How Much is Too Much?

In the annals of stress management studies is a particular test called the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Scale.  It assigns "points" to major and minor life stressors a person may have experienced over the past year, and then has you total up the points at the end of the test to get a "total score." That total score can be used to predict the likelihood of illness, whether mild or severe, because chronic stress is well known to reduce immune function.

(Of course, stress management skills, such as what we've been discussing on this blog for a while, in the "mind-body medicine" category, linked here, are very helpful in reducing symptoms of stress.  But conscious awareness and the willingness to make life changes are also crucial.)

Veterans may be under chronic stress; but their families -- partners, significant others, children -- may also be under chronic stress.  Partners and children of deployed servicemembers may also have very high scores.  And care-givers for injured veterans (combat trauma, TBI, PTSD, amputations -- veterans suffer any number of serious injuries) are also at increased risk for stress-related illness.

Ideally this is a case where "knowledge is power" -- being able to quantify the stress you're under could help you to ask for help, make better choices, and prioritize self care.  Let's hope so... In the meantime, here's the test:

In the past 12 months, which of the following major life events have taken place in your life?

1. Print out this form

2. Make a mark next to each event that you have experienced this year.

3. When you're done, add up the points for each event.

4. Check your score at the bottom.

_____ Death of Spouse 100
_____ Divorce 73
_____ Marital Separation 65
_____ Jail Term 63
_____ Death of close family member 63
_____ Personal injury or illness 53
_____ Marriage 50
_____ Fired from work 47
_____ Marital reconciliation 45
_____ Retirement 45
_____ Change in family member's health 44
_____ Pregnancy 40
_____ Sex difficulties 39
_____ Addition to family 39
_____ Business readjustment 39
_____ Change in financial status 38
_____ Death of close friend 37
_____ Change to a different line of work 36
_____ Change in number of marital arguments 35
_____ Mortgage or loan over $10,000 31
_____ Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
_____ Change in work responsibilities 29
_____ Trouble with in-laws 29
_____ Outstanding personal achievement 28
_____ Spouse begins or stops work 26
_____ Starting or finishing school 26
_____ Change in living conditions 25
_____ Revision of personal habits 24
_____ Trouble with boss 23
_____ Change in work hours, conditions 20
_____ Change in residence 20
_____ Change in schools 20
_____ Change in recreational habits 19
_____ Change in church activities 19
_____ Change in social activities 18
_____ Mortgage or loan under $10,000 17
_____ Change in sleeping habits 16
_____ Change in number of family gatherings 15
_____ Change in eating habits 15
_____ Vacation 13
_____ Christmas season 12
_____ Minor violations of the law 11

______ Your Total Score

Now, take the total score and look at the following key:

LIFE STRESS SCORES

0-149 Low susceptibility to stress-related illness.

150-299 Medium susceptibility to stress-related illness.

300 and over High susceptibility to stress-related illness.

Now is the time to look into techniques to reduce stress loads, and to practice better self-care (to the extent possible.)

Finding the Balance: Rock Hard Abs and Soft Belly Breathing

This is a long overdue post about the apparent contrast, to military types, about some of the necessary "mind-body medicine" concepts like "soft belly breathing" -- a useful, easy form of meditative calming. 

A few months ago I was privileged to take part in a week-long practitioner training for mind-body medicine, and military providers and the VA made up a large percentage of the participants.  Much of the work took place in small groups, and in our ten-person group, there were more than a few VA providers (from occupational therapists to psychologists and counselors), along with one combat veteran.  As the group learned and practiced various techniques for mind-body medicine -- which have proven benefits for reducing stress, lowering heart-rate, increasing endorphins, etc. -- the combat veteran described his initial discomfort with the practice.  "This is just a hard sell to us veterans," he said, sitting up straighter in his chair, "we've worked hard to strengthen our core, and get the rock-hard abs.  And now you're telling us to practice something called 'soft-belly breathing'?"  We do everything in our power to avoid the soft belly, seemed to be his point.  And yet...funny how mind-body stress management techniques are actually another, potent way to do just that: Strengthen our core.  By the end of the week-long session, the veteran had gone from feeling like he was there as an impartial observer, to see if "this stuff" would "work for his guys," to someone who was starting to get the implication of how it could help him, too, in his own life.

Somewhere in the Midwest right now, I just know there's one great combat veteran, finding his own balance between "rock hard abs" and "soft-belly breathing."  And beginning to show the way to so many others... 

Editor's note: Here's an example of James S. Gordon, M.D., founder of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, leading you through "soft-belly breathing." It's incredible simple to do.  In three minutes of practice you've pretty much mastered it.  Enjoy :-)

"Just in Time for the Holidays" -- Stress-Reduction Exercises for PTSD

Various stress-reduction or relaxation exercises and techniques are available these days in a number of places, online and otherwise; and at least a few of them make a passing reference to PTSD (though rarely combat trauma). 

Relaxation at first may seem to be an impossible goal for those with combat trauma, because jumpiness and hypervigilance appear to be hallmarks of the experience that also have helped keep troops alive. 

However, the continual wearing-down and weakening of the nervous system over years from adrenaline surges and frequent experiences of "fight or flight" shows just how important it is to develop greater familiarity and experience with relaxation exercises. 

Like riding a bike, it's a much better (and more effective) idea to DO these things than just READ about them -- especially if you want to give yourself a chance to "feel" the effects in your own body, and "test" for yourself whether these techniques really "work."  (And don't forget the caregivers, partners or spouses of those suffering from PTSD: They also carry around a fair amount of stress... )

The emerging field of Mind-Body Medicine (ironic since the idea of mind-body medicine is actually quite old) is full of techniques and tools for stress-reduction and relaxation.  Yoga and meditation, among others, are known for their ability to reduce stress.  But occasionally on the Web there's also a good guide for sufferers about how to relax and renew.  Just such a "technique" guide exists here: The subject is "Relaxation and Relaxation Exercises," and the guide was produced at the Trauma Center, with the funding of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA), under a federal Anti-Terrorism Supplemental Grant (ATSG), to aid Victims of and Responders to the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks.  Click here for a link to the guide online.

Also look on the left-hand column of this blog to see a number of resources in the form of books, CDs, and DVDs for stress-reduction and relaxation, including music designed to help people relax and de-stress. A section called "Healing Multimedia" is located about 3/4 of the way down the page (if you think of the blog as a single page, and just cursor down to that), or you could do a search (Cntrl F on most computers, or Apple F on Macs) for "healing multimedia" to find that section of recommended resources. Enjoy!

Pilot Study on Mind-Body Medicine Intervention Techniques Looking for Oregon Veterans

A study of mind-body medicine getting underway in Portland, Oregon will test whether veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder can benefit from meditation, neurofeedback and other healing alternatives.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University are seeking 45 volunteers, including combat veterans troubled by PTSD and veterans who lack combat experience or have never suffered from PTSD.  They are accepting veterans between the ages of 18 and 70 who are in good health.

The pilot study, which could lead to a larger clinical trial, will measure how stressful and relaxing situations change a subject's hormone levels, heart rate, brain activity, and immune system functioning.  Helané Wahbeh, a naturopathic doctor and postdoctoral fellow at OHSU, is leading the study with funding from OHSU's department of neurology as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

 “Mind-body medicine appears to be an ideal way to help people with PTSD because the disorder affects the body’s immune system, hormone system and nervous system,” says Helané Wahbeh, N.D., a naturopathic physician researcher at OHSU. “I don’t believe you can effectively treat PTSD by only focusing on one aspect of the illness. For example, if we only give people suffering from PTSD anti-depressants, we may only be treating one aspect of the illness.”

The first phase of the OHSU study will measure changes in hormones, heart rate, brain activity and the immune system in both relaxing and stressful situations. Mary Lu, M.D., a psychiatrist with the Portland VA Medical Center, will provide PTSD screening.

Veterans interested in volunteering for the study, which will take up to about six hours of their time (probably broken up over time) can call (503) 494-3528 for more information.

Editor's note: If the study will measure hormone levels, undoubtedly it will measure cortisol levels -- and we've talked about cortisol, stress and sleep quite a bit previously on this blog. Unfortunately, good luck to the study's researchers on finding older vets who are also in "good health," especially ones who suffer from combat-based PTSD. Typically this creates a cascade of other physiological problems as veterans age -- however, on the plus side, mind-body relaxation techniques ideally will help even older veterans with health problems to achieve greater quality of life.  Either way it's an interesting study.

---

Additionally, here's a little more about the study from OHSU's own site, including some goals and a short video, linked here. And here's a description of the study (confusingly saying that it's not yet open for participation yet -- call the phone number instead to be sure) from the NIH's own Clinical Trials site, linked here.

Center for Mind-Body Medicine Wins DOD Grant to Study Methods for Treating PTSD, Depression in Returning Veterans

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AWARDS GRANT TO THE CENTER FOR MIND-BODY MEDICINE

Date: October 22, 2008

The Washington, DC based Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) announced today that it has been awarded a $411,000, two-year grant from the newly formed Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to study the effectiveness of the CMBM’s comprehensive, non-drug approach to treating post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression with troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families. This study, whose principal investigator is the CMBM founder and director, James S. Gordon, MD, will be undertaken at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Healthcare System, and is entitled “A Randomized Controlled Study of Mind-Body Skills Groups for Treatment of War-Zone Stress in Military and Veteran Populations.”

The study will test the effectiveness of CMBM’s model, which includes mind-body approaches (meditation, guided imagery, biofeedback, and yoga) and self-expression in words, drawings, and movement, in supportive, educational small groups. The groups will be led by VA clinicians who have been trained by Dr. Gordon and his CMBM faculty and will be offered to veterans and their families on weekends over the course of three months.

Dr. Gordon’s model is widely used with anxious and depressed people and those with chronic illness in the US, and has already been incorporated as a stress reduction program for students in a dozen US medical schools. Dr. Gordon describes his groundbreaking approach in detail in his new book, Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression (published by The Penguin Press; June 2008). “This model is educational, non-stigmatizing, and powerfully effective. It can be easily taught and can be used by people of all ages on their own,” Dr. Gordon explains. “Veterans and their families will have the opportunity to share their experiences and challenges in a supportive group and learn techniques which have proved swiftly effective in reducing symptoms of stress and improving mood. They will, often quickly, experience a sense of control and calm and feelings of hope that many of them felt they might never again have.”

The study made possible by the Department of Defense’s grant will further demonstrate that the Center’s model can be used to produce significant and lasting changes in levels of anxiety, agitation, and anger, in flashbacks and nightmares, and in symptoms of withdrawal and numbing in highly traumatized soldiers and their families.

This model, which Dr. Gordon presents in a step-by-step self-help format in Unstuck, is currently being used by CMBM with war traumatized populations in Kosovo, Israel and Gaza as well as in post-Katrina southern Louisiana. In August 2008, CMBM published a landmark study on the use of its model to treat posttraumatic stress disorder in war-traumatized children in Kosovo. The study, which was published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, is the first RCT ever of any intervention with war-traumatized children, and is also the first RCT of a successful, comprehensive mind-body approach with any traumatized population.

From October 25 - 29, 2008, Dr. Gordon and his CMBM colleagues will begin training more than 100 active duty and VA clinicians from across the country in the CMBM model. These men and women will then be able to incorporate the CMBM approach in their work with US Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Yoga for the Nervous System: Healing Anxiety, Insomnia and PTSD"

The above title -- promising, no?! let's hope it also delivers -- is the name of a "weekend intensive" class being given in mid-November at the famous Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires (Western Massachusetts, close to the New York border.)  Information about the class is linked here.

(For more links to blog posts where we've talked about yoga and PTSD, click here. For more about the larger topic of mind-body medicine, which includes yoga, click here. For more on a yet still more comprehensive topic, PTSD and Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which includes mind-body medicine, click here.)

According to the Kripalu Center's brochure:

"Unlock the power of your mind-body network to relax your physical body, calm your mind, and quiet your nervous system.  Conditions such as anxiety, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involve hyperarousal of the nervous system along with the mental, emotional and physical [aspects of our] bodies.  If this activation becomes chronic, the neuro-emotional patterns that result can compromise your physical health, emotional well-being, and creative potential.

Fortunately, the neural pathways to relaxation and calm exist in each one of us.  Those pathways simply need to be discovered and activated repeatedly to alter the state of the nervous system.

This transformative weekend intensive will include:

• Elemental Yoga, a transformative, therapeutic, alignment-based, slow vinyasa practice;
• Meditation;
• Restorative yoga; and
• Pranayama (breathing) exercises designed to balance the nervous system and emotional [aspects of the] body;

Psychologist and yoga therapist Bo Forbes will draw from her extensive experience in clinical psychology and mind-body therapeutics to help you learn to activate the neural pathway[s] to relaxation and catalyze the emergence of your extraordinary inner potential.

About Bo Forbes:
Bo Forbes, PsyD, E-RYT500, is a leading clinical psychologist, yoga teacher, and yoga therapist in the Boston area.  She is the founder of Elemental Yoga, director of the Center for Integrative Yoga Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a contributing writer for Yoga Journal and Body & Soul magazines. 

(There's also an interesting interview with Bo Forbes on the topic of "Narrowing the Gap between Insight and Change: Yoga, Psychotherapy and the Body," linked here.

NOTE: The class says it is for those with "some yoga experience" as a pre-requisite.

Editor's note: For general yoga instructional videos, or yoga for stress videos, see thefollowing, mentioned in the sidebar (column to the left): Gaiam: Yoga For Beginners; Gaiam: Yoga for Stress Relief (With The Dalai Lama); Gaiam: AM/PM Yoga For Beginners (with The Dalai Lama & 10 Routines); and Yoga Journal: Yoga Journal's Yoga for Stress With Dr. Baxter Bell.

A Mind-Body Medicine Approach to PTSD - Conference Oct. 11th and 12th - West Coast

The Institute for Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA will hold a seminar on 

Mind-Body Approach to PTSD," October 11th and 12, 2008, featuring a Center for Mind-Body Medicine faculty member, Gjorgji Nikoloski, M.D..  According to the ITP's website, linked here, the program will be a 

"one and a half day workshop that teaches: the scientific basis for mind-body medicine; the depth and power of our unique small group approach; and the use of a range of the most effective tools for self-care and stress management.

Comprehensive materials and hands-on experience will prepare you to integrate our mind-body model into your work in a wide variety of settings, including private practice with individuals and groups, hospital work, educational programs and work with populations affected by war, abuse, terrorism and other forms of trauma.

Our approaches are fundamental to relieving the stress that contributes so significantly to all chronic illnesses, and to comprehensive and integrative approaches to the treatment of PTSD.

The featured presenter, Dr. Nikoloski is a Psychiatrist and Mental health clinician who has worked with child adolescent services and the Community Mental Health Clinic in Guelph, Ontario Canada. He began as Faculty of Mind-Body Medicine in Kosovo in 1999 and Founded the Center for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Skopje, Macedonia in1999. He is on the Board of Directors of the Coalition for Work with Psycho-trauma and Peace (CWWPP) in Vukovar, Croatia.  (A more extensive bio for Dr. Nikoloski is linked here.)

To purchase tickets to this event, click here."

Accessing Your Built-In Healing Mechanisms after Combat

It's safe to say that Patience Mason is a one-woman, cottage industry of helpful materials about dealing with PTSD.  Married for umpteen years to a Vietnam veteran with PTSD (Robert Mason, author of Chickenhawk), Patience has learned many life lessons of tremendous value to veterans. Along with Kathie Costos, Aphrodite Matsakis, Ph.D., and a few others, Patience Mason is one of the women who've given the most to helping vets and their families to recover from "combat trauma."  Read her helpful suggestions, below, and notice the emphasis on mind-body medicine, and in particular, mindfulness meditation.

---

"Since PTSD can also be triggered by subsequent events throughout the rest of your life, it is wise to learn how to heal. Many older veterans have lost their friends and families because of the struggle to hide symptoms and seem fine. The current war has also re-triggered PTSD symptoms in many older veterans because they remember. They know what you’re facing. If this has happened to you, don’t think treatment didn’t work. It worked before and it will work again. Go back for more.

Each symptom of PTSD develops from a bodily-based, God-or-evolution-given built-in survival mechanism, designed to keep you alive. We all have these survival mechanisms, and if we had been through what you have been through, we would also be affected. You learned these survival mechanisms under the hammer of war.

When you are ready to get better, you have to learn what they are, when and how they are useful, and new skills for when they are not. Each met a need, usually for survival, and finding other ways to meet your natural needs for safety and security is the job of recovery.

We also have built-in healing mechanisms. Attention (eye contact, being listened to, receiving empathy and respect), telling your story, safe touch, acceptance (bad things happen; they are painful), crying, making a contribution (working for the common good [altruism] and to support your family), justice, and spirituality are some of our built-in healing mechanisms. Our culture finds some of them awkward.

While avoidance strengthens and perpetuates PTSD symptoms, it is much less painful than the work of healing, especially if you have lost buddies, your sense of yourself as good or competent, and/or have shame or guilt or despair associated with the trauma as most people seem to. Somehow feeling like it is your fault, and if only you had done something, it wouldn’t have happened, makes you feel less powerless. The essential ingredient of trauma, however, is that it is overwhelming and you are powerless. No one can stop bombs or bullets with if-onlys. Many people spend their lives after trauma waiting and wishing for a better past, instead of working through the pain and anxiety for a better future.

Exposure is the basic task for healing PTSD. It teaches the parts of your brain that don’t speak English and can’t tell time that it is over. Exposure to what you are avoiding in small safe doses with a trained trauma therapist makes a huge difference. Often this is telling parts of your story again and again so that details come back and you can comprehend the whole experience. If you want to avoid these details because you think whatever happened was your fault, talking can help with that, too.

Most vets feel that if they ever let themselves feel, it would destroy them, but numbing bad feelings means the good ones are gone, too. Healing means you learn how to sit with a feeling and let it peak and fade, so you can process your memories. You went through hell. The feelings will hurt, but they will also pass eventually. Your therapist can teach you how to identify your feelings, that you are not your feelings, and that other people can have different feelings without either of you being wrong.

You can even learn to go in and out of numbing, since it can be handy, as can many of these survival skills. If you have developed an addiction to help you maintain numbness, you probably need to get clean, sober or abstinent from the substance or behavior.

The best way to deal with non-verbal memories is to move them from the non-verbal parts of the brain up to the frontal lobes and turn them into narrative memories, in other words: remember. Writing and rewriting something that happened to you is one way of doing it. Talk therapy is another. You get to tell your story. This is painful but you made it through the event, and you can make it through the memory.

For hyper-arousal, I always suggest basic un-training. Every soldier I’ve ever met thinks the military taught him to take care of himself. “Oh, really?” I often say, “So you used to say to your drill instructor, ‘Sorry Sergeant, I can’t do that. I need a nap.’” This usually gets a big laugh, but that is the kind of self-care you need to learn. After you have been to war, there are some things you simply can’t do. Sometimes it’s parties (don’t bunch up), cookouts (burning flesh), family fights. Sometimes it’s “Don’t ever come up behind me and grab me.” Whatever it is, learning to speak up is important. You have to learn self-soothing methods, so you’re not always yelling and angry.

You have to expose yourself to triggers in small safe doses, too, so they lose the power to trigger you. Learning that what triggers you is not necessarily dangerous here is also important, so your family doesn’t have to avoid your triggers.

Learning to meditate helps with these tasks and keeps you present in the present. The book Wherever You Go, There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn helped Bob a lot. He also reads Thich Nhat Hanh. [Editor's note: Claude Anshin Thomas likes his work very much.] You may also find ways to heal your body’s constant state of tension through somatic therapies or yoga.

You may have to heal your beliefs. During extremely traumatic events, such as having a buddy die in your arms, or get killed when you weren’t there, people often decide “I will never love anyone again” or “I should never have left” or “It’s my fault.”

Other beliefs that can interfere with healing and with everyday life include ideas like “Don’t talk about it,” “Only weaklings and whiners ask for help,” “You can’t trust anyone who wasn’t there,” and its converse, “You can (and must) trust anyone who was there.”

PTSD can make you feel totally out of control. By choosing to take new actions which have worked for others, you can regain that sense that you are in charge of your life."

-- Home from War, by Patience Mason.

 

Healing and the Mind: Mind-Body Medicine and Mindfulness Meditation

"May the stars carry your sadness away. May the flowers fill your heart with beauty. And may hope forever wipe away your tears." -- Chief Dan George.

Continuing our series on mind-body medicine, here's a little information about Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. whose multiple works on mindfulness meditation are mentioned frequently in the field.  (See Patience Mason, etc.)

---

Back in the early 1990s, journalist Bill Moyers (pictured, left) had a great series on PBS, followed by a book of the same name, called "Healing and the Mind."  It was a fascinating look at the way non-medical aspects of healing could come into play and help restore people to health and vitality. The series was really the first of its kind to talk about these far-ranging subjects to a mainstream American audience, and many people achieved a measure of fame and prominence by being highlighted by Moyers and this series.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., trained as a molecular biologist at MIT, was one such person.  According to Wikipedia, which happens in this case to be right, "Kabat-Zinn is the founder and former Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founder (1979) and former director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School."  Mindfulness Meditation is Kabat-Zinn's specialty, and he's had great results teaching it.

Other luminaries in the field of mind-body medicine, of which Kabat-Zinn's work is a part, include James S. Gordon, M.D., Dr. Bernie Siegel, Rachel Naomi Remen, and John Sarno, M.D, among others.

I wish I could remember, at this remove, what the point of Kabat-Zinn's work at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's Stress Reduction Clinic was - but I think it had something to do with heart disease in men, and whether leading patients through mindfulness meditation exercises would have some beneficial effect on the men's stress levels and heart health. My memory is that it did, and "Healing and the Mind" featured some compelling stories of how much the men's lives had changed who practiced mindfulness meditation with Kabat-Zinn. 

There's a whole semi-wiggy at first but highly interesting concept that's been put forth by several leading lights in the medical arena that "hearts" are where men store "stress," in the form sometimes of sadness and depression -- possibly over all they've experienced in their lives, but have not had the benefit of sharing openly (it's not a guy thing ;-).  If I remember from that program, lo these many years ago, I think it mentioned something about how men who had undergone open heart surgery often suffered severely from post-operation depression, and lives were being lost AFTER operations had been successfully, because the predominantly male patients had not learned better ways of coping with stress, sadness and depression, and would succumb, in a weakened state.  My memory is that when Kabat-Zinn invited some of these very sick patients to class, over a short amount of time they learned to process their needed grief and pain and regret, but still move on with their lives, thanks to the techniques of mindfulness meditation, as taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.

It's interesting to note how many others have turned to this same "technique" to deal with some of the horrors they've experienced, like PTSD.

Editor's note: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.'s most famous books are: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditations in Everyday Life, andFull Catastrophe LIving: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness.

Waking up to the Boundlessness of Suffering from War - One Veteran Learns How to Overcome

Continuing our theme of "mind-body medicine," which we revisit from time to time, one of the more interesting books to come out by a Vietnam veteran talking about his experiences in war and afterwards is "At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace," by Claude Anshin Thomas. 

 

Thomas grew up like many guys who went to Vietnam: poor in a hardscrabble American town, son of a WW II veteran, with whom he had a rocky relationship; athlete in school who had perhaps a glorified view -- from his relationship with his dad and from athletics -- about what combat would really be like, or what it would do for him.  He was clearly under the impression that it would "make him a man," and when reality hit, and he saw the things war really was made of, and that he saw himself do, well, it was a little too late to turn back. That was Vietnam in 1966. The scars from that experience would be touchstones for the rest of his life, and honestly -- he's shown more healing than many. 

 

First and foremost probably because he's been willing to admit the level of pain and suffering that Vietnam left on his "soul."  Here's some of his reflections from his book that Michael Herr, author of Dispatches, says was "written with relentless courage and utter compassion."  According to Herr, "this account of violence and transformation is one of the most amazing and wonderful stories I've ever read."

 

---

 

Thomas, who went to Vietnam at 18, received numerous awards and decorations, including 27 Air Medals, a Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Purple Heart.  We first wrote about him back in February of 2006, and several times since, because his book -- and the way he's transformed his experience -- appear to be virtually one of a kind.  As he himself says, Vietnam is not unique in that "everyone has their Vietnam...everyone has their own experience of violence, or calamity or trauma."  What stands out about Thomas, though, is his willingness to acknowledge all the raw trauma, and somehow, to transform at least parts of it.  Now, for Thomas in his own words about some of the scarring, as well as some of the transformation from within:

 

"My body is covered with scars from my wars.  Every time I look at my body, touch one of these scars, I touch again the reality of war, and when I touch the reality of war, I touch all the suffering that is intrinsic to war.  In the past, when I felt pain from a scar, I tried to repress it, to hide it from myself.  But the physical wounds are not the most significant wounds of war.  The wounds of the soul, the spiritual wounds, the emotional wounds – they are far deeper, though less obvious.  And they are much more unpleasant to look at."

---

"Recently I spoke with a man who said, “If you didn’t feel things so deeply, if you were numb or if you were able to deny your feelings, you probably wouldn’t have any trouble with the war.”  But in fact, the vast majority of the people who have closed themselves off from the reality of their experiences in war are suffering tremendously.  Hiding or avoiding does not eliminate suffering, it just drives it more deeply underground.  Then our suffering controls us more profoundly, in one form or another.  We cannot hide from our pain.  Trying to do so is like attempting to pour a liter of red paint into a half-liter container: It will spill and spread, covering every aspect of our lives.

 

That’s what was happening to me when I hit bottom, a place where the pain was so intense I didn’t know how to hold it.  I thought my only option was to die.  As we wake up to suffering, we may feel at some points as if we might explode.  Because waking up to the boundlessness of suffering is intense, the pain is raw, the feelings immense – spaceless, formless, empty.

The practices of mindfulness and meditation have provided me with invaluable resources and tools in those moments, in those hell places.  They also help me to go to those places with others, to support them in caring for and healing themselves.  I am able to sit with the dying, the wounded, encouraging them to tell their stories and listening deeply. I  also go to the front lines and talk to soldiers about not fighting.  I talk candidly with them about the effects and consequences of war.  I am also able to go to the back wards of hospitals and mental institutions to visit the hidden casualties of war and listen to their stories.  I sit with the disenfranchised, the social and cultural lepers, and listen. In all these places, with all these people, I practice breathing in and breathing out.  I practice being fully present.  And I offer them the tools of Zen Buddhist practice (direct experience), spiritual practice.  I hope to help them discover the practices and tools that have helped saved my life: sitting meditation, walking meditation, mindful speech, and deep listening.  I also hope to provide the experience of sangha (community) – to demonstrate how community can support us on the path to healing and the path to awakening.

 

I invite people to bring an end to their isolation.  Because together we can do more than we can do alone.  These tools, this practice of meditation, are important, even critical, because suffering is a reality of our lives, the lives of all of us.  The “Apocalypse Now” is not just in Vietnam; it is not just for Vietnam veterans.  It exists for all of us because we have eaten the fruits of war, the fruits of violence, the fruits of hatred.  If we don’t wake up to this, it will destroy us.  From the inside out, it will destroy us.  I know this from my own experience.  And I know this because I observe this happening all the time.

-- At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace, by Claude Anshin Thomas.

Study Shows Mind-Body Medicine Works on PTSD

(Just what we've been talking about, and who we've just been talking about as well.  Heh.  Love that.  So confirming...)

Read down and see how therapeutic this would be for people in rural communities, with little or no access to the VA, who are in therapy or not, for DIY types and those who prefer to access healthcare through a practitioner of one kind or another.  Just wonderful... and we knew it all along :-)

---

The Washington, DC based Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) announced today the publication of a landmark study on the use of its comprehensive, non-drug model to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in war traumatized children. The study, “Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Post-War Kosovar Adolescents Using Mind-Body Skills Groups: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” which was published today online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry is the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) ever of any intervention with war traumatized children. It is also the first RCT of a successful, comprehensive mind-body approach with any traumatized population.

The study demonstrates that the Center’s groundbreaking model can be used to produce highly significant and lasting changes in levels of stress, flashbacks, nightmares, and symptoms of withdrawal and numbing in highly traumatized children – those who lived in an area of Kosovo where in 1999 90% of the homes were burned and bombed and 20% of the children lost one or both parents.

 The CMBM approach includes self-expression and mind-body techniques and was offered to these children over 12 sessions in an educational, supportive small group setting. Eighty-two high school students in Kosovo participated in the study. The program was conducted by teachers and included meditation, guided imagery, breathing techniques, and biofeedback as well as self-expression through words, drawings, and movement. All the students met the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which was measured using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Following the program, the number of students having symptoms indicating PTSD was significantly reduced from 100% to 18%. The reduction in symptoms was maintained at a 3 month follow-up. The improvement in PTSD symptoms was significantly greater compared to a similar group of students who did not participate in the mind-body skills program. This is the same model that CMBM’s founder and director, James S. Gordon, M.D., describes in detail in his new book, Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression.

“This RCT,” Dr. Gordon, the lead author, says, “is important because it provides scientific evidence for the efficacy of a model that has been taught to almost 3,000 health and mental health professionals and educators worldwide. We’ve used this small group model to give tens of thousands of children and adults practical tools that help them to feel better quickly, and we’ve taught them to use their intuition and imagination to solve problems that had seemed overwhelming. We help traumatized people around the world to draw on strengths they may have forgotten they have, and we offer them a ‘safe place’ in which they can share their pain with others who have suffered as they have.”

“This model is educational, non-stigmatizing, and powerfully effective. It can be easily taught and can be used by people of all ages on their own,” Dr. Gordon explains. “It’s highly acceptable to populations which do not want to be given medication, those with no access to a doctor or therapist, and those who are in psychotherapy.”

This model, which Dr. Gordon presents in a step-by-step self-help format in Unstuck, is currently being used by CMBM with war traumatized populations in Israel and Gaza as well as in post-Katrina southern Louisiana. It is widely used with anxious and depressed people and those with chronic illness in the US, and has already been incorporated as a stress reduction program for students in a dozen US medical schools.

The CMBM model is also of increasing interest to the US Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. “The military,” Dr. Gordon says, “understands the breadth and depth of the psychological crisis (as many as 300,000 returning veterans are expected to have posttraumatic stress disorder or major depressive disorder, and another 320,000 will have been made vulnerable to these conditions by traumatic brain injury). The military’s leadership is committed to finding evidence-based approaches, like the one taught by The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, that can make a difference for the individual veteran and his/her family, an approach that can be taught to the large numbers of professionals and peer counselors who serve them.” More than 100 health and mental health professionals who work with the military are expected at the next CMBM training in mind-body medicine on October 25-29 in Minneapolis, and many more are expressing interest in learning and using the CMBM model.

For more information about the upcoming training, click here,  or to order Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression", please email The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) at [email protected] or visit www.cmbm.org.

Shaking Off the Blues: Two New Books Help Veterans and Others Get "Unstuck"

A well-regarded psychiatrist who thinks there are other-than-pharmaceutical antidotes to biochemical depression?  Rank heresy!  Oops, actually we meant -- how very refreshing indeed. 

A soulful journalist who's lived and worked in war-torn countries, and knows what it's like to be a survivor -- who then turns her attention to helping veterans and their families come home from war and rebuild the pieces of their often-shattered psyches? Again, a wonderful suggestion.

---

NPR the other day published a great interview with none other than James S. Gordon, M.D., author of the new book called "Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression." Depression is an important topic, because many people who are risk for suicide have depression as an underlying state.  According to one psychiatry textbook for medical students, "A majority (60% to 80%) of people who commit suicide carry a diagnosis of depression."   

If you remember, we've talked about Dr. Gordon on this blog before.  He has an impressive, very talented background academically (Harvard College, Harvard Medical School), and is the founder of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C., as well as a frequent lecturer at the Smithsonian, and the former chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, also known as "CAM."  (We've blogged about CAM, also known somewhat misinformedly as natural medicine, and its opportunities for treating PTSD here on the blog, at length here; and also about the varieties of mind-body medicinethat might show some promise for treating combat trauma and PTSD, here.)

To listen to the NPR interview, or to read the accompany material on getting unstuck -- in Dr. Gordon's words -- click here.  To read Dr. Gordon's bio -- click here.  To read our previous posts about his work on "Healing the Wounds of War," click here; on "Healing the Troops," click here; and on his and the Center for Mind-Body Medicine's annual conference, planned for October 25-29th in Minneapolis, Minnesota this year, click here.  The topic of this year's conference is the highly-appropriate "Integrating Mind-Body Medicine into Clinical Practice, Medical Education & Trauma Healing."  As Dr. Gordon's website says, "We're teaching thousands to heal the world's millions." Indeed -- and what a noble task that is; and how very, very vital.

If I had ONE RECOMMENDATIONfor the Pentagon, the DOD, the VA, the various branches of the military (Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, National Guard) that frequently comb this site, looking for answers to the questions they have -- it's that they would get to know Dr. Gordon's work, and send representatives to this conference in late October, 2008.  Check into mind-body medicine, with a credible expert, and somehow who's already worked with, and proven his work with, the war-torn and traumatized (troops and civilians) here and abroad.  Broaden the outlook on how to treat PTSD and combat trauma, by returning people to themselves, and helping them to learn to manage their own stress in creative and supportive ways.

Dr. Gordon says his book, Unstuck, goes into many of the same principles that his trauma work does. I can't wait to start reading my copy, which his office promises to send.

---

In the meantime, I hope Dr. Gordon gets to cross paths professionally with Minnesotan Britta Reque-Dragicevic. I have read her book-- devoured it in one sitting is the more accurate description -- and think it has lots of potential to comfort, support and nurture returning veterans and their families in putting the pieces of the puzzle back together.  (One thing I love about both Dr. Gordon and Britta Reque-Dragicevic -- they both "get" it.  They've had a personal experience with what they're talking about; it's not just academic.  And they're both driven to help others heal from their suffering -- the not exactly unspoken single purpose of this blog: there's synchronicity.)

Reque-Dragicevic has written a completely soulful manual on getting unstuck herself, and with her profound understanding of the needs of trauma survivors, as a longtime journalist in post-war Saravejo and Bosnia, I sense a little (**magical?!**) professional matchmaking going on that would only serve to increase the amount of healing and overcoming in the world, especially among trauma survivors and veterans with PTSD.  If you want to read more about Reque-Dragicevic's marvelous book, Close to Home: A Soldier's Guide to Returning from War, click here.  Her book is endorsed and recommended by Dr. Edward Tick, among others.  At a mere $10 as a download on the Web, you really can't go wrong.  (We'll be quoting from Reque-Dragicevic's book on this blog in the future, with her permission, because it's wonderful stuff and she really "gets" it. Veterans and their families need to experience this.)

---

If you have $10 to spare, or as a gift for someone else, buy Britta Reque-Dragecivic's book.  It's a download, and you can have it in your hands within minutes, from anywhere in the world, and start the healing process today.  If you have about $18 and shipping, buy Dr. Gordon's book, and start the healing process when it arrives in the mail -- or at your local bookstore.  If you have about $40, buy them both :-)

There's a Revolution Going On: Users Rate Their Drug and Non-Drug Treatments for PTSD

We're just about to wrap up our series here -- a cycle of blog posts about the various treatments available for PTSD from the pharmaceutical, Complementary and Alternative Medicine ("CAM"), and mind-body medicine worlds. We've talked about bodywork therapies that show promise. Heck, we've even talked about street drugs like marijuana and ecstasy that appear to have some beneficial effects as well! (Sheesh -- we're not recommending them, per se -- we're just trying to do a comprehensive look at everything reasonable that's out there, that might help sufferers.)

We started this cycle of blog posts back in the beginning of June, with one about how the military was expanding its concept of treatment options to include some "revolutionary" non-drug approaches, linked here.  (We'll add to the cycle of posts over time as the need indicates, but the bulk of it is already done on this topic. This post also builds on a previous post, which talked about how a layperson can learn more about the effects and side-effects of medications prescribed, as well as where to learn about possible warnings when used in combination with other medications.  That post is linked here.) 

One of the most interesting developments is something I get to share with you now -- that a year or so ago when I first learned about it, was not robust enough to be of much value to PTSD sufferers.  Perhaps by now it really is.  The "it" I'm talking about here is something called "Revolution Health," the brainchild of AOL co-founder and marketing genius Steve Case, a project he began in 2005, after he left AOL.

Revolution Health is a number of things, but particularly for our purposes here's it's an online "community" of other patients who give their impressions, pro and con, of the treatments they're using for various illnesses and conditions -- including PTSD -- and not just of all the popular pharmaceutical medications, but also the non-drug therapies as well.  Finally, in one place, patients can check out what other people's experiences of the same drugs or therapies they've been prescribed, along with more straightforward information about the treatments themselves, the possible side-effects.  Clearly, for something like this to work, there need to be a LOT of people checking in and providing their impressions. 

When I first checked out the site, those numbers just weren't there.  It's not so exciting, interesting, or frankly even helpful to learn what three people think of a medication or a non-drug treatment like acupuncture or craniosacral therapy -- it gets a LOT more interesting as more people participate.  Such seems to be the case these days (no pun intended) -- but act quickly -- the site has been experiencing layoffs, and with Web businesses, even those founded by geniuses like Steve Case, you never really can count on how long they'll be around.  So be sure to check out what interests you while you still can.

This is what the site said a year ago about itself, which is still good advice:

This service is in its infancy, but our philosophy is that if millions of people participate, it will emerge as a useful tool for people as they consider their treatment options. Please note that treatments include a mix of some that are designed to directly treat a condition, some that treat side effects, some that provide symptomatic relief.

While individual real-life experiences can be a valuable health resource, they must be viewed in the context of evidence-based data and are not a substitute for medical advice. You should always consult a qualified health care professional before beginning, changing or stopping a treatment.

Now let's get down to business:

Want to learn how other participants rank, rate and review the various treatments for PTSD, both drug and non-drug? (Currently there are dozens suggested!), say, Duloxetine? Click here, for a list of the various, searchable treatments. (Better yet, click herefor them ranked by users in order of effectiveness!)  Want to take a look specifically at the pharmaceutical drugs for PTSD? Click here.  How about the various non-drug treatments for PTSD?  They're there, too, by name.  (You can sort either set of results by "most helpful," "most recent," and "highest effectiveness" on any individual treatment (of the 363) or on the category as a whole.)

Note: Be aware that not everyone who's weighing in with their opinion on what treatment they're loving or hating for PTSD has combat trauma-induced PTSD.  They may have PTSD from some completely other cause.  However, as far as relatabilty goes, this is the best we're gonna get for now -- a "Revolution Health" for veterans only does not appear to be in the works.  Ahhh, but we can dream, can't we?!

To reinforce the warning, though -- given the fact that nothing's permanent on the Web, especially "revolutionary business models," get in -- get your information -- and get out -- in case the website goes away, and/or the company goes out of business.  We sincerely hope that Revolution Health sticks around, because it's performing a useful AND innovative, visionary function --  but even more than that, we want YOU to get the information you're looking for, while you still can.  Oh, and if you sign up to be a member -- I believe that it's free -- you can also contribute your ratings to the user-generated rankings.

There's a Revolution going on...in health care.  Get yours now, while it lasts.

Editor's note: The usual "yada."  Be sure to consult with a qualified health care practitioner before changing or implementing a course of treatment, to make sure that the choices you make are appropriate and best for you.  We are presenting this material as information only, and it's not to be construed as medical advice.  If we could, we would; but we can't, so we won't.  There, we've said it.

TFT for the TNT of PTSD? -- "Thought Field Therapy" and PTSD

Who knows whether this is really a valid approach or not -- but in the interests of providing more information on the subject, here it is.  Thought Field Therapy (TFT) has been suggested as a possible treatment approach for PTSD, to lessen some of the symptoms. Is TFT valid?  Has it been discredited by some while considered valuable by others?  Probably both.  If you want to learn more about it, here is a link to a page on David Baldwin's extensive trauma site that at least breaks down what it is, and shows you how you can try it, if you're interested.  That beats reading a book about it or going to a seminar, if you're just interested in the "quick take" on what it is.  Interesting that Charles Figley, Ph.D., is writing about it, in 1995.  Not sure whether he still believes it's a worthwhile approach or not - a lot of time has passed since then.  If we can find out the answer to that, we will -- and post it on the blog later on.  In the meantime, here's the link.  Thought Field Therapy probably fits into the overall category of energetic medicine, so I'll go ahead and "file" it under the category of "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" -- but be sure to check out the other links within that category, as well -- to a number of other complementary, alternative, and mind-body medicine approaches to PTSD.

(It also looks like at one point, Shad Meshad, M.S.W., was also intrigued with the potential of TFT.  Again, not sure if that information's still current or not; but if and when we find out, we'll let you know here.)

Mind Body Medicine: Healing the Wounds of War

When I started this blog over two years ago now, I was hoping that somehow James S. Gordon, M.D., and the Center for Mind-Body Medicine which he founded in Washington, DC, would somehow get involved in the prospect of bringing mind-body medicine to the troops.  Gordon is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, with impeccable credentials, who has a lifetime interest in expanding patient care into new areas, particularly Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), and mind-body medicine in particular.  (Mind-body medicine is a shorthand way of re-combining the two "halves" of medicine perhaps unjustly sundered in an arbitrary Cartesian mind-body split.  Much of Eastern thought, rather than Western, never saw them divided at all.)  In a previous lifetime, where I interviewed luminaries in the natural medicine field, Gordon was a favorite interviewee - smart, genial and with a very forward-thinking grasp of what mind-body medicine could accomplish.  Gordon, who was featured in the Bill Moyers series on PBS, Healing and the Mind, was a frequent lecturer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and for years had served as the head of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.  He is also a Clinical Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School.

But more to our purposes, when war broke out in Kosovo, he and the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) took their methods into the region, creating a program called "Healing the Wounds of War," to help war-torn schoolchildren and their caregivers manage the trauma they had undergone, through a sustained, devastating conflict.  What I was hoping -- and I kept checking the CMBM website periodically to find out -- was that they would leapfrog off their successes with PTSD in Bosnia and Kosovo, and Israel and the Middle East, and develop something geared to PTSD in servicemembers, and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.  For years, nothing was obvious (yet), but here's some of their success with children in Kosovo.  Notice what symptoms the program helped with, how impressive the statistics are, and make the conceptual leap to how this might help with combat veterans and/or their families:

The clinical efficacy of the CMBM program with traumatized children has been repeatedly demonstrated. In a pilot study in which high school teachers in the Suhareka region of Kosovo used the CMBM model, levels of posttraumatic stress disorder in high school students were reduced from an average of 88% to 38% in only six weeks (read the research, published in Journal of Traumatic Stress, April 2004, linked here). Participants have also reported the following documented effects of CMBM trainings, including: the alleviation of their own stress and trauma; decreases in anxiety and depression; increased optimism; decreased anger; and increased capacity to help others.

You can read more about the program's specific successes, here.  Or, you can read a general overview of the program and what's involved, here.  You can also read Dr. Gordon's bio, here.

Mind Body Medicine: Healing the Troops

We've talked about James S. Gordon, M.D.'s Center for Mind-Body Medicine and their successes in "Healing the Wounds of War" recently on this blog, and the wait to see if they would revamp this program to address the needs of PTSD and the troops.  Finally, at long last...The Center for Mind-Body Medicine's program for Healing the Troops, informational material linked here.

From their website:

The Center has created a program of training in mind-body medicine and on-going support for physicians and mental health professionals working with veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as a first step to providing veterans with a powerful and healthy approach to dealing with the stress of war and to enhancing their resiliency.

This program will be a significant focus at our Fall 2008 Mind-Body Medicine training, for which we have received funding to bring 20 military healthcare professionals on scholarship. We are seeking additional funding for this important effort.

Also from their website:

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine has developed a trauma relief program utilizing mind-body skills including biofeedback, relaxation, guided imagery, meditation, drawing, and breathing exercises that has been used successfully around the world.

This program, which is presented in small educational groups, has the advantage of enhancing veterans’ capacity to help themselves while mobilizing social support crucial to full recovery. The Center has used this program to assist in population-wide healing efforts in war-torn and traumatized regions around the world, including Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Israel and Gaza , and in the United States with NYC firefighters post-9/11 and in post-Katrina Louisiana.

Further information about the 2008 conference is linked here. Dr. Gordon's bio is linked here.

Floyd "Shad" Meshad, MSW

After earning his Masters degree in Psychiatric Social Work from Florida State University in 1968, Shad went on active duty in 1969 as a Captain in the U.S. Army. In 1970, he served one tour as a Social Work/Psychology Officer for I and II Corps in the Republic of South Vietnam.

Upon his return to the states, Meshad continued his dedication to American veterans by starting the Vietnam Veterans Re-Socialization Unit at the Brentwood, CA VA Hospital in 1971. He spent eight years working with Vietnam veterans and their severe readjustment problems in the Los Angeles area. Shad was one of the pioneers in the study of the disorder known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

In the past 27 years, Shad has received many service awards and recognitions for his work. He authored a book about his year in Vietnam, Captain for Dark Mornings, which, highly acclaimed, is in its second printing. Meshad has made appearances on many major television networks and cable news talk shows, including 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline, Nightline, and CNN News. Shad continues to consult, train, and counsel nationally and internationally.

In 1986, Shad started a stress management and consulting service. In the early 90's he began focusing on treating compassion fatigue. This condition is identical to secondary traumatic stress disorder (STSD) and is the equivalent of PTSD. It is the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized person. Through his associations, Shad introduced Charles Figley, Ph.D., a long-time friend and colleague to Dr. Roger Callahan who developed Thought Field Therapy. Dr. Callahan approached Meshad with the opportunity to study the effect of TFT therapy on veterans who suffered from PTSD. Impressed by the amazing results of this study, Shad has become a certified TFT diagnostician and practitioner, offering seminars on Levels I and II TFT nationwide.

In 2000 Shad founded Quantum Performance Institute with the goal of utilizing the amazing power of energy psychology techniques in the area of negative emotional states and attaining one's optimum performance level.

(More information follows, from a separate bio)

For more than 30 years, National Veterans Foundation (NVF) Founder and President Shad Meshad has worked as a therapist for veterans and an advocate for veterans’ rights. After receiving his master’s degree in psychiatric social work from Florida State University, he enlisted in the army in 1970, and served as a counselor for U.S. soldiers in Vietnam.

Upon his return to the U.S., Meshad founded and directed the Vietnam Veterans Re-Socialization Unit at the VA Hospital in Los Angeles, California. It was the first program of its kind, focusing on the readjustment problems of Vietnam veterans. During this time, Meshad was among the first to study the disorder now known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

In 1978, he worked to develop and lobby for the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Bill. In 1979, he founded the Vet Center Outreach Program, which now serves veterans in more than 200 locations across the country.

In 1980, Meshad was nominated for the first Olin Teague Medal of Service Award. In 1982, he published a memoir of his experiences in Vietnam, entitled “Captain for Dark Mornings.” In 1985, he founded the Vietnam Veterans Aid Foundation, which he later renamed the National Veterans Foundation.

He has served on the faculty of the International Critical Incident Foundation; as President and Board Member of the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists; and, recently, was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Green Cross Project.

In the wake of the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, Meshad was called upon by the U.S. government to help train the critical incident and trauma teams at Ground Zero.

Today, Meshad consults and teaches stress reduction and anger management techniques to mental health, law enforcement, and critical incident professionals through Quantum Performance Institute, a firm he established in 2001. He continues his work with veterans in the Los Angeles area, helping them through the process of healing and readjustment.

Combat Veterans at Walter Reed Give Yoga a Try

As part of our continuing series on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and veterans, linked here, there's news that a specific type of yoga called "Yoga Nidra" is being used at Walter Reed, bringing benefits to veterans who've been trying it.  An article from the Washington Post about the practice, by Eileen Rivers, called "A Breath of Hope: Walter Reed Tries Yoga to Counter PTSD," was published on May 6 and is linked here.  One nice quote from the article - the yoga teacher reports that "Students in class come up to me and say, 'I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time,' " "They say that they are more patient with their family. They're not as angry," she adds.  One of the participants mentioned in the article, combat veteran Derrick Farley, a 29 year old Army sergeant from Fort Bragg, who has deployed to Iraq three times, says that what he's learned in class has helped him cope.  He practices what he's learned, stays in touch with the other participants he's met in the program, and appreciates the chance yoga's given him to get a more restful night's sleep.  As he says as the conclusion of the article, " "It's not about finding a cure for PTSD," Farley said. "It's about learning to cope."  Excellent and well-said!

To learn more about Yoga Nidra, including trainings offered for practitioners and individuals on both coasts, check out the link to the Center for Timeless Being, located in Sebastopol, CA, linked here. Or you can pick up the CD by that center's director, Richard Miller, Ph.D., called Integrative Restoration: The Ancient Practice of Yoga Nidra for Easing Stress, Healing Trauma, and Awakening to Your Timeless Presence, linked here.

When PTSD Sufferers Can't Sleep, Award-Winning "Pacific Light" DVD Brings Some Healing Peace

Hyperarousal or heightened anxiety.  Flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive memories.  Intense physiological stress symptoms: pounding heart, rapid breathing, nausea, muscle tension, sweating. Difficulty falling or staying asleep.  Irritability or outbursts of anger. Difficulty concentrating. Hypervigilance, or being constantly “on guard.” An exaggerated startle response, or jumpiness. Inability to relax. All these symptoms are very familiar to PTSD sufferers and their families.

Pacific Light, Wind and Waves Healing Music DVD for Stressed and Anxious Patients.

Into this mix comes the award-winning "Pacific Light" DVD, and the elusive promise of an interlude of healing peace, that might even involve a good night's sleep.

Time, Inc. awarded Pacific Light its first place award for health and medical media.  Alternative Medicine mgazine calls Pacific Light "a breathtakingly beautiful video."  And over 400 hospitals use "Pacific Light" to help provide an atmosphere of healing peace for distressed patients and their families.  Walter Reed, the Mayo Clinic, the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps at Twentynine Palms, plus hundreds of other institutions are becoming fans of this DVD, a combination of stunning cinematography of some of the West Coast's most beautiful locales, filmed at sunrise and sunset, with no cheesy voiceover instructing patients to relax -- instead, the Grammy-nominated, award-winning soundtrack of R. Carlos Nakai's cedar flute music, as arranged by Billy Williams.

Pacific Light is the second DVD in a series by Thomas Day Oates, Jr., an amazing person and personal friend, whose own bouts with serious illness changed his career path into cinematography.  Oates has a very strong conviction about the importance of distressed patients and their families being able to create a space for "healing peace" - he believes the words are almost synonymous -- and that without a sense of peace, people can't begin to heal.

Apparently, a number of hospitals, hospices, and patients agree -- the testimonials are pretty impressive; and even without them, watching a clip of the gorgeous scenery and its peace-inducing soundtrack make the point instantly accessible.  For hospitals and institutions, click here. For individuals and families, click here. Website linked here.  Ordering info: 1-877-835-0838. Special pricing for veterans and their families: $19.98, including shipping and handling (within the U.S./APO/FPO). Call to inquire.

Editor's Note: You know who/where else needs this DVD?  Balad Military Hospital in Iraq. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The Combat Stress Control Unit. Mologne House Hotel in DC. Military chaplains in Iraq, Afghanistan, and stateside.  PTSD residential programs at the VA. VA Medical Centers.  Wounded warrior units.  Wounded troops, wherever they are recovering, at home and abroad.  The possibilities are practically endless.  And not just for the troops themselves: for their caregivers as well, who often are also suffering from vicarious trauma.

Music as Medicine: Sound Healing and PTSD

In our continuing series about "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" modalities that may offer potential for treating PTSD, one item that's suggested in the literature is "sound therapy."  To learn a little more about it, here's some information from some of the experts in the field, and, a few selected items for listening.

 

According to one Rodale guide, in its section about PTSD,

To ease anxiety related to post-traumatic stress syndrome, try listening to relaxing music for at least 20 to 30 minutes each day, says Steven Halpern, Ph.D., composer, researcher, and author of Sound Medicine: Music for Healing.

To get started, turn on the music, then sit or lie comfortably, close your eyes, and take a deep breath.  Dr. Halpern suggests that you wear headphones to focus your full attention and to avoid distractions.  He recommends, however, that you keep the speakers playing, so your body absorbs the sound energy.  While the music plays, let your breathing slow down and become steady.  Listen not just to the notes but also to the silence between the notes.  Dr. Halpern says this will keep you from analyzing the music, which will allow it to relax you.

(Similarly, the emphasis for listening should be on "largo".)

When it comes to relaxing music, the key is largo.  That's music played at a slow tempo, called largo, which can reduce your heart and breathing rates, calm your body, and help it heal itself, says Janalea Hoffman, R.M.T., a composer and music therapist based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Look for music that is played at 60 beats per minute or less.  Most music is faster than that and won't help slow your heartbeat, Hoffman says.  "What you are looking for is the largo section of each piece.  That's the part with a beat that works."  These composers are among those who have largo sections in many of their compositions: Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, and Georg Phillip Telemann.  Most records, tapes and CDS list the different sections of each piece, in order, on their covers.  The problem is that these slow sections last only a few minutes. For longer listening, you will find lots of specially made tapes in music stores and can order even more from other sources.

Source: New Choices in Natural Healing: Over 1,800 of the Best Self-Help Remedies from the World of Alternative Medicine, Edited by Bill Gottlieb, Editor-in-Chief, Prevention Magazine Health Books.  Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, Inc. (1995).

---

Some well-regarded longer pieces in the sound health/sound medicine category are the following, all available at Amazon.com:

 

Inner Peace, by Steven Halpern, Ph.D.; Effortless Relaxation, by Steven Halpern, Ph.D.;  Letting Go of Stress, by Steven Halpern, Ph.D.; Tao of Peace, by Li Xiang-Ting and Dean Evenson; Sound Body, Sound Mind: Music for Healing, by Andrew Weil, M.D. and Joshua Leeds; Relax and De-Stress: Music for Self-Healing, by Andrew Weil, M.D., and Joshua Leeds; The Tao of Healing, by Li Xiang-Ting and Dean Evenson; Sound Healing, by Dean Evenson; 

 

and particularly for getting a good night's sleep, which is so essential for reducing anxiety and improving healing:

 

Sleep Soundly, by Steven Halpern, Ph.D.; The Delta Sleep System, by Dr. Jeffrey D. Thompson; 

James S. Gordon, M.D., Founder and Director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine

James S. Gordon, MD, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist,is a world-renowned expert in using mind-body medicine to heal depression,anxiety,and psychological trauma. He is the Founder and Director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, a Clinical Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at Georgetown Medical School, and recently served as Chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. He also served as the first Chair of the Program Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Alternative Medicine and is a former member of the Cancer Advisory Panel on Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the NIH.

 

Dr. Gordon has devoted over 35 years to the exploration and practice of mind-body medicine. After gradating Harvard Medical School, he was for 10 years a research psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health. There he developed the first national program for runaway and homeless youth, edited the first comprehensive studies of alternative and holistic medicine, directed the Special Study on Alternative Services for President Carter’s Commission on Mental Health, and created a nationwide preceptorship program for medical students.

 

Dr. Gordon has created ground-breaking programs of comprehensive mind-body healing for physicians, medical students, and other health professionals; for people with cancer, depression and other chronic illnesses; and for traumatized children and families in Bosnia, Kosovo, Israel and Gaza as well as in post-9/11 New York and post-Katrina southern Louisiana. Nearly 3,000 health and mental health professionals throughout these regions have been trained by Dr. Gordon to more effectively address the psychological trauma within their communities, including supervision and training of a local leadership group within each region which enables the CMBM model to be fully integrated into and sustainable within the local healthcare community.

 

Dr. Gordon’s most recent book is Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression (Penguin Press). His also the author of Comprehensive Cancer Care: Integrating Alternative, Complementary and Conventional Therapies and Manifesto for a New Medicine: Your Guide to Healing Partnerships and the Wise Use of Alternative Therapies (both Perseus Books). In addition, Dr. Gordon has written or edited 9 other books, including the award-winning Health for the Whole Person, and more than 120 articles in professional journals and general magazines and newspapers, among them the American Journal of Psychiatry, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Journal of Traumatic Stress, Psychiatry, The American Family Physician, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. He also helped develop and write the educational materials to supplement the public television series “Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers”.

 

Dr. Gordon’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, CBS Sunday Morning, FOX News and National Public Radio, as well as in The Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, People, American Medical News, Clinical Psychiatry News, Town and Country, Hippocrates,  Psychology Today, Vegetarian Times, Natural Health, Health, and Prevention.