The Worst thing to ignore if someone you love has PTSD

This simple but effective technique is finding more and more skeptics turning to believers in the therapy world. EFT, or tapping, is easy to do, gives immediate relief and once you know how to do it, you can do it for yourself. So what's keeping the VA from adopting it TODAY? They want more studies.

Considering the massive amount of success that PTSD sufferers have had with this amazingly simple technique, we hope they get their studies done quickly.

Here is a quote from the article in Press Democrat.com about one man's experience...

To treat the post-traumatic stress disorder he's endured for four decades — the sleeplessness, the depression, the troubled relationships — Peter Tracy turned last year to tapping.

"It made a difference," said Tracy, 61, a Vietnam veteran. "I feel like I'm doing OK."

He said his Army service in Vietnam with a combat supply unit felt "like a nightmare I couldn't get out of."

Tapping, known formally as emotional freedom techniques, or EFT, is a therapy in which patients, guided by someone trained in the procedure, tap on acupressure points by the eye, over the lip, on the chest and under an arm. At the same time, the patient describes past traumas, ranks the intensity of the memory and repeats statements meant to affirm self- acceptance in the face of the experience.

For the entire article here is the link from PressDemocrat.com ...

http://www.eftuniverse.com/images/stories/6-4-10/pressdemovets.pdf

Ask a Veteran about EFT's value

This just in from the EFT free newsletter, a VERY good source of information and stories from people who have used Emotional Freedom Technique successfully in their own lives.

Ask a Veteran about EFT's value:
Debi Stanley is a Veteran who experienced EFT in a specialized workshop for Vets in San Francisco over a year and a half ago. She is willing to correspond with you about her experience. She says, "Before EFT in San Francisco, I had been suffering from depression for over 20 years and took every med in the books. I also had severe nightmares once or twice per week that would cause me to scream in the middle of the night. After EFT, I am off the meds and have had neither depression nor nightmares since. EFT saved my life."

Pretty powerful testimonial to the effectiveness of this work. It's especially good when you can work with a practitioner and there are several people out there who specialize in working with veterans, from all wars. Many EFT practitioners are easily able to work over the phone, if you are in a remote area. When you can't work with a practitioner, which I highly recommend, there are alternatives. From e-books, click here, to audio files and CD's.

Here's the link for the newsletter, you can sign up and probably get to this issue. If not drop me a line and I'll send it to you. newslettersign-up

EFT offering free help to Veterans

this just in from the EFT website...

Now, the Iraq Vets Stress Project, which offers EFT to ALL veterans free of charge, and which many of you have supported with your donations, is launching a nationwide study of vets with PTSD (whether or not they served in Iraq). If you know of a veteran who is suffering from nightmares, health problems, flashbacks, insomnia, or some of the other symptoms of PTSD, please encourage them to apply for the study. Help is available in many cities, as well as over the phone. Go to http://www.StressProject.org/multicitystudy.html for details. You can also call Crystal Hawk at 416-922 4325 if you have questions or need direction.

it's a great opportunity to get a vet you know and love some FREE help!! The success they have had on previous studies have encourage and lead them to offer more help. The exciting thing is they are looking at long term changes for the better, with this relatively new and VERY easy technique.

ptsdcombat.blogspot.com Thanks to Ilona Meagher for the cool poster!

Troops' brain injuries inspire a new mission

USA TODAY

LANDSTUHL, Germany — It took nearly three years for the Army to understand the damage to Army Sgt. Chad Joiner's brain after a roadside explosion left him unconscious in a Humvee on June 28, 2005.

He finished his tour and returned home, struggled with headaches and memory loss, went back to Iraq and survived another bombing in February that aggravated his symptoms.

Only after arriving here at the Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center with an ankle injury in February did a new and aggressive screening program finally identify Joiner's brain injury and lead to treatment. "I'm just in shock that somebody is figuring out what's wrong with me," says Joiner, 26, who says his gratitude for the treatment outweighs any bitterness over the delay in diagnosing his injury.

The Pentagon debated for years whether to systematically screen troops for brain injuries such as Joiner's. A recent study by RAND Corp., a research group, says such injuries could have affected 320,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Uncertain how aggressively to identify a wound that is still largely a mystery, the Pentagon initially resisted calls to screen all service members coming out of the battlefield. Under pressure from Congress, the Pentagon in March ordered all military branches to screen for traumatic brain injury (TBI).

By then, doctors at this key Army hospital — through which all war casualties pass on their way home — already had begun to check each of the wounded for a brain injury in an effort that could set new standards for whether such troops ever return to duty.

This is wonderful news for current troops coming out of combat. Perhaps veterans will be able to avail themselves of this technology also in the future. It certainly will help reduce the stigma of PTSD and brain trauma related injuries. Which in turn will lead to better awareness, which in turn will lead to broader search for effective solutions.

One of which is Emotional Freedom Technique. Some of the things I like about EFT are: you or your soldier can start using it TODAY! it's really inexpensive, it brings quick relief, it is drug free, it is so easy to do. And it can reverse these unseen injuries.

Side effects? Well more energy, more joy, more freedom to live a normal life, more engagement in the present, less depression, less fear, less anger, better sleep-I could go on and on but you get the idea!

thanks for the photo by foreignobsessed

Combating P.T.S.D. and Preventing Suicides

by Jennifer Litz
Del Rio LIVE!

Pat Dugan was a reconnaissance marine corporal in Vietnam for 19 months, starting in 1966. He’s now a passionate voice for veteran help that resounds throughout West Texas. “I am seeing one of the biggest mushroom clouds,” Dugan says of times ahead for Iraq/Afghanistan veterans. “’... there are no front lines in this war. You can be [in a non-combat service] and get your butt blown off the road there with anyone else. Everyone’s sitting around waiting for an explosion to go off, and they send you back and back for more tours.”

When these vets do come back home—or in between myriad deployments—they’re still fighting—for their benefits. “In Del Rio, for example, we’ve got people with problems,” Dugan says. “And they have to travel 150 miles to get help [at a VA clinic]. And then when you get up there, I’m not being mean, but when you go up there and apply to get help, you get some VA muffin that’s not a veteran, and they put you through mental gymnastics like you wouldn’t believe. [Vets] don’t want to be humiliated and go through that process.”

This is a great article on a upcoming progressive treatment center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Texas. Dugan points out 3 classic problems for getting treatment from traditional sources for PTSD...
1. fighting for benefits
2. traveling 150 miles to get help from a VA clinic
3. humiliation of the process
That's what I like about using EFT for this population. Once they know how to do it, they can start healing without the fighting, traveling or waiting. They can work with a practitioner or they can work on their own. They can use the Emotional Freedom Technique at home, on the road, sitting in traffic-anywhere. They can find a buddy to do it with. And if they can't do it on their own-family members, friends and spouses can do it with them. How many therapies can you say that about?

Sometimes those who need it most, are the least capable of helping themselves.

But there is hope. Combat soldiers or veterans suffering from PTSD are often unable to get out of their confusion or depression long enough to seek help for themselves. It often takes time, research, focus and patience. These things are exactly what many sufferers DON'T have.

Here's where family, spouses and friends can help. Surrogate EFT can be amazingly effective. That is to say, doing Emotional Freedom Technique exercises for another person works! It may not be the "end-all" but it may be just the incentive needed to get the PTSD sufferer to the point where they can start working to heal him or herself.

It's similar to tuning into a radio station on your car radio. You don't have to drive to the station and sit in the studio to enjoy the program. It works on frequencies and wave lengths to transfer the music right to your car (without even being plugged into anything!) 

Once you learn how to do the tapping on yourself, try surrogate tapping on a simple issue with a friend or child and you'll see for yourself how effective it can be. You can download this free booklet by clicking on this link...

free booklet on EFT tapping

EFT with PTSD

Emotional Freedom Technique-EFT is so easy to use that each person can become his or her own therapist. This eliminates the necessity for revealing to others that a veteran suffers from symptoms of PTSD. Veterans can avoid the stigma and red tape of applying for disability, but still relieve themselves of the terrible symptoms of PTSD.

Imagine! No more terrifying nightmares, violent outbursts of anger, embarrassing (or worse) delayed reactions, withdrawal from friends and family, hypertension or depression, flashbacks. Certainly worth a try.

www.healingveteransptsd.com

Watch for our upcoming web site www.healingveteransptsd.com On it you will find an information filled E-book. "Recovering From PTSD YOUR Way" with instructions on how to help yourself or someone you care about deal with the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Topics covered include; what is Emotional Freedom Technique, how to use it, what to do if it doesn't work at first, how to deal with triggers, flashbacks and delayed reactions, what to do if your loved one can't or won't do it for him or herself, and much, much more.