Parents-soldiers will need your help!

Time Magazine reports-

"For the first time in history, a sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The medicines are intended not only to help troops keep their cool but also to enable the already strapped Army to preserve its most precious resource: soldiers on the front lines."

This is what one combat sergent discovered after some heavy missions...

"LeJeune visited a military doctor in Iraq, who, after a quick session, diagnosed depression. The doctor sent him back to war armed with the antidepressant Zoloft and the antianxiety drug clonazepam. "It's not easy for soldiers to admit the problems that they're having over there for a variety of reasons," LeJeune says. "If they do admit it, then the only solution given is pills."

... any drug that keeps a soldier deployed and fighting also saves money on training and deploying replacements. But there is a downside: the number of soldiers requiring long-term mental-health services soars with repeated deployments and lengthy combat tours. If troops do not get sufficient time away from combat — both while in theater and during the "dwell time" at home before they go back to war — it's possible that antidepressants and sleeping aids will be used to stretch an already taut force even tighter. "

These kids coming back will have several issues to deal with. May of them simply won't be able to coop on their own. Much less to try and get their lives back to normal. Adding drugs to the mix may effectively hide symptoms, but don't be fooled. They will need extra time, care, attention and love to aid healing. (At a time when they may accept it from you least.)

Take care of yourself first, so that you can be your best, calmest, most loving self, in order to start to help them find a way out of the downward spiral they may find themselves in. To help both you and them-look into complementary health alternatives as a way to assist the mental and physical healing. Reiki, aromatherapy, cranial sacral, reflexology, EMDR, Quantum Touch, the list goes on and on. And though the healing stories may be largely antidoctal-the vast quantity of them is to large to ignore!

Our favorite is EFT www.emofree.com. It's inexpensive, it can be done over the telephone, can be done in groups or alone, with or without the help of a professional, (although at first we recommend finding an expert practitioner) and has no side effects. Once you learn how, the whole family can use it.

Illustration by Lon Tweeten and D.W. Pine for TIME

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

More good news!

Things are starting to move!

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake today said an expansion by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of its Vet Centers, which provide readjustment counseling and outreach services to returning combat veterans, is well ahead of schedule.

In February 2007, VA announced it would open 23 new centers during the next two years. Fifteen of those centers are already operational, and five others are seeing patients in temporary facilities while finalizing their leases. The other three facilities will begin operations later this year.

"Building on our past successes, 2008 will see a permanent increase in the number of Vet Centers, as we bring the remaining facilities on line to reach a record 232 Vet Centers by the end of the year," Peake said.

"To support this expansion and augment the staff at 61 existing Vet Centers, this year we are channeling a 44 percent increase in funding to the Readjustment Counseling Service, which operates the Vet Centers -- nearly $50 million more than last year's budget," he added.

The community-based Vet Centers are a key component of VA's mental health program, providing veterans with mental health screening and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) counseling, along with help for family members dealing with bereavement and loved ones with PTSD.

The 15 new Vet Centers that are open in permanent locations are in Binghamton, N.Y.; Middletown, N.Y.; Watertown, N.Y.; Hyannis, Conn.; DuBois, Pa.; Gainesville, Fla.; Melbourne, Fla.; Macon, Ga.; Manhattan, Kansas; Escanaba, Mich.; Saginaw, Mich.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Baton Rouge, La.; Killeen, Texas; and Las Cruces, N.M.

Five additional Vet Centers are providing services in temporary space while they finalize their leases: They are in Toledo, Ohio; Ft. Myers, Fla.; Montgomery, Ala.; Everett, Wash.; and Modesto, Calif.

The final three locations where Vet Centers will open for clients later this year are in Berlin, N.H., Nassau County, N.Y., and Fayetteville, Ark.

Vet Centers provide counseling on employment, plus services on family issues, education and outreach, to combat veterans and their families. Vet Centers are staffed by small teams of professional counselors, outreach specialists and other specialists, many of whom are combat veterans themselves.

VA's Vet Centers have hired 100 combat veterans back from Iraq and Afghanistan as outreach specialists, often placing them near military processing stations, to brief servicemen and women leaving the military about VA benefits.

These outreach specialists meet with returning veterans, work through family assistance centers and visit military installations to carry the message that VA will be there for the troops and family members after discharge.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

What not to say to returning vets...

"Time heals all wounds"

If you've got returning troops coming into your family, community or church, this is one cliché you will want to stay away from. In fact you may want to stay away from alot of clichés. Instead let your veteran know that you care, you don't know what they are going through, but you do want to help.

They may have PTSD which means they might feel angry, confused, embarrassed, depressed, anxious, drinking or worse, avoiding old friends, family and hangouts. But you can't know that unless you stop, take the time to ask AND listen!

Pushing through PTSD?

Kids headed out for the bus this morning, still in the dark. As I closed the door behind the last one, I heard 'GO GET MOM!'

It brought me on the run to find a motorcyclist who had slipped and slid for yards on the icy road. It was obvious she was in shock and already getting sore. But because she had no 'external' damage she refused any help of any kind. Not for herself, not for her machine. "I can handle it," she kept saying.

It seems to be an inbuilt survival mechanism for us to push on and almost a gut reaction not to appear to need help. Which makes treating PTSD very difficult. Especially with troops trained to push on, trained to overcome fears and weaknesses, trained to get the job done, not dwell on what's bothering them.

This is the point when family and friends become SO important. Listening, watching, being aware, being there without pushing, taking the time to understand what might be going on and helping to find solutions.