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

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

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder benefits from early treatment

It is becoming increasingly apparent that early treatment of PTSD is important. One of the benefits of EFT is that it can be used immediately after the traumatic event is over. In this case, it heals PTSD so quickly it almost becomes a preventive measure for PTSD without causing the soldier to lose the "edge" so important to survival in combat.

PTSD is an unavoidable product of war

Many years ago when we first began to study PTSD, it seemed as if it must be some kind of mysterious, unusual problem. It gradually became apparent that PTSD is not only common, it is an unavoidable product of war. Because it has to do with emotion, it is largely denied and ignored by those who believe emotion plays no part in war.

Without emotion we are less than human. Symptoms of PTSD reveal that regardless of the things soldiers have had to do and/or witness, they are still human and have human reactions to horror.