That was the way Frank described himself. Frank is a Marine and by the age of 25 had served three tours in Iraq - was first into Fallujah and in Baghdad when it fell. He escaped physical harm but inside his mind it was a different story. Anger permeated his life. Nightmares and night sweats were nightly occurrences. He was on the verge of loosing his family. Depression increased, intrusive thoughts continued, feeling detached and indulging in some self destructive behaviors was the norm. He continued to react as if he lived in a war zone - the state of hyperviligence that had served him so well and kept him alive couldn't be turned off. He was a classic example of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A term we hear all too often now.
With a great amount of skeptism and defensiveness, he walked in my door in September. After his first brain training session he was so sore he could hardly get out of the chair and ask if that would happen every time. I assured him that wouldn't be the case. He was sore because it was the first time in a very long time that his body had actually relaxed to the point where he could feel. After nine hours of brain state conditioning Frank reported that his nightmares and night sweats were gone, his anger was virtually non-existent, his alcohol consumption and smoking has decreased to less than half of what they were, and his performance and stamina in martial arts had increased. He noticed that he wasn't practicing evasive manuevers while simply driving down the highway. He is handling life with a renewed self-confidence, knowing he can deal with whatever comes his way in a calm, responsive manner. He is no longer living in the constant heightened state of alterness that served him so well in the military, but knows those abilities are but a moment away if he needs them again. After about 16 hours of brain training, he quit smoking completely.
The challenge our country is facing is like no other in our history. The number of veterans returning from military service suffering with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is staggering. One in three veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from significant to severe post traumatic stress, yet close to 60% of them do not receive help.
The Veterans Administration and other government resources are admittedly at their capacity in treating veterans. Simply stated, they are unprepared and overstretched. A report entitled, “An Achievable Vision”, released this summer by the Department of Defense task force on mental health concludes, “The Military Health System lacks the fiscal resources and fully trained personnel to fulfill its mission to support psychological health in peacetime or fulfill the enhanced requirements imposed during times of conflict. The mission of caring for psychological health has fundamentally changed and the current system must be restructured to reflect these changes. This requires acknowledgement of new fiscal and personnel requirements necessary to meet current and future demands for a full spectrum of services including: resilience-building, assessment, prevention, early intervention, and provision of an easily-accessible continuum of treatment for psychological health for service members and their families in Active and Reserve components.” After this report was released, the military announced it would develop a plan to hire hundreds of psychiatrists and mental health workers to help returning vets and their families. This will take a great deal of time to orchestrate. Meanwhile, there remains a significant and spiraling gap between the war veterans suffering from PTSD who receive effective and timely help and those who do not.
Brain State Conditioning is state-of-the-art biofeedback technology that does not involve talk therapy or the need to relive trauma to release it, for most clients. We simply balance and harmonize your brain. For more information or to ask questions directly to Frank, call the Institute of Optimum Balancing at 480-633-7292.
Sue Shipman
www.OptimumBalancing.com
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