PTSD Motivation Changes

[Sundown]

A very good article on Motivation Enhancement (ME) Group can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~maxco1/BrucePAR3x.htm ... this has to do with the concept that a PTSD individual must first recognize that he has symtoms and the desire to change behaviors and coping styles.

[John Allison]

I couldn't get the site up. I tsaid error 404 whatever that means.

S/F

John

[William Dale DeBord]

Try again. It came up fine for me.

[Mike Mullen]

This seems to be an excellent approach; one of the newest things to come down the pike for PTSD for our population in quite a while...
The issues which seem to create big problems with treatment of PTSD are: severity of the subjective "injury"; time elapsed since the experience; pre-existing (before the experience) mental illness; and coping personality patterns post-injury which become deeply ingrained, usually because they aleviate suffering and "work" to some extent, providing the individual with partial relief or some secondary gain. This new material (similar to past approaches, but better researched this time) seems to be more up-front and real, establishing that there may be reasons for an individual to fear a "loss" of some of the social or other support attached to his/her symptoms.

S/F,

Moon

[Bull79Dog]

TOM

EXCELLENT ARTICLE!!! Just hope this new method helps our Veterans 'get a life"!
The numbers of veterans hooked on drugs
& living on the streets is deployable!!

[jim-uc62]

I come up empty too... no error message, just a "nothing found" note. I would like to read it since I am currently in a 5 year fight to get rated for a well documented PTSD diagnosis.
BINGO! New rule for the VA to cope with. If you hold a Purple Heart signup with www.purpleheart.org The new rule says it is an automatic stressor for PTSD. I got a 30% added, but watch your back - they cut me 10% on a leg that's now useless. Still fighting to re-establish my "Loss of Use" on my leg. They had to use a civilian doctor for the review of my PTSD claim and they don't want to provide a copy of his report.

[widow1]

My husband first had problems in '76 that required hospitalization for "psychotic" disturbance. Repeated requests for his file to VA elicited "unable to locate" replies (at least 5). Docs reluctant to take his word for his service.

Forward to '83, we find the body of a friend and Tony comes unglued, two hospitalizations in 5 weeks. Private doctor sends us to VA where social worker(out of school for 10 months), schedules another appt. Tony kills himself the day before that next visit. Soc. worker covers his ass. The horror of that 6 weeks will be with me for the rest of my life, but I know that Tony was afraid that he might hurt us during one of his flashbacks and acted to protect us.

Took me seventeen years to get file and another year to get outpatient file with congressman's help. Took to original private shrink who said that it was obvious he had PTSD.

Still fighting the VA, but at least I have proven to the kids that their Dad was suffering from a trauma induced illness, not some pre-existing mental defect.

Capt. A. M. Davitt, USMC, in country Dec. 67 to Jan. 69. flew UH-34D's. Semper Fidelis.