PTSD Therapy by Psychologists: Maybe this isn't the Correct Term

Annihilation Anxiety. Battle Terror. Call it what you may, but PTSD victims deserve respect in treatment.

U.S. Marine in Beirut during the early 80's

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Salem-news.com posted an article Sept. 17, 2010 Instructional Protocol/Sensitivity During Interaction With PTSD Sufferers by Carol Ware Duff, RN, BA, MSN, which appears to be a psychological approach for PTSD therapy. This is very important because there are estimates of more than 1,000,000 military victims from recent wars and more turning up years after they got out of the military.

Although Ms. Duff is a nurse it appears that this protocol is directed to a psychological therapy approach. I was under the impression that this had been tried by the VA in group sessions of PTSD Veterans with little success and the process was converted into lectures by psychologists with their comments followed by Veterans asking questions. I attended 4 of 10 sessions until the weather went bad and I didn’t want to drive 50 miles home in rainy, dark weather. Some of my “classmates” asked, “when are they going to tell us what they are GOING TO DO for us?” I had this question also!

Ms. Duff uses many references to favor her point of view. She uses the term ANNIHILATION ANXIETY which I had not seen before but it equates with my term BATTLE TERROR which affects ALL combat personnel. The worst thing about this is that it so penetrates our souls and brains that we PTSD victims cannot talk about the overall experiences, not even to a trusted mental health expert. She calls these CONFRONTATIONAL INTERACTIONS which is an effect I have heard from many of my 1000 or so PTSD Veterans.

These confrontations can be dangerous or even lethal to the psychologist. YOU CANNOT PUSH A SEVERE PTSD VETERAN even if it is a woman. For a man therapist it is even more dangerous! These veterans have been too close to killing and dying and the detritus of battle. Few things stress or threaten them and if it does they can and will explode.

She mentions that these (mental health) staff members “will bring their own experiences to the task.” I disagree, experiences causing moderate or severe PTSD cannot be duplicated by teaching or learning. The main problem seemingly buried or camouflaged here is that severe PTSD victims usually cannot talk about these demons or relate these demons to personal helpers. Veterans have said this confrontation “is like lighting a fuse on a bomb”. Claustrophobia and similar phobias are dangerously at work here and the victim may not even realize it.

Role playing can be dangerous. Veterans typically have been “role playing” as killers or watching their closest buddies blown apart. During these episodes it is not unlikely that the PTSD victim will almost literally and psychologically fall apart. To introduce this type of reliving horrific experiences can be devastating like surviving an artillery barrage when most of your buddies are blown to pieces. Reading any book of combat experiences should clarify my comments.

I read this entire article with a great amount of anticipation and hope. I have seen the explosion of PTSD on the front lines, suffered PTSD the same as many veterans and have interviewed and successfully treated about 1000 PTSD Veterans from WWII, The Korean War, The Viet Nam War, Desert Storm and the Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Their symptoms of PTSD are on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 or 2 being minimal and not usually clinical. The 3’s and 4’s may successfully respond to the psychological therapy described in the original article. Veterans with stress of 5 to 6 may manage with mild medications. Anything 7 or above will require long term care. The 8’s and 9’s are at about the limit of possible medical help and the 10’s are most likely in long term care facilities or victims of suicide or have murdered someone in a rage.

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