Current Event Spring

PTSD in Military Veterans 1) Typically, PTSD occurs after traumatic events including sexual assault, abuse, and even lifethreatening events such as war and violence. PTSD is typically whenever your body and nervous system get “stuck” and doesn’t know how to relax. Some symptoms of PTSD are recurrent reminders of the event, avoidance of the things that remind you of that tragic event, mood swings, and emotionally reactive and jumpy. Typically, some of the ‘reminders’ that veterans have include nightmares, distressing thoughts, and flashbacks. There is also usually a trigger that comes along with these distressing events. It can be a T.V show, natural disasters, or even words or loud noises. Lots of things can help veterans such as regular exercise, burning off that adrenaline can help release endorphins and clear their mind of that “stuck” state that PTSD can cause. A lot of veterans can use physical therapy to get their minds clear from that state, but there are also ways that other people in the clinic can affect it. 2) The connection this has to my project is that this is teaching me about PTSD. I already know somethings about PTSD since I have had a step-father who was a military veteran and had very bad PTSD. In our clinic we serve people of many kinds, including veterans. I always thought it was interesting how therapists need to be able to understand the circumstances veterans go through. I really wanted to know how it can affect a clinic, and the standards you need to uphold when dealing with veterans. Since we already have rules in our clinic to help veterans, I wanted to know what else you could do to be able to help and be able to prevent PTSD from affecting veterans as much as we can. Some of the basic things we do already is make sure we don’t slam ice chests, and laundry baskets. I really want to find out some other ways that we can prevent veterans suffering from PTSD at a Physical Therapy clinic.

3) I thought that this article was very informational, and it had a lot of good knowledge about PTSD and the veterans. It made me feel kind of sad because it gave me bad memories of how my step-dad suffered through PTSD. Not only that, but people with PTSD can make other people suffering without even realizing it. It’s very hard for not only the veterans, but their family. Sometimes, the family doesn’t know how to help. There are many ways that veterans can get help, but usually it doesn’t go away. It is something that sticks with people for the rest of their life. There is no known cure for PTSD, but there is things that can help. 4) Smith, Melinda, et al. “PTSD in Military Veterans.” Healthy Eating Tips to Prevent, Control, and Reverse Diabetes, 13 Feb. 2019, www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/ptsd-inmilitary-veterans.htm/.