USA Today | Veteran on cross-country trek dies - "A disabled Gulf War veteran who left Norman earlier this month on a hand-propelled bicycle headed for Washington D.C. to honor fallen soldiers has died. Kevin Baker suffered a seizure Friday morning in his sleep at the home of some friends in Lake Charles, La., said Norman resident Diane Zellner. He died in an ambulance en route to a local hospital, Zellner said she was told. Baker, a 39-year-old Navy veteran, had a history of seizures, stemming from a traumatic brain injury, she said. He also had been diagnosed with lymphoma."
Scientific American | Soldiers' Stress: What Doctors Get Wrong about PTSD - A provoking article (of thought, certainly, and anger in some as well) says that PTSD "is under fire because its defining criteria are too broad, leading to rampant overdiagnosis;" that the "flawed PTSD concept may mistake soldiers' natural process of adjustment to civilian life for dysfunction;" and that "misdiagnosed soldiers receive the wrong treatments and risk becoming mired in a Veterans Administration system that encourages chronic disability." Mind Hanks has more commentary (its comments are reflective of the opinion tug of war).
On a lighter note, comedian and Comedy Central talk show host Stephen Colbert plans to take The Colbert Report to the Middle East. "I’m not supposed to tell anyone where I’m going, but just say it’s sandy and they’d like us to leave," Colbert told Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.
MTV's “The Real World” highlights cast member and Iraq vet Ryan's recent visit to the New York office of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). The episode, premiering tonight and rerun throughout the week, has Ryan marching in the Veterans' Day Parade and attending IAVA's Second Annual Heroes Gala.
While a wide variety of events can trigger what's called post-traumatic stress disorder, this PTSD blog focuses solely on the combat-related variety.
As a new generation of warriors returns to civilian life and seeks out resources, PTSD Combat is here to help.
"The first shamans earned their keep in primitave societies by providing explanations and rituals that enabled man to deal with his environment and his personal anguish. Early man, no less than we, dealt with forces that he could not understand or control, and he attempted to come to grips with his vulnerablity by trying to bring order to his universe." -- Richard Gabriel in No More Heroes
"War stories end when the battle is over or when the soldier comes home. In real life, there are no moments amid smoldering hilltops for tranquil introspection. When the war is over, you pick up your gear, walk down the hill and back into the world." -- OIF vet John Crawford in The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell
"After wars' end, soldiers once again become civilians and return to their families to try to pick up where they left off. It is this process of readjustment that has more often than not been ignored by society. -- Major Robert H. Stretch, Ph.D in Textbook of Military Medicine: Vol. 6 Combat Stress
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2011: Jan