Cara Countryman with Mission 22

June is PTSD awareness month.

PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, affects about 7 percent of people in the United States. Among the population, military veterans are most likely to suffer from PTSD.

“Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that develops in response to experiencing or witnessing a distressing event involving the threat of death or extreme bodily harm,” according to Psychology Today.

The Murfreesboro Pulse spoke with Kristen Luchene, Psy.D, who is part of the PTSD clinical team with the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, which provides care to veterans.

“As providers, when we see someone who has experienced or may be dealing with PTSD, we first look at what is causing the post-traumatic stress symptoms,” Luchene said.

“When it comes to trauma, a large portion of the U.S. population will experience at least one trauma in their lifetime. However, not everyone ends up developing a diagnosis of PTSD. Some people can recover after experiencing the trauma, while others may not necessarily, and we don’t have a lot of explanation in research for why that is. However, we know there is a significantly higher proportion of PTSD diagnosed in the veteran population and for folks that have experienced any kind of sexual trauma.”

The potential trauma could include experiences that happen to someone directly, an incident that they saw happen to someone else as it was happening, or even just learning about something that happened to a family member or close friend.

“Trauma can happen when someone witnesses an unnatural or violent death such as homicides, suicides or car accidents. Or it could be a part of a person’s job where they are repeatedly exposed to these adverse details, such as child protective services, social workers being routinely exposed to abuse cases, police officers arriving to murder crime scenes repeatedly. Things like that,” Luchene said. “We see there is a higher prevalence of trauma among our veteran population, due to that social combat.”

Luchene said her PTSD team looks at how symptoms or post-traumatic reactions revolve around that trauma.

“It can range a lot among people who are civilians, who are any kind of front-line healthcare worker or first responder, and veterans. It can really vary in terms of how they experience PTSD,” she said. As clinicians, we take a lot of steps to assess how these reactions may be revolved around that trauma that seems to be coming up in their dreams a lot. Their mind is having these memories about the trauma, but they are not intentionally trying to think about that trauma. Some people may feel as if their body is reacting to reminders in their day-to-day life.”

These reminders could be in the patient’s mind or in their environment, or they could be holding on to some blame, whether that’s toward themselves or someone else who was linked to the trauma.

“There’s a lot of factors that we take into account, because it can range broadly,” Luchene said.

Luchene says understanding of PTSD has really changed over the decades since World War I.

According to Psychology Today, the colloquially named condition “shell shock” was first thought to affect only soldiers, but PTSD was officially recognized as a mental health disorder in 1980.

“The understanding of PTSD has been constantly changing and forming into what it is today,” Luchene said. “For quite a few years, we as a healthcare field in mental health believed that medications used to be the first line of recommended treatment. But we have come to realize there is research saying that therapy is the top-recommended treatment for PTSD.”

The top three therapies that seem to be consistently effective are: cognitive processing therapy (CPT)—or challenging your way of thinking about yourself or the world; prolonged exposure—or challenging yourself not to rely on avoidance as a way to continue coping; and, a third therapy that is also gaining popularity in the private sector—eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).

“EMDR takes a very unique approach where you are doing eye movements or what we call bilateral simulations,” Luchene said. “This is a different approach to trying to process that memory. It is not hypnosis. The person is fully awake, present and aware. We have seen some pretty significant benefits from EMDR on our population.”

Additionally, activities like music therapy, equine therapy and recreational therapy can help with PTSD recovery.

“We’re talking about finding a way of healing through the mind and body,” Luchene said.

Ross Lester, who coordinates community drum circles for the local Everybody Drum Some series, says he is not an authority about PTSD specifically but adds that “just in general, drumming and recreational music-making can be a great help to people who are enduring all kinds of difficulties.” His group has worked with numerous local veterans.

Jay Fine, the owner and operator of Hypnosis for Health, is a veteran himself.

“I’m mostly retired, and just want to get as many people aware of PTSD as possible, particularly in our local community because we have a large number of veterans here,” Fine said. “For PTSD, traditional medications aren’t doing all the work they should be doing or can do.

“We see healing as a matter of changing your mind, and I can guide them through the process, and they leave knowing what steps to take.”

The group Mission 22 also aims to be a resource for veterans struggling with PTSD.

“Mission 22 was founded by veterans and most of our staff are veterans, spouses of veterans, or have immediate family who have served in the U.S. military,” said Cara Countryman, Central Florida State Leader for Mission 22. “What we do is we provide extensive personalized support to help veterans and their families thrive. Our programs are for veterans and their spouses. We offer everything from biometric monitoring of stress, sleep and activity levels to coaching and some meditation. We provide exercise programs and wellness support, a regiment for supplements and materials that veterans can read and learn from, to help them take the issues that they have and turn them into a positive mindset.

Many vets who have PTSD and brain injuries may carry with them different things they remember from their military service that can trigger post-traumatic episodes.

“We take all these things into account with a holistic approach to wellness and put their experiences into context,” Countryman said. Then they turn that into a positive outcome through wellness—as well as a mind, body and spirit kind of thing.”

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Mission 22 operates nationwide. For more information on or assistance with PTSD, even for civilians, visit mission22.com.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has information and resources for veterans and civilians with PTSD. Visit ptsd.gov for more.

For more information about Hypnosis for Health for life coaching and hypnosis services, call 615-900-0284 or email hypnosisForhealth@att.net.

To find out more about Everybody Drum Some, visit everybodydrumsome.com.

For general information about PTSD, Psychology Today is a good resource as well. Visit the publication at psychologytoday.com.

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