Heat=panic Attack...any Other Oif/oef Vets Experience This?

[Zipperhead]

Snowed here yesterday Jimmy. The metal on turret of your tank got so hot that you could burn yourself by touching it. Had to wear gloves all the time. I really felt sorry for the gunners though. That was the hottest area inside the tank. Often got into the high sixties down there. After a long day, allot of guys were hooked up to IVs. Mostly Gunners. I just heard news of my old gunner last week. He's on suicide watch right now out in Alberta. I just want to go knock some sense into him.

 

[FUBAR1]

yeah, been on IV quite a few times. would get to the point where I was too dry to blink or swallow and could barely walk or even stand upright cuz my body didn't have enough hydration to function. been on suicide watch myself couple months ago but that was med induced, started as soon as i was on effexor and stopped soon as i got off it. it was like one hell of a bad drug trip. in any case i think i might try the gradual approach to heat suggested by EODtech86.

 

[armyvetwolf]

Ah yes heat, i love hot climates but not in excess of triple digits like Iraq, but given the time i adapted to all climates...now i am at Ft. Bliss and this place is a mini-Iraq. Went to a range out in far east El Paso to qualify for my CHL with a 9mm. The temp was at least 91 degrees. I went up to shoot my 9mm and began shaking, don't know if it was nerves, the heat or what. Let's just say the heat didn't help. I still qualified, but i had so much adrenaline rushing pumping through me it wasn't even funny. I shot weapons from M16 to M4 and 9mm for 9 years, now all of a sudden I was shaking uncontrollably no matter how much i tried to breathe and calm myself, had to go back to my car, grab my camelback thermos and relax before the long trip back home. Heat can have a bad affect on anyone but a worse affect on people with combat PTSD.

 

[Anglesachse]

........................allot of guys were hooked up to IVs. Mostly Gunners. I just heard news of my old gunner last week. He's on suicide watch right now out in Alberta. I just want to go knock some sense into him.

Zip mucker, if you still haven`t spoken to any body about your problems with the beast, maybe this would be a good opportunity. You could talk to him as someone who suffers, he could see there is a possibility to live on, even when the world around you has collapsed

It could help you both.

just a thought.

 

[Zipperhead]

I spent the weekend up in Gagetown at the Blackhatter. An anual event for us retired guys to catch up with old friends. We talked about the old days, and caught up on the gossip. The Old Regiment isn't doing well. Half my old friends are on the bottle now, and the other half have pulled pin. A new generation of names I don't even know are taking over the Sgt & WO mess. Our war is over, and the Regiment is moving on, leaving the casualties behind to sort themselves out. My Regiment is based out of Edmonton AB, about 3,500 km from here. It makes you want to scream. Yesterdays news.

 

[Anglesachse]

I know the feeling mate.

All the lads that were in the same time as me were pensioned off last year. only a few of the sprogs who joined the last years I was in are still around with 17years done.

Funnily enough, it is only now that I feel old, the days you think about it.

 

[Jimmy1]

I live during the winter with the temp around 86 during the day and as low as 54 during the night and in summer it averages 95 with an overnight of 78. The heat is bearable, its the humidity that kills.
But Townsville is a lot like Iraq, we only really have two seasons. The summer and winter. We get hardly any rain for 9 months of the year then during the summer it's the wet monsoon season.

Sometimes I think the constant heat is a reminder of all my tours.

 

[FUBAR1]

Well, I managed quite the event today - went to a tanning bed to see if I could face my claustrophobia/heat panic in a small dose. I nearly freaked at first but talked myself through it - didn't even pop an ativan - and I actually enjoyed the rest of the tanning session. And being in an enclosed hot space is one of my worst nightmares, way too similar to being in a humvee or bradley. I still can't believe I actually did it and am not currently panicked out of my mind. Randomnly, I've also noticed that after all my hard work this year with psyching myself down - and with the help of meds and a generous amount of weed - I am actually far less jumpy/hyperalert than I used to be, and when I do startle, I don't attack people 3 times out of 4. So in all honesty there has been an improvement in some of my ptsd symptoms.

 

[FUBAR1]

Stuff triggers intense feelings. Sometimes the intense feelings are expressed outwardly, kill the trigger wand stuff like that. Sometimes the intense feelings are expressed inwardly, isolation and depression and avoidance and so on. Sometimes the intense feelings that turn inward find expression physically, in muscle tension that does strange and painful things to us. I started in a massage therapy program at the VA 10 years ago and, while the VA program has come and gone, I still get a full body massage every two weeks. It keeps the internal PTSD symptoms manageable for me.

Stuff triggers intense feelings. Stuff does not trigger behavior, although if we haven't yet learned to manage the intense feelings it feels like stuff triggers behavior. Extreme heat triggers intense feelings for me. I was way South in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and years later in the Saudi desert for Desert Storm.

Lots of things trigger intense feelings for me. I used to call people who did stuff that triggered me self-nominating targets (external expression of the intense feelings).

Learning to live better with PTSD is all about learning to manage our behavior in our current situation while stuff happening in our current situation is triggering intense feelings. The challenge is to behave appropriately in our current situation, in a way that gets our current needs met. So when the intense feelings say we can't do this, or we have to do that, we have to challenge them (the intense feelings). I can do this. I do not have to do that. I can behave in a way that is appropriate in my current situation even though I have these intense feelings going on in the background.

Over the years passing sets of intense feelings have become like old friends. Stuff triggers one old friend or another, the intense feelings flow, I let myself remember the reframed (through therapy) situation then refocus on behaving appropriately in my current situation. Old friends come and go all the time. Extreme heat is an old friend, but it is no longer appropriate to act on the feeling like I had to in the swamp or desert. I no longer need the self-imposed set of automatic behaviors and strict rules of behavior that got me through (successfully) the situation I had to survive then, even though it feels like I do at the moment.

Ted

I just reread this and it's so f*cking good I'm printing it off because I need to be reminded of this constantly.

 

[T^3]

I never thought of temperature or weather as being an issue. It makes sense. Helps explains my love for rainy gloomy days. Thanks for sharing.

 

[shogun]

Smells I've learned have been a trigger for me. Getting a whiff of that burning trash smell. I instantly start ramping up.

 

[Jimmy1]

Shogun, that is where the CTP (Cognitive Thought Process) kicks in. Once you smell that stuff, you have to tell yourself that you are home and safe, it takes a while, but eventually you will be able to get a whiff then say to yourself, gee that smells like Iraq.