Prolonged Exposure Therapy

[JarHed]

Hey Jimmy

That's the basics of PE therapy. I understand the 'Respect' thing, or having to deal with the lack of it. Sounds like they treated you like shit. You deserved better than that after all the time you served.

I try to personally think of it as 'courtesy' more than respect as respect needs to be earned and courtesy should be a given in many situations. A lack of both drives me crazy as well.

As far as the PE therapy is concerned, I'll be getting into the real 'meat and potatoes' of it in a week or so. It's made me start to think about when I was in VietNam a lot more lately. Things I haven't really thought about in a very long time. I imagine it'll be a bumpy road for a while but I have hope in the end I'll do better with a lot of things that are quite a bit of a challenge for me now. Hoping it'll be the same for you as well.

Jar

 

[Anglesachse]

Glad to see you to getting on and moving along with the therapie stuff.

I have 4 sessions to go till my time is up. She explained that we "could" extend the therapie again, would be the 3rd time. But she wants me to take a break, and see how I get on. 4hrs leftin total, and I`m bricking myself.

I know I have changed, and can even explein what has changed so it has realy helped. But, the therapie was allways an anchor in stormy seas. The last 3 years once a week we have been seeing each other, the next 4 will be fourtnightly and then endex! wonder if I qualify for Disembarkation or Decompression!

 

[JarHed]

Thanks Angle, getting help for yourself is certainly the way to go. Glad yours helped you as well.

Yesterday was the first really 'dicey' session that I've had. It's been so long since I've really thought or talked about my experiences it's a bit surreal. It's like going up into the attic and you're moving stuff and find an old dusty box. When you open it and look inside, there are all of your 'war' experiences. As you start to look through them you're reminded of it, like 'Oh yeah, I remember that and wow look at that picture' kind of stuff.

I did get really anxious while I was talking about it, felt for a while like I was going to run out of the room, but got through it. Guess that's the point; to be able to confront these things that affect me and learn how to better deal with them. I know it's going to get harder before it gets easier and I'm OK with that. I really feel like this therapy is going to help. I realize that I've done a great job of burying it all over the years. Coming here and talking about it has been a huge help as well. Glad this place is here.

Jar

 

[JarHed]

Hey All

Well yesterday was the most difficult session of PE that I've had, so far. Part of the therapy is focusing on a particular 'event' that occured during your tour. It wasn't tougher that I thought it would be, it was tougher that I could have imagined it could be. Very hard. But, I made it through the session. I know that there will be more like that but eventually it will begin to get easier. That's really the point. I've kept these things nicely bottled up and stored away for a long, long time. Or so I thought. They eventually have a way of coming back to haunt you. Actually they've been doing that to me since I got out of the Corps.

There's something strange about quoting myself, so here goes;

Coming here and talking about it has been a huge help as well. Glad this place is here.

Jar

 

[Anglesachse]

(y) big thumbs up there Jar cocker. Glad to see/hear you made it through a tough session.

As for quoting yourself. There`s now`t wrong in blowing your own trumpet once in a while.

Well done mucker

 

[nomedic1]

great work Jar

 

[Sarg]

Jar, you just hinted that you might be putting in for, I think you're talking about Unemployability. If that is the case, yes, this therapy will help you towards that rating. Another very important thing is to document everything. Even if the graphic details makes you sick to your stomach, write it down. Get statements from your wife, coworkers and friends. Statement of before you went to war and afterwards. I just said it in another post, but it bears repeating, have them be "brutally honest".

Example; "Jar used to be the easiest going guy, joking around all the time but now he's really irritable and grumpy and angry all the time."

You have to illustrate the intensity of what the war did to you. Again, as I said in another post, the VA is up to their necks with Nemer claims (Blue water Navy) and the crush of the folks coming back from the sandbox. So, you must make your statements stand out, or they'll just pass over it.

I'll never ask anyone to lie about their war service, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting so accurately graphic that it would upset one's stomach.

As always, I here if you need me.

Sarg

 

[JarHed]

Thanks Guys

I've already put in for unemployability with the VA. Thanks for the info Sarg. I've actually got a couple of good people on my side; the DAV and a Psychiatrist. The DAV has been my advocate for the last couple of years and have helped me greatly with all the applications and stuff. It's all they do and they're dedicated to helping the vets. Even though I thought that that was what the VA was supposed to do. :rolleyes:

They also work with a PTSD Psychiatrist who's really great. He's been working for and with vets with PTSD since the '70's; when it wasn't even accepted by the VA as a 'real' service connected condition.

Whether you like it or not the system is what we have to work within to get things done. So, you have to work with that. Going to and working with those that know the system and have experience with it only made the greatest amount of sense to me. It's taken me a long time to realize that and cultivate that view. Whether you hate or love the VA is irrelevent. You can't get a damn thing done trying to work it from the outside, so to speak. I have to thing of what I want to accomplish with them and then get the 'right' help to get it done. Hope that makes sense.

So now it's just a waiting game till they make a decision on my claim for unemployability. Gotta' hope for the best and be patient. Not good at being patient. So in the mean time I'm putting my energy into my therapy which, no matter what happens, will be a benefit to me for the next phase of my life.

Jar

 

[Sarg]

Good man, Jar! I'll be rootin' for ya'. Sounds like you've got it covered with a good SO and the psy.

Sarg

 

[JarHed]

Sounds like you've got it covered with a good SO and the psy.

Thanks Sarg

Sure hope so. It's never a sure thing with the VA. But the better you prepare the more likely that you'll have a decent outcome. I'm hopin'.

Jar

 

[Need an Oasis]

Hey Jar,

I started PE two weeks ago, and my experience is pretty much like what everyone wrote here. Working on "trigger emotions" and starting to talk in detail about experiences. I have a session tomorrow and am really dreading it. I don't like it. At all. But my psych says it helps so I'll do it. I can't afford not to try something that could help...

 

[Jimmy1]

You see, this is the problem.
We veterans have multiple traumas overlapped. By exposure therapy we go over and over each trauma until it becomes an unhappy memory.
To do this it could take weeks and weeks just to deal with one. So imagine how long it will take to deal with all.

Medicine never tastes nice