[spiritual_emergency]

<blockquote>
As a result of my own experiences, I'm well aware that peers can often offer the best forms of validation, connection and healing. No one better understands what the individual is going through than those who have been there, and no one can offer a better beacon of hope than those who have recovered.

This discussion is for the personal accounts of veterans who are struggling with or have moved through their experience of combat trauma. Please feel free to share your own account or that of others.

[spiritual_emergency]

<blockquote>
</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>

Interview with David W. Powell, Author of My Tour in Hell: A Marine’s Battle With Combat Trauma David is being interviewed by Juanita Watson, Assistant Editor of Reader Views.

Juanita: Thank you for talking with us today David. Please give your readers an overview of thedeeply personal journey you write about in “My Tour in Hell: A Marine’s Battle with Combat Trauma”

David: My memoir describes my combat experiences in Viet Nam in straightforward, no-holds-barred detail. The reader will observe the transformation of a peaceful, naive guy into a battle-experienced hunter of human beings. The reader will also see how my collection of traumatic experiences impaired my emotional and social behavior to a great degree. The reader will be introduced to a kind, loving resolution to traumatic events, known as Traumatic Incident Reduction,or TIR, and the positive effects it has had on my life after treatment.

Juanita: What inspired you to write your book at this time?

David:Two compelling reasons, Juanita. The first was an invitation to write my memoir with the editing help of my friend and Traumatic Incident Reduction ‘facilitator,’ Mr. Gerald French. Gerald thought that it would be compelling to create a memoir that was co-authored by the “patient” and his“therapist”. Shortly after starting the project, we lost contact with one another due to changing priorities. I was extremely fortunate to connect with my editor and friend, Mr. Victor R. Volkman,who greatly influenced the format and content of my book.

The other and much stronger reason was my observation of our brave military service members going to Afghanistan and Iraq, then returning home to loved ones and friends in silence to our nation who disapproves of our war efforts. I know their pain and despair when they come home and are not lovingly embraced and are not asked, “What happened to you?” I wanted desperately to speak fort hem, for I believe that combat and trauma experiences are the same, regardless when or where ithappened.

Juanita: Tell us about PTSD. What is it? What causes it? How does it change a person?

David: I’ll tell you the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as it is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM), version 4. I will try to summarize it instead of quoting it.Then I’ll tell you what PTSD means to me.<blockquote>A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event which contained:
1. Actual or threatened death or serious injury
2. Their response involved intense fear.

B. The event is persistently re-experienced:
1. Recurrent distressing recollections of the event, and/or
2. Dreams of the event, and/or
3. A sense of reliving the event</blockquote>And it goes on along those lines, ending with “Delayed Onset” when the symptoms are at least 6 months after the stressor. My version is that I committed horrific acts and watched others do the same. All of them were outside the range of ordinary human living. My life as a common citizen, living a common life was forever compromised.

Juanita: When you came back from Vietnam, did you know you were suffering from PTSD?

David: Juanita, I knew that I had learned many, many terrible things no one should know, but I kept them to myself for fear of being reprimanded. I returned to civilian life in 1968 and PTSD wasn’teven recognized as a disorder by the Psychiatric community until 1980.

Juanita: Are the effects of combat trauma immediate or do they evolve as time passes?

David: In my opinion, the effects are immediate AND they spiral painfully downward each day they are not resolved. I’ll give you two examples of this, which you can find in my book. In the case of my unwillingness to obey orders, I had eighteen different employers in the span of a mere ten years. In the case of my hyper-vigilance, I found myself prone on the busy, mid-day streets of the Financial District of San Francisco, California as a reaction to sudden, sharp noises.

After treatment, I found that discussing changes to my work behavior resulted in an agreed-upon resolution to better performance and much longer employment relationships.I also learned to ask, “What was that noise” instead of assuming that I was under enemy fire.

Juanita: What were some of your personal experiences with PTSD that you talk about in “My Tour in Hell”?

David: I was a terrible employee, a less-than-perfect intimate mate, and a poor manager of money, an alcohol abuser, a bitter conversationalist, and a frightening man to be around.

Juanita: How did you begin healing from your combat trauma? What was the catalyst?

David: The catalyst for seeking treatment for PTSD began with an invitation from the Veterans Administration, Mental Health center in Menlo Park, California. A few months prior to that I sought help for another botched relationship at a community VA Vet center. I only went there once and left with no help or relief for my pain. I attended a talking group of combat-experienced veterans once a week for sixteen months, then gave up on the VA when I found something that worked to make me feel better, rather than leaving the group sessions feeling worse and worse about my plight. I found TIR as a treatment for my traumas at the Institute for Research in Metapsychology in California in 1988. Although its doors closed in 1996 the work is carried on today by the Traumatic Incident Reduction Association(TIRA).

Juanita: Tell us about TIR and how it has helped your healing journey.

David: I am not qualified to discuss TIR in a professional manner and recommend that interested parties investigate Traumatic Incident Reduction at their web site tir.org for good information.My experience was that with around twenty-odd hours of in session work, I experienced significant relief from the vast majority of my symptoms. My last session was 17 years ago so I guess you could say the results are lasting! Without undergoing treatment, I believe that my suicidal ideation would have become a reality and that I would have been dead long before this interview took place.

Juanita: What other factors contributed to your recovery process?

David: I drastically reduced my alcohol consumption. I tested “the waters” of everyday life by trusting that others did not intend to hurt or harm me. I guess, Juanita, I could just say that I reengaged life with enthusiasm.

Juanita: What has your journey of healing taught you?

David: I believe that no traumatic experience is permanent in nature, and that all emotional pain can be greatly reduced and, potentially, eradicated. I don’t blame myself for the way things turned out in my prior life. Rather, I blame the ‘system’ for ignoring the emotionally wounded veteran, left to cope with his/her future with no retraining.

[b]Read the rest of the interview David Powell: My Tour in Hell [PDF File]


</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

[spiritual_emergency]

<blockquote>
A number of personal accounts of Vietnam vets can be found on this webpage: Vietnam - Yesterday & Today