What if Those War Nightmares Could Go Away?

Michael Elder, MFT

— by Lin McNulty —

Whether you are in favor of war or not does not matter. We have an obligation in America to take care of those who served.

Filling in the gap between no help at all and the bureaucratic bumble that is the Veterans Administration, are 34,000 non profit veterans service organizations across the country. Most veterans won’t use the VA because it is part of the system that messed up in the first place. Betrayal is a big factor in how they feel. Whether we agree or not is irrelevant. If they feel it, it’s there.

Definition of PTSD? A feeling of helplessness frozen in the structure of the body. After three weeks of continuous combat, 98% will developed PTSD. It’s not just what happened, it’s also the administrative betrayal. A vet may find a way to forget that s/he feels numb, often through self-medication. Although marijuana controls nightmares, and is a better choice than alcohol, there is a treatmen even better.

Local family therapist Michael Elder, MFT, has chosen to couple up with Give an Hour, a non-profit organization providing FREE mental health services to U.S. military personnel and families affected by war. Yes, FREE. The philosophy of Give an Hour is that the veteran has already paid.

For the vets who won’t use the VA or Tricare or won’t accept “charity,” Give An Hour has a “Give Back” program where clients are asked to donate two hours to the community through any program of their choosing for each hour of FREE counseling received. This is to be done after the FREE treatment is completed.

“From my point of view as a trauma specialist,” says Elder, “the give-back is part of the treatment. Reintegration into the community is an important part of returning to full functioning, but this can only really be done after the trauma symptoms are resolved.” The Give-Back hours are not tracked and are a recommendation and request, but not a demand.

Elder has been on Orcas since April, coming from California where he worked in a jail setting. Not only were many of the prisoners passing through the penal system veterans affected by deployment, but many of the jailers were also war veterans. One deputy had to be involuntarily committed, and another shot himself in the head in front of his family. Elder became acutely aware of how poorly we take care of those we have asked to protect us.

That’s when he discovered Give an Hour. Although the focus of the organization is post-9/11, Elder welcomes veterans of all wars. Give an Hour requires number of hours, not number of individuals, not names of individuals, no details; it is totally anonymous.

The beauty of the EMDR treatment Elder employs is that there is no need to “tell that frightening or secret story;” there is no need for a veteran to re-visit the trauma in a clinical setting. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) has undergone more than 20 randomized studies that support the effectiveness of the therapy in the treatment of PTSD and have demonstrated positive effects of the eye movements.  Even a veteran who has been living with PTSD for years, can come out stronger—and it doesn’t take forever. The ongoing nightmares of having seen a dead child, seeing a buddy blown to bits, being the sole survivor of an attack, or being shot yourself can be fully eliminated within 13 sessions, primarily using EMDR.

“I can help a vet without knowing their MOS or theater of operation,” Elder emphasizes. “With this therapy, the nightmares stop, the weapons come out from under the pillow. We all act our histories. My job is to simply notice. I’ve heard enough stories; it is unlikely that any story is going to upset me.” Veterans may want to be able to tell the story, but the story for public consumption is not the story that heals. Memories are often disjointed fragments that don’t seem to know how to fit together.

After a year, Elder find his clients are better still. Other therapies show promise but have not been thoroughly researched. EMDR is a body-oriented process of learning to subtly shift your experience of the world so you can tolerate what you feel and increase that tolerance. This eye movement therapy actually builds new brain connections and synpapses, virtually bypassing the the horrific memories.

What prevents a vet from seeking treatment? Some cases are harder to resolve than others. Some are afraid of losing benefits, or can’t imagine there is anything to help. Continually trying becomes too painful, and they have bought into the ancient warrior mentality that it is a weakness.

Although EMDR is approved by VA and used in some areas, Walter Reed practitioners were all trained, and a year later they were not using it. DoD moves slowly. “Prolonged exposure” treatment is used more often—which results in a higher drop out rate, and a higher suicide rate (currently at 22 veteran suicides per day). While 64% of clinicians working at VA are not working in any validated trauma treatment protocol, faster treatment would eliminate the VA backlog and reduce the bloated money spent on SSRI medications to numb the symptoms.

Lots of research has been done with brain scans. We know what a traumatized brain looks like, and it shows up even when at rest. These visible brain patterns can be reversed through EMDR.

Elder has been a licensed marriage and family therapist since 1998, working in field since 1993, with a special interest in trauma, and he is a member of the Certified Traumatic Stress Association, of Traumatic Stress Specialists. His office is located in Eastsound Square. He can be reached at 360-376-3255. If someone finds him through Give An Hour, they are prevented from paying.