Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a mental health disorder with a set of symptoms that can disrupt daily life and your personal relationships.
Anyone can develop PTSD, but it’s particularly common among military veterans. If left untreated, PTSD can result in profound changes in brain chemistry. While PTSD in veterans is similar to PTSD among the general population, it also differs in a few key ways.
These differences need to be understood to make sure you or your loved one receives the best treatment possible.
What Is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder is caused by experiencing a terrifying event. In the case of the general population, that could be a natural disaster or an assault. For service members, it’s often military combat. What triggers PTSD for some may not for others. Some experience trauma and only struggle with these memories for a short while. Others go on to have significant trouble in their relationships, at school, or at work. Symptoms of PTSD can last for months or years, and may even worsen over time.
PTSD symptoms include:
- Flashbacks, or reliving the traumatic event
- Avoiding people, places, or activities that bring back unwanted memories
- Negative beliefs about oneself or the world
- Having dreams or nightmares about the event
- Difficulty concentrating
- Difficulty sleeping
When Was PTSD Discovered?
Descriptions of PTSD-like symptoms date back to ancient times. Homer and Shakespeare wrote about conditions resembling post-traumatic stress, and exposure to violence was the earliest known cause of these symptoms.
PTSD was first studied by medical researchers in Civil War soldiers. Railroad accidents in Europe also drew attention to the effects of trauma. Survivors of these accidents described similar symptoms as one another: anxiety and insomnia. It was thought at first that these were a result of a physical condition, so sufferers were given drugs to help control the symptoms and then returned to battle.
This belief continued through World War I. The term “shell shock” was used to describe symptoms WWI survivors coming home displayed. Doctors believed that the panic and sleep problems in these veterans were due to brain damage from the explosion of artillery shells. When more soldiers who hadn’t been exposed to explosions came home and presented the same symptoms, it became clear that post-traumatic stress was a mental health condition.
It’s only recently that other causes of PTSD, like sexual assault, have been studied. In 1980 the diagnosis of PTSD was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders III (DSM-III). PTSD is now known to affect far more people than those who’ve been in the military. But without the many studies that took place among returning soldiers, we wouldn’t have the knowledge about PTSD that we do today.
How Many Veterans Have PTSD?
PTSD is very common among veterans because of the terrible violence soldiers experience or witness as part of their jobs. How common PTSD is among soldiers differs by which service era they were a part of. Generally speaking, the rates of PTSD among military veterans returning from the Afghanistan War, the Gulf War, and the Vietnam War are between 10-20%.
It’s difficult to give a number on exactly how many veterans have PTSD. This is because there are so many variables. Whether the country is in peacetime or wartime makes a difference, along with what the solider did while serving in the military. Where a veteran served and political attitudes toward the military can also affect chances of developing PTSD.
Why Do So Many Veterans Have PTSD?
How does trauma on the battlefield result in the life-altering symptoms of PTSD? Brain chemistry. When you’re in a dangerous or life-threatening situation, your brain produces stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. PTSD develops when your stress response system gets dysregulated. Your brain gets stuck in fight-or-flight mode. This may make you feel threatened and on-edge when you aren’t in actual danger.
The types of trauma service members are exposed to—horrible and shocking violence, death, and sexual trauma—all activate the fight-or-flight response. They flood your body with stress hormones and can easily lead to your brain getting stuck in danger mode.
It’s well understood that many veterans face the lasting impact of witnessing violence in wartime, but another type of trauma that any soldier may face at any time is sexual trauma. This happens to both men and women but is more likely to happen to women in the military. It’s estimated that in 2018 about 13,000 women and 7,500 men were sexually assaulted. Military sexual trauma, or MST, is a major cause of PTSD among veterans but one that people don’t talk as much about because it often goes unreported.
What Are the Symptoms of PTSD Among Veterans?
PTSD symptoms among veterans are not too different than those among the general population. They commonly include:
- Flashbacks, or intense and vivid memories of the event that make you feel like it’s happening all over again
- Avoiding people, places, or activities that bring back unwanted memories
- Negative beliefs about yourself or the world
- Nightmares about the trauma
- Overwhelming feelings of guilt or shame
- Difficulty concentrating
- Difficulty sleeping
- Irritability or angry outbursts
- Feeling jumpy or easily startled
One differentiating symptom of PTSD among war veterans is thoughts of suicide. Research shows that the most common predictor of veteran suicide is combat-related guilt. This means feeling guilty for acts committed in times of war. It may also mean guilt for having survived when fellow service members did not. More troops have died from suicide than have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
Treating Veterans with PTSD
There are several effective options available for treating PTSD among veterans:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT has been shown to be the most effective form of talk therapy for veterans with PTSD. Two subtypes of CBT are the most recommended for this population:
- Cognitive processing therapy (CPT)
- Prolonged exposure (PE) therapy
This type of therapy can help you work through your traumatic memories by learning coping skills. These skills replace the negative thoughts and beliefs that go along with your memories.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
EMDR is a type of therapy that helps desensitize clients to painful memories. You are asked to remember your traumatic event(s) while watching a therapist use a repetitive motion, like moving his or her hand across your field of vision. You’re then taught to replace negative emotions and beliefs with positive ones.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
While TMS hasn’t yet been approved by the FDA to treat PTSD, the Department of Veterans Affairs reports a growing body of research that TMS works for veterans with PTSD. TMS for PTSD targets the areas of your brain responsible for symptoms like:
- Flashbacks
- Nightmares
- Intense anxiety
TMS sessions involve a technician gently placing a coil on your head. The coil delivers magnetic stimulation to specific parts of your brain. It helps restore functioning to trauma-affected areas like the amygdala and hippocampus. Success TMS offers TMS for PTSD at a variety of locations and works with TRICARE® to help cover treatments.
Medications
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are effective in treating veterans with PTSD. The National Center for PTSD reports that the four medications that have been shown to work best for PTSD sufferers are:
- Sertraline (Zoloft®)
- Paroxetine (Paxil®)
- Fluoxetine (Prozac®)
- Venlafaxine (Effexor®)
Prazosin is also effective for treating trauma-related nightmares.
If you or a loved one is a veteran struggling with PTSD, do not continue to suffer alone. There is a large community ready to support you and a variety of treatments available to help you feel more like yourself again. Give Success TMS a call to see if TMS therapy may be the right choice for you.