I had a phone call from an angry and desperate wif...
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
I had a phone call from an angry and desperate wife. She reminded me of myself before I knew about depleted cortisol being the reason Bob would rant on and on once he was mad. (We don't have to live like that anymore.) She was furious that he didn't seem to care what she said. I realized that like I once did, she was blaming him for a symptom of PTSD, emotional numbing, which is a survivor skill when you have seen and been through the kind of things combat vets see and do. It keeps you alive and doing your job in combat, but numbing bad feelings also numbs the good ones. When you ask someone t ..read more
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I just looked myself up on Amazon and saw that som...
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
I just looked myself up on Amazon and saw that some new copies of the Patience Press version of Recovering from the War: A Guide for all Veterans, Family Members, Friends and Therapists in paperback are $33.95 and to $90+. Only a few of the vendors have it at the cover price of $24.95. This is bullshit. The list price is $24.95 which you can get through any bookstore, so the people who are selling expensive new copies on Amazon are doing you a disservice, and me too. You can get it through a bookstore, or ABE books, or Bookfinder.com at cover price and should not have to pay more. The Viking P ..read more
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Rant
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
I just read the new diagnostic criteria for PTSD in DSM 5 and I am so horrified I can barely stand it. What a crock of shit. Basically, it says, "Let's express our complete lack of understanding of WHY people have these symptoms and cluster them in an even more randomly ignorant way to make them look like nut jobs." I fucking hate the American Psychiatric Association. I lived through DSM II which came out in 1968 and on the basis of opinion, decided that if you were affected by a trauma for more than six months you had to be diagnosed with a preexisting condition like narcissism. Bob was diagn ..read more
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My veteran friend emailed me about having a bad time
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
I got an email from an old friend who flew with Bob and his unit in the First Cav in Vietnam. He said he was having problems again and didn't like it, so he had been reading through his old copies of The Post-Traumatic Gazette and they helped a lot. I suggested he might be having an anniversary reaction to New Year's Day, since people were killed in the Cav because troops were shooting at the troops on "Hong Kong" hill and they shot back. Then he remembered we are coming up on the anniversary of one of the pilots being killed, the first one in their tour. Good insight. One of the most interest ..read more
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The Uh huh method
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
I posted about the problem of endless rages earlier and got a comment to my latest post on the email from my friend. She used my Uh huh method, so here it is The Uh huh Method. Vets with chronic PTSD can't calm down after they get mad because they have depleted cortisol. I used to keep the fight going by trying to get him to see my point and it would go on and on, him yelling and me trying to make him see "reason", i.e. my point of view. When I found out about depleted cortisol, I stopped trying to get my point across and started saying "Uh huh" or even "You may be right" (notice not are rig ..read more
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After the War pamphlet.
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
I wrote this pamphlet during the first Gulf War for wives because I knew there was nothing out there that explained PTSD simply and how we feel about it. The VA system, well, some of the hospitals used to buy it and give it out. One day I got a call from a Vietnam vet. He said that his therapist at the VA had given him the pamphlet to give to his wife, so of course he read it first, and it was the first time he ever realized that his PTSD could affect his wife! He was blown away. I was so happy to hear that it helped him understand too. I hope it did them some good. Here is the link to "After ..read more
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It is getting close to holiday time, so I am going...
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
It is getting close to holiday time, so I am going to mention my articles in the Post-Traumatic Gazette. They are all online at www.patiencepress.com under the tab that says PTSD help. #10 and #16 both have versions of the article "PTSD and Holidays." One of my therapist subscribers wrote me that some of her vets had their first good Christmas since Vietnam after reading that article. The next one I wrote is in #22, "Can't you just be normal for one day?" a pretty common and also unreasonable request around this time of year. The article talks about why this is hard and how to accept that and ..read more
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Waiting
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
I have been posting on a couple of Facebook groups that deal with PTSD. On one I can link to stuff I have written already. On the other, I don't think it is allowed so I don't. I am really finding it so wonderful to be able to help encourage people to look at PTSD as normal and not weird but definitely unusual. For instance, vets with PTSD get enraged by waiting because they are not waiting for whatever it is the person with them is waiting for. For them waiting is dangerous and can get you killed, so while you are waiting to be served, they are waiting for death. It is a really different pers ..read more
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Solace for the Self
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
Here is one of my gazettes with a bunch of ways to practice self-care including learning the HEALS technique developed by Dr Stephen Stosny which was one of the things that changed my life. For some reason the link does not want to post correctly: http://www.patiencepress.com/documents/V2N1, (Rev) Solace.pdf as a link so I hope you can copy and paste. You can also reach it from this page where all the Gazettes are listed. It is No. 7, Solace for the Self. http://www.patiencepress.com/patien…/PTSD_Help-Gazettes.html We all suffer from PTSD, vet, survivor, family members. A favorite quote: Inste ..read more
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KIckass book
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog
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1y ago
Just read a book that kicked my a**, Civilianized by Michael Anthony, who also wrote Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor in Iraq. Both are well written and hard to put down. Civilianized is a post deployment story, sad, funny, upsetting and inspiring. I am very glad this guy made it back and sorry he went through the hell of his own particular war. I highly recommend the book if you would like a taste of reality. https://smile.amazon.com/Civilianized-Veterans-Memoir-Michael-Anthony-ebook/dp/B01N8S435O/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485899264&sr ..read more
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