Posted on Sep 12, 2016
Aside from alcohol and uncontrolled substances, what other maladaptive coping skills do service members partake in?
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Behavioral Health
Social Work
PTSD
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 15
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SSG(P) D. Wright Downs
I do not play well with civilians…get a bumper sticker so it is not a surprise to them when you are not as obsequiously PC as they are or when you roll your eyes and they catch you.
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Great thread. Thrill seeking is a big red flag when it comes to PTS (d). Speeding, gambling, adultery, fighting, and even high risk jobs (police work, corrections, firefighting, etc). When I got help in California I got to meet a good deal of veterans from all over. There was a very disproportionate percentage of correction officers in the residence. If you think about it, it makes complete sense. Combat environment 100% of the time you are at work. Being a workaholic is a big indicator as well. The 20 veteran suicides a day are mostly elderly veterans in their upper 50's+ age bracket. My theory is that once the body finally gets to the point where it HAS TO slow down, those ever hiding intrusive thoughts can't be kept in the back of your mind anymore. Most of the Vietnam vets I saw getting help were there because they had retired, got injured, or some other circumstance that forced them to slow down. It was just a matter of time after that. Veterans are MASTERS of coping. It's part of our military service DNA. We WILL find ways to put a lid on things. PTS (d) is always just under the surface.
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SFC Mark Merino
The programs are there. The advertising for them sucks. Most of the older vets didn't even realize that over working was a coping mechanism. The inpatient PTSD programs run for a minimum of 2 months but are stretched out across 3-4 calendar months. They do this because when enrolled, vets are paid at the temporary VA disability rating of 100%. This is a good way to get vets up on their feet again, especially homeless vets. I went to the one in Menlo Park, CA but there are many of them.
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CW5 (Join to see)
I don't know when you retired SFC Mark Merino , but what do you think of the resilience training that we have in place today? Do you think you can teach coping skills or is it something you navigate through on your own?
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MAJ (Join to see)
CW5 (Join to see) - One of the best training experiences I have ever had...I got to go the training at University of Pennslyvania, met the author...was by far one of my favorite TDYs.
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SFC Mark Merino
CW5 (Join to see) - they should make sure that one of us crusty people does a brief as part of outprocessing. Give me 30 minutes of discussing all of th stupid things I did, and learned about what others did, tell a few horror stories and share some PTSD recovery stories learned the hard way and we could save lives. At a minimum, we could save some people from spending some quality time in the judicial system.
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