Edna Foe: Bringing Peace To Suffering Troops
Posted by Michelle Moquin on May 31st, 2010
Good morning.
Whenever I think of our men and women that are at war, I always wish for their safety. But what I rarely think about is after they come home and the challenges they must face being home and trying to live their ‘normal’ lives again, when they have witnessed so much death and destruction.
We ask so much from the men and women who risk their lives in war, yet what happens to them when they go home? How do they deal, and what us being done about it so that they can cope and live a ‘normal’ life again?
The answer is PE: Prolonged Exposure. I want to recognize and congratulate Edna Foe for her PE therapy that she developed not only for veterans who suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), but also for people who suffer from the horror of rape, childhood sexual abuse, and natural disasters.
Foe, along with 99 others made Time magazine’s list of the ’100 most influential people in the world’. She was honored in the category of ‘Thinkers’:
Human beings are hardwired to fear things — the lion in the grass, the assailant in the alley — and if one of those fears gets realized, we may never settle down again. The pain associated with that condition is known as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mix of depression, anxiety, anger and isolation. No one is doing more to end that suffering than psychologist Edna Foa, 72, of the University of Pennsylvania.
The severity of PTSD is matched by the horror of the things that set it off — rape, childhood sexual abuse, natural disasters. And then there’s war. Half a million veterans from the Vietnam era alone may suffer from PTSD — and up to 300,000 from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Too many cope with the disorder by working to exhaustion, drinking to unconsciousness and never, ever talking about it.
Foa, who studied first at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and later in the U.S., always found that unsatisfactory. Thirty years ago, she began studying post-rape trauma, cobbling together therapeutic bits from other anxiety disorders. But it wasn’t until 2000 that it all began to come together. That year, she and her husband visited Israel on sabbatical. Just five days after they arrived, the second intifadeh began. It was a crucible for trauma, and that got Foa focused specifically on combat-related PTSD.
The therapy she developed is known as prolonged exposure, or PE, and involves identifying thoughts and situations that trigger the most fear and then gently exposing sufferers to them. Patients first summon up memories of the trauma. Next comes physical exposure to places or circumstances that call it up more vividly. Facing the memories strips them of power. The approach not only works; it works fast — usually within 12 sessions.
The U.S. military — which isn’t easily wowed — is embracing PE. The Department of Veterans Affairs is putting the protocol into wide use and implementing programs to teach it across the various services. “The national rollouts are historic,” says psychologist Joan Cook, of Yale University, who is studying PTSD in veterans of the Korean War and World War II. “They are unparalleled in the mental-health field.”
To Foa, spreading the word is what matters most now. “If you develop a wonderful protocol, it’s useless if nobody uses it,” she says. There’s little danger of that — as hundreds of thousands of service members may one day be able to attest.
Readers:The one thing that I have always heard when our soldiers return from war is that they suffer from PTSD and there is not much, until now, that has helped relieve them of their memories of war. So many soldiers have gotten so little support after they return home that they have very little chance of a ‘normal’ life. But now with PE therapy, facing your fears can really make them disappear.
I want to end by giving gratitude to those that lost their lives, and gratitude to those that continue to risk their lives daily, so that we can go on living a ‘normal’ life.
If you feel that you want to do more than just honoring our soldiers this Memorial Day, here are some ways to get involved:
• Honor fallen heroes by volunteering at a veterans cemetery on Memorial Day or any time of year. Volunteers can give cemetery tours, help with maintenance, raise and lower flags and more. Use the National Cemetery Administration website to find a volunteer opportunity near you.
• Attend a Memorial Day parade. Search theU.S. Memorial Day Parade Directory to find an event in your community.
• The American Red Cross is asking volunteers to honor Memorial Day by giving blood to save American lives. Call 1-800-RED CROSS or visit the Red Cross website to make an appointment to donate.
• Bring a smile to the faces of deployed troops around the world by sending them a USO Care Package. Each care package is $25.
• Make a contribution to Cell Phones For Soldiers, an organization collecting donated cell phones to help troops abroad call home. Donors can give their old cell phones or make a financial contribution to the program.
• Support veterans in your community by volunteering at a local VA hospital. The easiest way to get started is to fill out a volunteer form with the VA Volunteer Service and a representative will help you find the right volunteer opportunity for you. Read Causecast’s How To Support Veteransguide for more suggestions on how to make a difference for local veterans.
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Hi Lydia: Looks like you did. I wish there was more comments from you though. :)
Hi Jorge: Is this the Jorge with “Careta”? Or the other Jorge who chimes in? Either way, nice to hear from you again. And sad but true….where has all the honesty gone? I always try to remember the statement, ‘If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is’, and that alone saves me from making huge mistakes. Once you fall for a scam, hopefully you learn and you don’t fall for one again.
Have a lovely Memorial Day! Peace & Love: ‘Live it, Give it’
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my ‘loyal’(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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May 31st, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Hi Mischa, great article, as I read it I thought it’d be nice to have the woman herself show up and implement this PE therapy to Anonz, he seems to continuously put himself in harm’s way and I wish he wouldn’t…maybe it’s not about Nia anymore, maybe it’s about all the surrounding nightmarish conditions and maybe all these situations he finds himself in feels more normal than ‘normal’ (oh, whatever that is…but we all know it isn’t entering life threatening situations regularly).
which brings me to…
Dear Ruth, thank you for letting me know of Anonz’s current condition. I know I’ve stated here before that no one person or things knocks me off my game anymore, but that bit of news did, I don’t know why I checked in while drving to a party but I did, I pulled over bc it immediately made me flash on that day when he suffered that head wound, I was nauseated then and was about this news on Saturday as well. I spent hours speaking very little (tough at a party) and then went inside and gave my most to a creative visualization – I won’t go into details but he will be feeling markedly better physically and emotionally and experiencing healing – hmm – I would say by tomorrow. That half hour experience was very powerful for me and I’m sure it was for my sweet pea of a beneficiary : )
Gloria, please, ask yourself, now why would an intelligent woman like myself believe in any of rhetoric coming from the GOP? Esp since they do not honor, revere (let alone respect) woman (it’s all lip service, don’t ever kid yourself otherwise) or think women are for anything other than for their pleasure (unless their busy being activists re: gay activity while wearing a rainbow hankerchief around their penis) and overall they do not think women very intelligent (and they’re right in one regard, the Christian women even the ones with MBA’s think their man deserves more than themselves)…nah, I’ll pass, as an Independent I get to voice my opinion regardless of which party is doing what. That question is like asking me to accept Jesus as my savior…and to that I say: not to worry the universe has already got my back ; ) but thanks for asking!
Robert, I had to laugh at that ‘mother me baby’ ahhahaha…loved it. I’ll just keep doiing what comes naturally, that is my usual banter, glad you think it’s hot.
Misch, the studs are out on forces and I love the lines, here’s my favorite from yesterday – I was wearing white 3 inch platform sandals and shorts (all I had in my car, thought I’d brought flip flops but no) and a man said, ‘you could get rid of everything else you own and wear that outfit all summer, seriously, it’d never get old with me’ I smiled – I kind of liked him for that, he inserted himself right onto my life, I snapped him out of his fantasy by turning to my barista and ordering a mocha latte’ : )
OK, gotta finish prepping food for a party, catch you all later, Luv, Zen Lill
May 31st, 2010 at 8:34 pm
To answer your q from Friday, Llly knows I love books…especially either first time authors female/male (the break out novel!) and stories of women from other cultures bc I need to know. I make my preferences known : ) and yes, when I’m finished I’ll send it on up to you.
Time to chill and tighten up that visualization : )
-ZL
June 1st, 2010 at 8:08 am
Michelle
I have been entering a post for the last 4 days. It is just that most of the time I don’t get in. So I get a little frustrated.
I like your opening dialogue. It is always very interesting. My mother turned me on to your blog. She has never commented but she sure has strong opinions about the things you say.
She says that if you were her daughter she would always be between hugging you or washing your mouth out.
I haven’t been reading as long as she has. She has been with you for 2 years, but she only turned me on in the last 6 months.
But I haven’t seen anything that would warrant a mouth wash -).
I only wish I could write like you. I work for a small news paper here in Wy.
Lydia
June 1st, 2010 at 8:17 am
Ali “Ollie” Woodson, former lead singer for The Temptations, passed away yesterday afternoon.
The iconic frontman of the Motown group had been battling leukemia, and died at his home in Cali.
Truly a man of soul!
We send our condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:20 am
Here’s some info for those vets out there suffering from PTSD.
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Bright spot in depression battle
Forget Big Pharma’s dangerous roster of expensive antidepressant drugs… because the real answer to some cases of the blues might be staring down at you right now.
A new study finds that seniors might be able to lower their risk of depression by simply spending a little more time in the company of our warmest neighbor: the sun.
Researchers looked at vitamin D levels in 531 women and 423 men, all 65 years old or older. Then, over six years, they tracked those D levels along with symptoms of depression.
The researchers found that those with the lowest levels of the sunshine vitamin had the highest risk of depression– especially women.
The joint study between U.S. and Italian researchers published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism isn’t conclusive, since it was observational
… but it’s one more log in a growing fire, because vitamin D deficiencies have been linked to depression in the past.
One 2008 study found that low levels of D combined with higher levels of the parathyroid hormone appeared to increase the risk of depression in people between the ages of 65 and 95 years old.
Other studies have made similar connections–and not only among seniors. Just look at the millions of people who’ve felt the winter blues, or seasonal affective disorder.
It’s no coincidence this condition hits when sun exposure is at its lowest and people are even more likely to suffer from deficiencies in D.
The cutoff point in the latest study was 50 nanomoles per liter of D in the blood–anything below that appeared to increase the depression risk. But even those levels are really much lower than what you should have.
And the sad reality is, most people are in that category.
I’ve written to you before about our collective D crisis, as well as all the other amazing benefits of this one simple hormone. (Read, “Vitamin D miracles keep mounting.”)
Vitamin D can help with everything from bone health to longer lives, and lower your risk for everything from diabetes to heart disease.
A doctor can check your D levels–but even those tests aren’t failsafe. There’s no single standard for vitamin D tests, and last year one of the nation’s biggest laboratories–Quest Diagnostics–admitted that it had been botching D tests for two years.
As a result, many people with D deficiencies were actually told they had high levels.
There’s a simple answer, and it’s right above you: Get outside a little more and soak up some sun. No one needs to turn into a beach bunny, but a few minutes of direct sunlight a day can help your body make its own D, for free.
But since even sun quality can vary, and most people simply don’t get out enough, add a supplement just to make sure you’re covered.
And speaking of safe, drug-free depression treatments, keep reading for some cutting-edge research on electromagnetic therapy.
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Chuck
June 1st, 2010 at 8:31 am
Hafa adai
For those of you trying to figure where Guam is in the relocation of 5,000 plus marines to Guam, here is the latest.
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Guam update: Japan decision to keep Okinawa base
Print Email
Updated June 1, 2010 08:08:04
After months of negotiating, the Japanese government has agreed to allow the United States to keep its military base on the island of Okinawa.
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan had promised to reduce the number of U.S. forces in the country.
But while the move is likely to irk the Japanese public, it’s good news for the U-S territory of Guam which needed the matter resolved to proceed with plans to transfer thousands of troops to its shores.
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Peter__________________________________
June 1st, 2010 at 8:38 am
It is so telling that the white media enjoys constantly streaming across our screens that 51% of America supports Arizona’s new nazi law.
All that tells us is how bigoted white america really is. It also shows that the incarceration of the Japanese that occurred when whites had total control of the country could happen unless us OTWS stick together.
Maria
June 1st, 2010 at 9:03 am
Chuck, thank you for the back up on the vitey D: the sun!
3 great starters for dumping shoirt term depression is get your 15-20 in the sun, take a 15-20 min walk, and then the 3rd thing is totally my opinion, call someone you trust and chat, you dint even need to discuss your issue at hand to feel the loving effects of this one, I can’t stress it enough. I dint believe in meds for most emotional issues bc I strongly believe in the above 3 – but I’m different that way, I’d never go on meds to make my life feel better, and risk all those side effects that are worst than the affliction? No thank you very much…
Vitey D everyday – dint listen to all those sunscreen sellers : ) or if you must put it on AFTER you get your 20 minutes without it!
Luv, ZL
June 1st, 2010 at 9:21 am
Thanks Zen Lill, I agree with you and I love the sun too.
June 1st, 2010 at 9:23 am
Guam is suffering its worst draught since 1998. Help us God!
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Guam – If you’re wondering why the weather has been so unbearably hot lately you can blame El Nino. The El Nino weather pattern is the cause of what meteoroligists are saying is the worst drought in nearly 12 years. So how much longer will we have to put up with this dry hot weather?
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Just remember that praying for relief is fine but we must act responsibly as a family. Conserve water.
Hafa adai
Anna
June 1st, 2010 at 10:03 am
You’re welcome Zen Lill.
Michelle
Once again we see how necessary it is to change the make up of the Supreme Court. On a 5 to 4 decision they bought and paid for 5 have changed the long standing Miranda Rule that the police can’t question you without reading you your Miranda Rights.
Now the new ruling is you have to speak up to remain silent. In other words if you don’t tell the cops that you want to remain silent they can assume that you want to talk.
This is the same court that ruled that you have to tell a business that you want to opt out of their selling your personal information or otherwise they can assume you have given them permission to sell your personal information for profit.
We are in the hands of thugs and thieves. The thieves use their bought and paid for legislators to enact laws to make stealing from us legal.
Then they use their racist police force to keep us in line with force and terrorize us. And finally they use their bought and paid for judges to make the actions of their brutal force legal or to change the rules that were enacted to protect the people from an oppressive regime.
Robert
June 1st, 2010 at 10:08 am
Can you believe the hicks? Now that they have followed the advice of the “Drill baby Drill” crowd, and the result is this disaster.
So what do we have now? The same hicks are aligning behind bobby jendal and other dumb hicks and blaming Obama for the spill.
No wonder the republicans don’t feel they will be held accountable for what they say. It seems that the hicks have such a short memory that their politicians can switch sides at anytime.
Betty
June 1st, 2010 at 10:46 am
[...] ZL: Wow, I’d like to see that outfit. Perhaps you could e me a photo and I could post it for all of your admirers here to see? Oh, and I look forward to borrowing that book -thanks! [...]