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[Williams] Being a tunnel rat was not easy.
It was a suicide job.
So, every time that I was elected to go into a tunnel
or to a cave, I never knew what the outcome would be,
because our survival rate was extremely low.
I still have memories sometimes of certain traumatic events
that happened. Crawling through the tunnel
and I encountered a basket, and the basket is filled
with small snakes. And if one of those snakes, they were baby
snakes, if one of those snakes were to bite you there is no
survival. And as I'm going through the tunnel, I'm very
cognoscente of where this mesh basket is. And so, I lowered
myself on the floor of the tunnel and just basically
crawling on my arms and getting as low as possible
so as not to disturb the basket.
[Barron] The two treatments that we offer,
that we really stress for any Veterans seeking care in our
program, is Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure.
Both have been well researched and shown to be effective in
helping Veterans reduce symptoms of PTSD
and live a more functional life.
[Williams] I've been at therapy for years,
I stay in therapy. And my Baltimore therapist suggested
that I would allow myself to go through what is called Prolonged
Exposure. Which is, the therapy that I did here. And I thought
about it. I said, yeah, well it's time for me to do this
because all before I had been working on Cognitive Therapy for
many years. And I was too afraid to do the Prolonged Exposure
because it was just so tough. So, my therapist called Bay
Pines and they had an immediate opening. Normally it takes about
three or four months to come into this program, but I was
given two days and so I packed up and got here and was very
glad that I did. Yes, it was a very tough, excruciating
program. But with the help of my therapist, Dr. Hyde and others
on the team, I was able to get through it.
They say it was quite successful.
[Hyde] Exposure therapy is very difficult.
Many Veterans never even attempt to engage in
Exposure Based Therapy because it feels very scary for them.
And there are times once they do decide to engage in that therapy
that their symptoms may worsen. And so, they may want to drop
out or not continue, but it's important to emphasize the
rationale. Why are we doing this? How is this going to help
you meet your treatment goals? The goals you've discussed at
the onset. And just reminding them how what they've been doing
hasn't been working and that's why their doing this really hard
work. And if they've lived through it, they can definitely
tolerate kind of going through that memory again and staying
with it. And just again providing that support
and that encouragement is really important.
[Williams] My therapist who was a recreation therapist,
Jeremy, was responsible for assisting with
the Prolonged Exposure Therapy when we would
go out into the community and he took me to the
garden shop. I was able to go to the basket and touch it, and
wrap my hands around it, hold it. I was also able to pick up
the, the dirt that would be contained in the flower basket.
Because the dirt sometimes would kind of send me off. And so I
was able to pick the dirt up and bring it to my nose and smell it
and then rub it on my face and on my hands. That's the kind of
thing that we did here. But it allowed me to become very
comfortable with things that were very traumatizing to me. So
that was, that was, that was the really interesting part about
the basket. Today, I'm able to go to a flower shop and see that
basket [laughing] and say wow that's pretty. [laughing]
[Hyde] How I would encourage Veterans who may be struggling
with trauma related symptoms to reach
out for help is, you know, come in to the VA.
We have excellent, excellent treatments to help
with the trauma related symptoms. And just having that
trust and taking that initial step can be so difficult, but it
can make such a big difference in your life. And something that
some of these people have been struggling with for years and
years, we know can improve within 10 - 12 weeks of
treatment. So, sometimes just taking that initial step can be
so difficult. So even if it's not coming to the VA, just
starting that conversation with someone that they do trust
can be so helpful and it's so worth it.
[Williams] The VA has been extremely accommodating to me.
There has not been anything that has been denied to me.
[Barron] While I think that the treatments provided here
at Bay Pines, one of the things that a Veteran
would notice is, I think the comprehensiveness of the
treatments provided. So anything from medication management, to
group psycho-therapy, to individual, to a combination
of all of those things, we can provide right here
in this clinic.
[Williams] I am just very, very blessed to have the
kind of support and I'm very grateful for that. I'm grateful
that PTSD treatment has advanced to the level that it has now.
So, I feel wonderful.
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