Anthony,

I agree wholeheartedly with you.... When I was DX'ed I decided after over 40yrs of out of control behavior I needed to change. Changing my life style, my friends, my behavior, how I processed things, changing my reaction was the hardest things I ever had to do. It was like having another full time job on top of the one I already had. There were days that I was so tired I wanted to just say screw it. It would have been easy to just slip back into old comfy ways. But I needed to change because life wasn't working for me anymore. Change is hard....... Very hard. But I would never ever go back to the person that I was.....

I have lost just about everyone in my life that has ever meant anything to me, including my daughter and grandchildren, but to survive............I paid the price....

Wendy

Thank you kindly for all the replies, they are appreciated. I see many of you would be quite willing to attend in Evie's place! Perhaps a sort of foundation should be set up to enable individuals who can not afford it to attend. Jim and I have wanted to set up some sort of foundation in memory of our son, which would benefit those with PTSD. It is an interesting area to consider.

However, I was interested moreso in hearing if these programs are generally effective, and the experiences of anyone who had been in such a program. I know for example that alcohol rehabilitation centres have a very low success rate, less than 10% if I am recalling correctly! And it seems Anthony you have confirmed that for me with regards to PTSD treatment centres as well, by describing your personal experiences. I suspected as much, but was hoping to hear of a bit more success. It seems it does boil down to the person's willingness and commitment to the program. I agree also Anthony, 3 months does seem like a rather long time. From my professional experience, the longer a patient or client is institutionalized, the more difficult it becomes to reintegrate them back into society. I would prefer the program to be 4-6 weeks rather than 3 months.

Our main reason for wanting Evie to go is to meet other PTSD sufferers, really to meet other people period, as she is quite isolated at the moment and exceedingly shy. Additionally, the chronic illness aspect of this program is highly desirable, as Evie must learn to manage her physical illness in order to manage her PTSD effectively. Many times one will trigger the other and it is exceedingly difficult for her.

Wendy I do believe you are a bit old for me to adopt as a daughter, as we are practically the same age (You are 53, I am 55)! :tongue: However you may consider me a friend!

Thank you once more for all of the replies. You have given Jim and I much to ponder here. I do believe the bottom line is Evie's willingness to work hard whilst there. We will definitely keep everyone abreast of our decision.

The program I did is a National program, though the particular location I was, being Townsville, has the largest military presence, thus the program obviously deals with a lot of soldiers with PTSD. The program varies across Australia, to exactly how they run it. Mine was six weeks in total, two days a week for the first two weeks, then four days a week for two weeks, then two days a week for the last two weeks.

There is good reason they found this works well, because one of PTSD's symptoms is lack of concentration. Trying to teach any person with uncontrolled PTSD longer than a few hours is fruitless. The days usually began with the hard hitting work, then the afternoons full of relaxation therapy, etc. Townsville has an 80% success rate for that course, being that 80% of all attendee's will firstly live, not kill themselves, and they will maintain a stable lifestyle of management, not just fall back into bad habits. Some do, some don't.

The problem though, is the remainder of the same courses around Australia have success rates down to 10% and vary between States / locations. If Evie is to be locked up, basically speaking, for three months, I would look real hard into the program and what they are doing. The exact issue you raised Kathy about the isolation from society is one of the biggest problems, where people get better on the courses / programs because thats all they have at that time, then they fall apart again once finished, sometimes coming better again, sometimes not, depending on what the person wants for themselves.

This is the exact reason why I personally won't pay much attention to those who aren't 120% committed to wanting a better life, and plenty exist even here. People want to improve, but they are still afraid of facing their pasts, they are afraid of having to endure pain in order to gain their life back... they want change, but aren't willing to sacrifice for it. I help those I truly see wanting it and working towards it, and those that aren't, can only be truly helped when their ready to suffer in order to help themselves basically speaking.

Denial, self sympathy, empath, etc... it doesn't work with PTSD, and these are the failure rates usually. The moment a person gets help, that is a positive sign, but it doesn't mean the person wants to get better. They may think they want to get better, but if they truly wanted it, they would do anything in order to get it, no self sacrifice to mental pain or physical pain due to mental pain would stop them.

Lots of people want help, but only a few reach that point of no return, which must be reached to truly endure the pain it takes in order to heal PTSD, being those who will succeed no matter the self cost of illness to do so.

I totally here you about the foundation aspect though, as it is something upon my mind to have a global foundation one day where those with PTSD can come to get real help, from nothing more than others with PTSD, not therapist or doctors stuffing medication or relaxation theories down their throat, instead teaching them to eat healthy, exercise, how to actually manage tough situations, reduce anger by looking too the core of the problem, etc etc.

I suspect though it would have huge legal implecations to do... a retreat that has no qualified people being paid! Hmmmmmmmm... just not cricket from a society / legal POV!

That is a very interesting idea Anthony, however yes legally speaking it would likely be a nightmare. You would need to enlist the help of some health care professionals, perhaps find some who shared your ideals. I believe it could be possible if that were the case. The treatment centre we are considering for Evie has exercise and diet therapy, as well as some holistic therapies such as acupuncture and reiki. The focus is not on medication, that is another reason we are interested in this particular facility.

However when I remarked Jim and I are wanting to set up a foundation, I meant foundation simply in terms of a granting facility, where individuals could apply to receive scholarships, bursaries or grant money.

*chuckles*

Anthony has quite a few of us on here with various SW credentials... Once we are in a better place.. don't think he would have to look to far! LOL

bec

Oh yes of course, good point Bec. In which case the concept is quite possible after all!

Hmmm... I know many of the veteran organisations do the same thing Kathy, where you can apply to them for grants, etc... to help with PTSD, or to provide direct support to the veteran community.

Yes, and the Military Family Resource Centres throughout the country have similar programs. We have donated to them in the past, and also recently in Brian's memory. We have also thought of a foundation to fund research from the medical aspect. All of these are simply thoughts however. We are still in the very early stages of deciding what we would like to do, and we would be open to suggestions from any of you.

Hey, you have no objections from me if your helping someone find a cure for PTSD. That would be all good in my eyes, and I would have my hand up to be in the trials for a cure.