Author Archives: Jacob Coe

Recreational Therapy Deep Dive #1: Art Therapy

It’s no secret that art can make us feel things. Who would care about the Mona Lisa if she didn’t evoke feelings of serenity and grace? Would the Statue of Liberty still be iconic if we didn’t get feelings of pride and awe from her every time we visit New York?

In short, art is powerful.

But the true power of art is not limited only to the people viewing it. Art can be just as powerful, if not moreso, for the artist themselves.

What is Art Therapy?

Art therapy is a form of recreational therapy first officially recognized in 1942. Through art therapy, traditional therapy methods are combined with artistic expression to help people overcome obstacles and distress in their day-to-day lives. The end goal is a sense of self-understanding and fulfillment, which art therapy is able to achieve thanks to a scientific approach and methodology.

Art therapy is more than just throwing someone in a room with a blank canvass and an easel so they can paint what makes them feel happy. Instead, art therapy begins much like a regular therapy session.

A prospective client sits down and talks to their art therapist about the goals they’d like to accomplish through the session. The art therapist listens to these goals, helps the client find the right medium for self-expression, and guides them along the way by asking helpful, thought-provoking questions.

After the piece is complete, the art therapist and the client will discuss how working on the piece made the client feel and together the pair will analyze the work itself through a lens of understanding and personal growth. By the end, the client has not only experienced an enjoyable session, but a session that leaves them with answers, fulfillment, and even a physical reminder of their journey of self-discovery that they can take home with them.

*Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay abay*

Is Art Therapy Effective?

Like many forms of therapy, you get out of it what you put into it. If you approach art therapy thinking it’s unlikely to ever work for you, you’re not likely to see any kind of positive results.

However if you go into the experience with an open-mind, you’ll likely see great results that lessen your anxiety and depression regardless of what the root cause of those symptoms happens to be. This means that art therapy can be effective in treating a wide variety of different disorders, which can include everything from eating disorders to Alzheimers and even PTSD as a result of seeing combat.

It may be hard to imagine art therapy being helpful to someone whose trauma manifested in a combat scenario, but some of the earliest uses of art therapy were to treat WW2 combatants suffering from shell-shock. Studies have shown that art therapy is especially helpful for veterans in three key ways:

1) By helping them express thoughts they’re having trouble articulating
2) By improving social relationships and reducing social detachment
3) By providing a general reduction in PTSD-related flashbacks, as well as lessening anxiety, providing methods to better control intrusive thoughts, reducing emotional numbness, and decreasing the chance of using unhealthy avoidance mechanisms.

Each of these things alone could make a huge difference in someone’s life, so taking the chance on art therapy to achieve all three is something every vet should seriously consider. Art therapy has been around for over 80 years and has a proven track record of helping many veterans and civilians alike to overcome their own personal hardships in order to lead better, more fulfilling lives.

And with results like that…what’s the harm in trying something new?

Interested in art therapy? Check out https://arttherapy.org/art-therapist-locator/ to find an art therapist near you or https://creativets.org/ for a community of like-minded individuals.

Both hotlines are free and confidential. If you’re not a veteran but would still like to help out, you can get involved through our donation page here

Remembering Our Veterans: Memorial Day 2023

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Memorial Day is a time when we all come together to remember and honor the brave men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. While it’s always important to recognize and remember our veterans on this holiday, Memorial Day also serves as an excellent chance to shed light on the challenges many veterans face, especially regarding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Honoring the Fallen:

Memorial Day was established shortly after the Civil War and served as a way to commemorate every American soldier who lost their lives in the conflict. Today, it has evolved into a national holiday to pay tribute to all fallen military personnel. On Memorial Day, communities across the country participate in parades, hold memorial ceremonies, and visit cemeteries to honor the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

While the emphasis of Memorial Day is on those who lost their lives, it is also essential to recognize and support the veterans who have survived but continue to face their own battles. PTSD is a mental health condition that can occur after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, such as combat. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, around 29% of veterans who served in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, two of the most recent conflicts in American History, will be diagnosed with PTSD at some point in their lives.

PTSD symptoms can manifest in various ways, including intrusive memories, nightmares, flashbacks, hyper-vigilance, and avoidance of triggers associated with the traumatic event. These symptoms often have a profound impact on the daily lives of each veteran struggling with them, affecting their relationships, work, and overall well-being.

Supporting Veterans with PTSD:

Many organizations, including the U.S. government, have implemented initiatives to address the growing number of veterans with PTSD. The VA offers many comprehensive programs, including counseling services, support groups, and evidence-based therapies, all of which can help veterans manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life. Our Resources page contains helpful links to many of these organizations, which you can navigate directly to by clicking here.

While progress has been made in understanding and addressing PTSD, there is still much work to be done. Public awareness campaigns, educational programs, and destigmatization efforts can help foster a supportive environment for veterans with PTSD.

That’s why it’s so important that even though the holiday is called Memorial Day, we’re doing more than remembering the fallen. Memorial Day is a chance to recognize the challenges faced by all our veterans, including those who still live and struggle with PTSD. Going forward, let’s use Memorial Day as a reminder of our responsibility as a nation to honor and support all who have selflessly fought on our behalf.

This Memorial Day, let’s remember the veterans we lost…and fight for the veterans still with us today.

Are you a veteran in need of assistance? Click this link for a list of resources made specifically for you. If you’re having suicidal thoughts, please call either The National Veterans’ Foundation at 1-888-777-4443 or the VA Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (800-273-8255). Both hotlines are free and confidential.

If you’re not a veteran but would still like to help out, you can get involved through our donation page here

Traumatic Brain Injuries and How to Diagnose Them

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One of the hardest parts of seeing a soldier return home from combat is seeing the heavy price they paid in service to our country. At first glance, it’s easy to notice someone missing a limb, but it’s almost impossible to look at someone and see the traumatic brain injuries they may have suffered during their service. As a result, there’s a bit of a disconnect among the general population and their understanding of just how devastating a traumatic brain injury can be for our servicemen and women.

The Link Between TBI and Veterans

In 2020, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs for short) were responsible for over 64,000 deaths in the U.S. alone. While not all of these were military veterans, you can find an especially strong link between military service and traumatic brain injuries by looking at a bit of additional data for context.

For example, did you know that the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries is firearm assisted suicide? Or that around 72% of veteran suicides are from firearms, 22% higher than the national average? Considering that U.S. veterans are a little over twice as likely to own a gun than the average citizen, it becomes all too easy to connect the dots and see that veterans are especially at risk of TBI’s even long after they’ve returned home.

Aside from the suicide risk, the vast majority of veterans receive their TBI’s in combat. Soldiers in the field can be surrounded day and night by explosions, bullets, and even falling debris, any of which can cause a TBI. In fact, such injuries are actually the leading cause of both death and disabilities in warzones. U.S. House of Representatives member, Bill Pascrell, even went so far as to call TBI “the signature injury of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan”, further driving home the fact that traumatic brain injuries are more common among veterans than most people realize.

It’s easy to think that somebody returning home from service appears to be physically healthy and without scars from their time away. But the brain is by far the most important and delicate organ in our entire body, which is why internal brain injuries like TBIs can be so devastating to someone who may otherwise appear perfectly fine on the outside.

Diagnosing a Traumatic Brain Injury

In order to understand how to diagnose a TBI, it’s important to know a little more about how they cause their damage.

The first thing to know is that not all of the injury takes place at once. A “primary brain injury” occurs at the actual time of the injury, while a “secondary brain injury” may slowly manifest and cause additional damage over time. In essence, just because a brain injury might not be immediately devastating, it does not mean that it can’t eventually be devastating if left untreated.

This is why seeking a medical professional as soon as possible after the primary brain injury is so important. While any official TBI diagnosis should come from a qualified doctor, there are a few things that can tip you off to a potential sustained TBI that could save you valuable days, weeks, or months worth of additional secondary brain damage.

The first and most obvious question to answer is a simple one: Did you sustain any kind of head-related injury? Even something as simple as bumping your head on the ceiling of an attic can lead to a TBI, so don’t hesitate to see a doctor if you’re suffering from non-typical headaches or especially any periods of unconsciousness right in the aftermath of the injury.

You should also be on the lookout for “vomiting, nausea, lack of motor coordination, dizziness, difficulty balancing, lightheadedness, blurred vision or tired eyes, ringing in the ears, bad taste in the mouth, fatigue or lethargy, and changes in sleep patterns,” according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. An especially obvious sign can be pupils of two different dilation levels.

Unfortunately, not all the symptoms of a TBI are so easy to spot. Sometimes a TBI can take much longer to manifest thanks to additional secondary brain damage, which can lead to gradual changes in personality or even decision-making capabilities over a long period time. Thankfully, these more subtle symptoms often come in tandem with at least a few of the more obvious physical symptoms, so if you or someone you know has been suffering from symptoms of both types then it’s time to see a doctor.

If you’re not a veteran but would still like to help out, you can get involved through our donation page here.

Celebrating Recreational Therapy Month!

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February is Recreational Therapy Month and in honor of that, we’re taking a look at exactly what recreational therapy is and how it can benefit you.

Recreational Therapy can sometimes take a back-seat to the more traditional therapy methods that most people are familiar with, but it can be just as helpful (if not moreso!) as its more traditional brethren.

The term “Recreational Therapy” first debuted in the 1950’s, but the idea has actually been around far longer than that. After the Civil War, the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers was established, taking thousands of soldiers into their care. The benefits of recreational therapy were known even then, according to the annual report the organization published in 1875.

“Amusements tend to drive away dull care, and keep the men in a pleasant and cheerful state of mind. All these tend to make discipline easier and to render the men contented and comparatively happy, and to improve their morals…”
-National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1875 Annual Report

What is Recreational Therapy and does it really work?

Recreational therapy, as its name suggests, is the utilization of recreational activities that the patient enjoys as a means of therapy. It also takes an approach to therapy that is a little more “human”, understanding that the cognitive, emotional, and spiritual aspects of healing are just as important as the physical aspects. Sometimes therapy of any kind can be stigmatized or even thought of as a necessary evil by the very people it is meant to assist. Recreational therapy seeks to tear down these obstacles to make therapy as accessible and enjoyable as it is effective, the idea being that if a patient actually enjoys their therapy, they are far more likely to continue it.

According to the VA’s website, “Current research indicates a significant number of positive health outcomes resulting from participation in recreation therapy and creative arts therapy programs.” They use this research as the foundation of their evidence-based approach to recreational therapy, understanding just how important it is for their treatments to have a scientific basis.

This means that even if you’re on the fence about enrolling in recreational therapy, you can rest easy knowing that there is plenty of evidence supporting its viability as a form of therapy. It is still best used in conjunction with other forms of therapy when needed, but even on its own can be a powerful tool in the road to recovery.

PTSD: The Silent Killer

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“War scars us all, but does the most damage to those closest to it.“

In his book, Faces of Combat, author Eric Newhouse describes PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as “…a series of persistent symptoms that follow exposure to a catastrophe or series of catastrophes that are outside a person’s control and that cause feelings of intense fear, helplessness, or horror.”

If you are unfamiliar with PTSD, Newhouse’s definition paints a somber picture of the living hell that people suffering from PTSD go though each and every day. But what makes veterans in particular so susceptible to the disorder?

Veterans who see combat can often experience these extremely stressful situations (or catastrophes) several times per day during tours that can last for years at a time. Each stressful situation compounds upon all the stressful situations that came before it, all but ensuring lasting effects long after the soldier returns home from duty. This untreated PTSD is largely why the suicide rate among veterans is statistically higher than the national average.

To support this theory, let’s look at some data.

The 2022 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report conducted by the VA states that “In each year from 2001 through 2020, age and sex-adjusted suicide rates of Veterans exceeded those of non-Veteran U.S. adults.” Specifically, the report lists the 2020 rate of suicide among veterans as 57.3% higher than the general, non-veteran population.

Another study performed in 2017 found that 12.9% of their veteran participants were living with PTSD, compared to just 6.8% of the general, non-veteran population. This means veterans are almost twice as likely to have some form of PTSD and, when taken into consideration with the 2022 Suicide Prevention study by the VA, suggests a direct link between combat-related PTSD and suicide rates among veterans.

But despite how dire things may seem, there are reasons to feel optimistic about the future.

Thankfully, a lot of positive action has been taken in the past few years that is starting to yield very promising results. For instance, 2020 saw the lowest number of veteran suicides since 2006. Furthermore, the adjusted rate of veteran suicides is decreasing faster than the adjusted suicide rate of the general population, at 9.7% and 5.5% respectively. This means that things are absolutely trending in the right direction…but there’s still a long way to go.

In the meantime, each of us can focus on doing our part to fund programs that assist veterans. We can continue to spread awareness of the various programs that exist to provide mental health support to our veterans (several of which can be found here). The more visible these programs are, the more likely they are to be seen by the people who need them the most.

Remembering Our Veterans on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day – 2022

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As 2022 comes to a close and the holidays approach, it’s important to keep in mind that not every house will be full for the holidays. Some families have a noticeable gap where grandparents or great-grandparents would normally be sitting, gaps that are felt just as much today as they were nearly 80 years ago when they were first formed.

Today, December 7^th, 2022, marks 81 years since the attacks on Pearl Harbor that claimed the lives of 2,403 Americans. To call Pearl Harbor a tragedy is certainly not inaccurate, but it’s not the inherent tragedy of the situation that we should be remembering. Instead, we should view the event through a different lens; one which celebrates the strength, fortitude, and courageousness the soldiers displayed that day. As much as the attacks forever altered the course of our nation, they were also a shining example of the best traits America and her soldiers have to offer. Against nearly insurmountable odds and with their backs to the wall, they kept fighting.

For many soldiers that day, however, this fight was only the beginning.

Though very few mental health statistics exist from this time period, it’s no secret that many veterans struggled with combat related PTSD long after returning home. Despite this, it still took until 2007 for the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act to institute safeguards specifically for veterans thinking of taking their own life.

That’s why, at Faces of Combat, our focus is on providing additional help and resources to veterans after they’ve returned home. Throughout 2023 and beyond, we will continue to share and produce content aimed at helping our veterans overcome the lasting effects of warfare. We understand that, for many, the battle doesn’t end when the last bullet is fired, and the soldiers return home.

The true fight comes afterwards.

Thank you to all of our veterans, both those that have fought and those that continue to do so.

Faces of Combat – Faces of Recovery

News and encouragement for veterans suffering from PTSD, TBI, and/or MST and those who love them.

Author Archives: Jacob Coe

Recreational Therapy Deep Dive #1: Art Therapy

What is Art Therapy?

Is Art Therapy Effective?

Remembering Our Veterans: Memorial Day 2023

Honoring the Fallen:

Supporting Veterans with PTSD:

Traumatic Brain Injuries and How to Diagnose Them

The Link Between TBI and Veterans

Diagnosing a Traumatic Brain Injury

Celebrating Recreational Therapy Month!

What is Recreational Therapy and does it really work?

PTSD: The Silent Killer

Remembering Our Veterans on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day – 2022