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Not to say that veterans who suffer from PTSD should still self-medicate with only laughter as their medicine of choice, but learning to stand back and focus on the humor of a situation can greatly reduce their astronomical stress levels. But veterans are still encouraged to accept actual medical treatment, such as talk-therapy and perhaps even psychiatric medication, to help ease their symptoms and accelerate their rehabilitation.
One of those organizations is Operation: I.V, a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2012 that helps combat veterans heal from both PTSD as well as traumatic brain injuries. Its founder, Roxann Abrams, is a Gold Star Mother who lost her son SFC Randy Abrams in 2009. Randy took his own life after experiencing a PTSD flashback from his service in Iraq. Randy had undiagnosed PTSD- a common occurrence among combat veterans either due to mistakes made by the medical field or simply the individuals failure to report such grave symptoms.
Coincidentally, these reasons, paired with many others included in the article, can be top attributed to the tumultuous emotional state of combat veterans. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that one in five combat veterans develops Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, either for the duration of or shortly after combat. The Mayo Clinic defines PTSD as having three fundamental categories of symptoms: re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance symptoms, and hyperarousal symptoms. These categories can be simplified to describe symptoms of flashbacks and nightmares, feeling of guilt and depression, and insomnia, respectively.
Rounding out the bottom of the list is the way laughter releases pleasure hormones known as endorphins, while simultaneously lowering levels of cortisol, a dominant stress hormone that over time, can cause both physical and mental ailments to arise. Keeping stress levels under control is therefore key to overall health and a healthy outlook on life.
However, veterans should still be wary of seeking this sort of treatment through the VA, since reports launched by CBS in 2013 revealed that medical professionals associated with the VA prescribed 259% more narcotics than in 2002, and that individualized therapy had fallen by the wayside. Therefore, ailing squaddies and veterans who suffer from PTSD may need to consider consulting outside organizations to rehabilitate their physical and mental health, as well as help make themselves more competitive in the job market.
Another fundamental gain of laughter is that it helps develop coping skills. That is, laughter enables us to better deal with stressful and tense situations. Basically, we learn to laugh at our troubles in place of worry about them. Additionally, we learn not to take ourselves so seriously, which for some, can be quite a liberating realization. Apparently, laughter even teaches us to manage pain. How? Laughter eases fear and anger, which allows us to better cope and logically react to a certain situation.
Discovery.com, the on-line database for the Discovery Channel, uses results from learning psychoneuroimmunology, or the relationship between human behavior (in this case, laughing) and the mind, and how it affects the immune system. That is, laughter has been clinically shown to boost the immune system, as well as lower stress levels, and subsequently, blood pressure and other heart ailments. In fact, Discovery.com has found ten reasons why laughter can be used as a supplement for medicine in an article known as, 10 Reasons Why Laughter is Good for You.
As a result of her sons death, Abrams founded Operation: I.V. so that combat veterans who served in either Iraq or Afghanistan have a place to accept treatment through a specialized VIP, or Veteran Intervention Plan program. VIP offers ten different rehabilitation programs, including hyperbolic oxygen therapy, service dogs, and pressure reduction therapy. Additionally, veterans may also partake in programs such as job retraining, business mentoring, and tutorial assistance. Again, while there's not any cure for PTSD, the programs provided by Operation: I.V. can drastically improve a veterans mental health and overall outlook on life!
