Hello again.

I was talking with some V.A. colleagues, and they were telling me how the new vets coming back from Iraq & Afghanistan are a very different breed from the Vietnam vets they saw decades ago.  

Of course, it’s a different situation in many ways.  With Vietnam, the country was totally divided and we took our anger out on each other, and on the vets, who came back.  The vets were very angry about being sent out to kill people and then getting castigated for it once they got home.  We traumatized them all over again.  

On the other hand, this new group of soldiers are appreciated by society at large, for putting themselves at risk – even by people who aren’t particularly happy about the wars. That’s one lesson we sure learned the hard way: not to take the politics of war out on the troops who fight them.

Of course, most of our Vietnam troops were draftees.  Nowadays we have an all-volunteer army. (But then again, a lot of the reservists and National Guardsmen thought they were signing up to get some extra money and help out in national emergencies.  Little did they know they’d be away from their families and careers, on their fourth rotation, fighting real people on foreign soil. So this is a complicated point and not as straightforward as it looks.)

Hello, everyone.

Last week, Beliefnet posted a terrific little piece on migraine triggers and how to avoid or mitigate them.  So for those who suffer from this heinous condition, check out the bulleted points, courtesy of Beliefnet, and if you want to see the fleshed out original, click here.

OK, listen up, any weary person in search of a break!

Just got back from my third annual visit to Rio Caliente – a ridiculously low-cost, hot springs spa getaway in the mountains outside of Guadalajara.  It’s a small place – only holds about 80 guests or so – and lends itself to wonderful conversations with truly interesting, accomplished and unpretentious guests – that may be the thing I like best about this place: the other people.  (And the same friendly, capable, easy-going staff has been there forever.)

It’s a very easy place to go to alone, and many people do.  It’s also friendly to couples of all ages (straight or gay) and families with adult kids (no squeezers, though). People come in from all over the U.S. and Canada, and Europe, too. And lots of training teams hold their annual retreats there too. 

Once again a new study shows that an online podcasting program can help with behavioral change – in this case, weight loss.  This time it was a 12-week podcasting program, designed by the researchers themselves.

The literature is definitely stacking up in favor of web-based programs for mental health (all those successful depression studies from Australia, for instance) and for behavioral change (smoking cessation and weight loss, for instance).  It’s good to know that people will have more access to help when they need it, even if they live far away from a professional or don’t have the financial wherewithal for weekly therapy sessions. 

Hello, Everyone.

Reading that line, “How wonderful to be free at last from smoking!” in this week’s Inspiring Story, brought me back to my own monster addiction to cigarettes 40 years ago.

I used to smoke two and a half packs of unfiltered Camels a day.  I wasn’t enjoying them, beyond the first smoke of the day with my first cup of coffee – the other 49 cigarettes were unsatisfying – just something I did to maintain comfort.  In other words, I was an addict.

Horrid to think of it now, but each psychotherapy session (55 minutes) that I conducted in my tiny, windowless, completely enclosed cubicle of an office at the Charles F. Read Zone Center in northwest Chicago was a three cigarette affair. And that was just me. Sometimes my client smoked too. Can you imagine??  There I was, poisoning the lungs of the people I was presumably “healing”.  

All of us at Health Journeys want to wish you all a very happy, healthy, fun, productive, joy-filled and loving New Year!!

All best,
Belleruth, George, Cindy, Cheryl, Rich, Elizabeth, Walter, Mary, Steve, Bruce, Nancy, Reed and David

Season’s Greetings, everyone!

All of us at Health Journeys are wishing you a joyous and stress-free holiday season – or at least as much as is realistically attainable!  (How’s that for assuming nothing?) And that includes our hopes for a new year that’s filled with joy, love, creativity, health and many satisfying new adventures.  

My own new year’s resolutions are as follows (writing this down and making it public might be just the right move to seal my intention and my fate!:

Hello again.
Once more it's that time of year when we aspire to stay calm, sane and steady, in the face of demands piling on as the holidays draw nigh. I know you've probably seen most of these tips before, but just for a reminder, here's my list of how to reduce stress…

• Take Care of Your Body
  Try to do all those things you know are good for your physical well being: get regular exercise; take it easy on the caffeine, sugar and alcohol; get enough sleep; eat healthy food - you know this stuff. This is the baseline of stress reduction.


• Track Your Physical Comfort
  Take time to check in and see how your body is feeling. Once you notice, you can make small corrections to relieve discomfort before it takes over. Breathe into tight places; stretch and move when your back or neck feels stiff; look out the window when your eyes are straining at the computer screen; massage your neck and press the acupoints when a headache is lurking. But you have to notice what’s amiss first.

Hello, All.

Well, for days I was finding random Cheerios and Legos in my bed, ever since the Great Thanksgiving Squeezer Invasion of 2009.  They’re sweet reminders of my four rambunctious grandsons (and their parents too – don’t get me wrong!), ages five, five, three and two years old.  I miss them, but after a steady diet of Curious George and Word Girl (excellent content, but, frankly, just an excuse to snuggle), I confess to being eager for a little adult fiction and a smattering of world news.

Looking forward to presenting some new info in a keynote on new methods used by the military at NICABM this week – the great annual Hilton Head conference for cutting edge clinical applications.  This year, there will be a lot of info and expertise on the neuroplasticity of the brain and inflammation – two very hot topics these days, where a lot of exciting new data is pouring in.  So I’m guessing I’ll see many of you there.

Recently the Department of Defense (DoD) made a bold decision to introduce Positive Psychology to all active military in hopes of reducing the incidence of PTSD. I appreciate the boldness, but question the choice of method.

Positive Psychology provides an antidote to the more traditional, symptom-focused, disability-obsessed aspects of standard psychotherapy, and instead examines and promotes authenticity, productivity, the appreciation of beauty, creativity, forgiveness, altruism, gratitude and connection with community.

Indeed, building upon a person’s strengths is a key tenet of my profession - social work - and always has been.  I’m all for this fruitful legacy of the late, great Abe Maslow (the psychologist who put terms like “self-actualizing”, “peak experience” and “human potential movement” into common parlance).

I've no doubt positive psychology has been good for a host of people, most notably middle school kids and teenagers suffering from iffy self-esteem, adolescent angst and hormonal doldrums.  It’s also been shown to reduce depression in self-selected, online subjects.  But I just can’t see how it can make a dent on posttraumatic stress, especially the soul-killing kind that comes from the unique horrors of combat.