I don’t have PTSD and neither do you.
It doesn’t make sense. Too many of them have the same exact symptoms, myself included. It didn’t hit me until after I sat in a room with 20 other veterans with “PTSD” and we were all in-line with the same exact issues.
And I mean the same. Exact. Issues.
Sleep problems is to put it lightly. Night sweats, nightmares, restlessness, anxiety, lack of emotion, or too much emotion, hypervigilance, anger, dramatic instant mood swings, suicide, the inability to make proper decisions, the list goes on. All internal mental processes going out of whack simultaneously for soldiers of current engagements. The numbers didn’t make sense to me, it’s too common.
The only constant is the deployment. The amount of mental trauma is actually the supporting irregular factor and not the main contributor. We have all said it and thought it, “What I saw wasn’t that bad, why am I feeling this way?”
What I recently learned about the part of the body that is malfunctioning and is the root cause of the symptoms listed above lead me to think backwards to the onset and cause of this outbreak. It would seem that the dramatic rise in PTSD among recent combat veterans is not from trauma; it is because we were poisoned.
Underneath is some of the science (work in progress) behind it all but I will sum up my thoughts. The medications we were given have proven ever-lasting effects on the brain long after the medications have stopped being administered. Our brains are reacting differently after our deployments in negative ways. The medication stopped being administered after an FDA Black Label Warning was printed on the medication citing the exact symptoms we now live with everyday. At this time the US military largely stopped administering it to soldiers starting in 2009 with special operations groups and then the large forces from over 20,000 in 2010 to less than 3,000 in 2011.
Soldiers on their first deployment after 2011 will most likely not end up taking the following medication. My estimate is that starting 2013-2014 data there will be a massive drop in soldiers reporting symptoms of PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury. Suicides will also start to recede. This will be hailed as a victory for the VA and Federal Government but I think it is just because they stopped poisoning us a little.
Maybe this will grab some of you to start your own research. I have signed up for a clinical trial to get a brain scan and see what is going on up there. I will not take any more pills. I have my first appointment Thursday and I will report back with my findings.
Rakkasan.
--- WORK IN PROGRESS ---
Theory – Soldiers in recent theater wars have been prescribed a cocktail of dangerous mind-altering medications that compound symptoms of PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury. Most notably, Mefloquine (brand name: Lariam®) is a drug that has been given to military personnel, including those serving in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, for protection against malaria. Malaria is an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Mefloquine, a round, white tablet taken once a week, is also used for travelers visiting areas where malaria is found, based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA approved Mefloquine in May 1989. (1)
Side effects of Mefloquine –
Occasionally, Mefloquine may cause more serious side effects. Examples include psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, paranoia, depression, mood changes, hallucinations, agitation, and unusual behavior. Other uncommon side effects may include muscle weakness, irregular heartbeat, and lung problems such as pneumonitis (inflammation of lung tissue). Rare cases of suicidal thoughts have been reported. (1) See more at (2)
“The drug Mefloquine may damage the brain stem and increase the firing of neurons,” said Dr. Remington Nevin, a former Army physician and researcher at the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. (3)
Linking the Brain to the Symptoms
Brain imaging studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have identified a few key brain regions whose function appears to be altered in PTSD, most notably the amygdala, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the hippocampus.
The amygdala is an almond-shaped region ("amygdala" is Greek for almond) that is key to the normal expression of emotions, especially fear. Brain imaging studies see high activity in the amygdala when subjects experience anxiety, stress or phobias. (4)
Anxiety and panic attacks occur when environmental or emotional stressors convince your amygdala that you are in danger. (5)
These diverse psychiatric side effects may now be understood as manifestations of a single underlying pathophysiological process best characterized as a toxic limbic encephalopathy. The limbic system, which includes the hippocampus and amygdala, is one of the oldest portions of the brain phylogenetically and is considered the system responsible for preservation of the self and the species via the generation of emotions, reward mechanisms, sexual drive, and the formation of long-term memories, including fear memory.(6) Mefloquine is highly lipophilic and may accumulate in the limbic system relative to other areas of the brain where it acts to disrupt a form of direct intercellular electrical communication (7)
(1) http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/mefloquine-lariam.asp
(2) http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/mefloquine-lariam.asp#sthash.9MNIPO7i.dpuf
(3) http://www.livescience.com/34588-anti-malarial-causes-ptsd-symptoms.html
(4) https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mouse-man/200901/the-anatomy-posttraumatic-stress-disorder
(5) http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/amygdala
(6) CarmeB,NevezG,PeguetC,etal:Neuropsychiatricintolerance during mefloquine prophylaxis.:5 case reports (in French). Med Mal Infect 26:728 –9, 1996
(7) http://www.jaapl.org/content/41/2/224.full.pdf (pp. 226,227)