Page 604 - Total War on PTSD

coordinated with the PTSD Clinical Team at the VA and I received ‘clinical’ advice from them. That said, it is the Prolonged Exposure part that seems to be the most helpful to the Veteran participants...that and the camaraderie. From there you are going through the experience with everybody else and, by doing that, you kind of block out the things that cause you anxiety. The triggers to your anxiety just kind of fall by the wayside. What happens afterwards, that’s where I’d love to do follow-ups.
At the last event there was a Veteran who did the first event along with me and he was talking about how he was a little bit more daring about going out and trying different things after the first event. That’s really the value of the organization, to really try to break the Veterans out of isolating, or drinking excessively...whatever their isolating behavior might be. It’s breaking them out and showing them that this is an alternative way to have fun. It’s an alternative way to get adrenaline. When we were in combat many of us were heavily caffeinated with energy drinks and coffee.
Many of us smoked and had nicotine in our systems. All these things changed the chemistry in the brain, and when we do this constantly, like going outside the wire, when you come back some of those centers in the brain get depleted. So how do you refill that...how do you get that dopamine back? I think many Veterans struggle with that. This definitely helps the Veterans out with this issue because the dopamine is hitting, and they are feeling prideful and getting joy from their participation. I’ve been able to connect with people like Mary Pozzi, the National Champion for the SCCA, and she’s coaching most of my drivers. She is an amazing gal. She doesn’t even run in the women’s division, she runs in the men’s division. She even got me
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