Month: March 2011

Best Of, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living

PTSD: How to Prevent PTSD

Michael Anthony

Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a dangerous and debilitating mental condition caused by one’s exposure to traumatizing near-death experiences or seeing someone else’s. Aside from living a monastic or hermit lifestyle to avoid traumatizing experiences, there are other ways to prevent PTSD.

  • Resilience – One way to prevent PTSD is to develop one’s resilience preferably early from childhood. Some people do not get PTSD because of resilience factors. This can be a difficult task for parents to build strong character in their children but people with strong character have are resilient against PTSD.
  • Speaking – After experiencing something tragic or traumatizing, its best to contact friends and loved ones to discuss the event. This alleviates fears as well as strengthens one’s sense of security. This can sometimes lessen the impact of the traumatizing experience.
  • Be one step ahead – If the person experiences a traumatic experience yet has not exhibited PTSD symptoms, its best to consult a psychologist immediately. PTSD symptoms often manifest after thirty days. Military personnel exposed to combat often undergo counseling after missions.
  • Chemical treatment – there is a study that doses of morphine during combat missions for troops can prevent PTSD. This works on the theory that natural or chemically-induced levity reduces an event or a situation’s traumatizing effects.

PTSD Treatment Options: mentalhealthtreatment.net/ptsd

Check out some of our other posts on PTSD.

What To Do When Your Child Has PTSD.

What To Do When Your Spouse Has PTSD.

What To Do To Prevent PTSD.

 

Best Of, Blogishness, Blogishness, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living

PTSD: What to do when Your Child has PTSD

Michael Anthony

Adults can have immense problems dealing with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) whether the adult his/herself is experiencing it or those around him/her. You could only imagine how children with PTSD are dealing with it. Post traumatic stress disorder can be very hard on both parents and children. It’s not enough that children go through a traumatizing event or events that lead to PTSD but to experience the fear and the hurt every time their mind goes out of focus is difficult to accept.

There are times when children keep these experiences to themselves and end up with PTSD with parents not knowing or parents may not realize the gravity of the situation. Here are some signs that the child has post traumatic stress disorder:

  • Has a frequent recollection of the traumatizing event whether the child is awake and asleep in the form of nightmares.
  • The child displays erratic behavior when something triggers a recollection.
  • The child loses interest in play or other activities.
  • Sleeping problems
  • Alternate bouts of depression and mood swings
  • Problems with concentration
  • Increased alertness or awareness

No child should have to deal with such a set of symptoms that can drive an adult insane. The following are some of what parents should do to heal the child’s mind and should go about doing it immediately.

  • Seek the help of a professional child psychologist to solve the PTSD. They will be able to seek out the source if it’s unknown, provide medication that can ease the symptoms and recommend an effective cognitive therapy to keep the child’s learning process going.
  • Always be available or let the child know you will always be there. This should alleviate their fears in going to bed and lessen the effects of nightmares.
  • Maintain the child’s pre-PTSD daily routine. This will keep a sense of order and normalcy.
  • Keep potentially dangerous objects accessible only to you so the child cannot hurt his/herself.

 Check out some of our other posts on PTSD.

What To Do When Your Child Has PTSD.

What To Do When Your Spouse Has PTSD.

What To Do To Prevent PTSD.

Best Of, Blogishness, Blogishness

The Best Charlie Sheen Quotes

Michael Anthony

“But you can’t focus on things that matter if all you’ve been is asleep for forty years. Funny how sleep rhymes with sheep, you know?”

“I have a disease? Bullshit. I cured it with my brain.”

“I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it once your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body. “

“As kids we’re not taught how to deal with success; we’re taught how to deal with failure. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. If at first you succeed, then what? “

“I’m winning.”

“I don’t have time for their judgement and their stupidity and you know they lay down with their ugly wives in front of their ugly children and look at their loser lives and then they look at me and they say, ‘I can’t process it’ well, no, you never will stop trying, just sit back and enjoy the show. You know? “

“The first one’s free. The next one goes in your mouth.”

“If you borrowed my brain for five seconds, you’d be like, ‘Dude! Can’t handle it! Unplug this bastard!’”

“It’s perfect. It’s awesome. Every day is just filled with just wins. All we do is put wins in the record books. We win so radically in our underwear before our first cup of coffee, it’s scary.”

“People say it’s lonely at the top, but I sure like the view.”

“I just didn’t believe I was like everybody else. I thought I was unique.”

“Fuck that.”

“I still don’t have all the answers. I’m more interested in what I can do next than what I did last.”

“I’m tired of pretending I’m not a total bitchin’ rock star from Mars.”

“I’m dealing with fools and trolls and soft targets. It’s just strafing runs in my underwear before my first cup of coffee. I don’t have time for these clowns.”

“I’m different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. Dying’s for fools, dying’s for amateurs.”

“I’m here and I’m ready. They’re not. Bring it.”

“What was she doing with a shrimp fork in her purse?”

“I’m sorry, man, but I’ve got magic. I’ve got poetry in my fingertips. Most of the time – and this includes naps – I’m an F-18, bro. And I will destroy you in the air. I will deploy my ordinance to the ground. “

“I’ve spent, I think, close to the last decade effortlessly and magically converting your tin cans into pure gold.”

“Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.”

“The Nike slogan doesn’t say ‘Just Try It’.”

“Slash sat me down at his house and said, You’ve got to clean up your act. You know you’ve gone too far when Slash is saying,” Look..you’ve got to get into rehab.”

“The only thing I’m addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent.”

“Uncertainty is a sign of humility, and humility is just the ability or the willingness to learn.”

“What they’re not ready for is guys like you and I and Nails and all the other gnarly gnarlingtons in my life, that we are high priests, Vatican assassin warlocks. Boom. Print that, people. See where that goes.”

“Surprise. That’s what winners do.”

“I’m not Thomas Jefferson.  He was a pussy.”

“What’s not to love? Especially when you see how I party, it was epic. The run I was on made Sinatra, Flynn, Jagger, Richards and all of them look like droopy-eyed armless children.”

“What you come to discover is, it isn’t how you get there, it’s that you get there. If that’s what it took to get me where I’m at today, so be it.”

“When friends asked me, Can we help? I’d say, Not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest or teleport me off this rock. I used that line from Star Wars.”

“You have the right to kill me, but you don’t have the right to judge me. That’s life. There’s nobility in that. There’s focus. It’s genuine. It’s crystal and it’s pure and it’s available to everybody, so just shut your traps and put down your McDonalds, your vaccines, your US Weekly, your TMZ and the rest of it.”

“Boom. I’m winning.”

With that said:

Charlie Sheen is all over the news because he`s a celebrity drug addict, while Andrew Wilfahrt 31, Brian Tabada 21, Rudolph Hizon 22, Chauncy Mays 25, are soldiers who gave their lives this week with no media mention.

 

Let’s not forget what really matters!

Best Of, Blogishness, Blogishness, ptsd, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Uncategorized

PTSD: What to Do When Your Spouse has PTSD

Michael Anthony

Post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a difficult and often dangerous mental condition for patients and those around them, the immediate family, the children and especially the spouse. PTSD happens when someone comes back from a truly horrible, violent or near-death experience. Something in the brain snaps; gets rewired and the person with PTSD has no choice but to relive those traumatizing moments physically, mentally and emotionally.

When undiagnosed or untreated, what happens later is an endless stream of coping or adapting to the partner’s bouts of depression and feelings of weakness or uselessness by continuously comforting the partner; of staying up late when the partner experiences horrible nightmares or night terrors related to the experience or even during the day; of being wary for sudden mood swings that sometimes become violent; and of juggling everyday activities like work and chores amidst the demands for attention.

PTSD is a mental condition that needs to be treated and it will simply not go away by hugs and kisses and promises that ‘everything is all right’. Here are some things that need to be done if you have a spouse with PTSD.

Seek professional help – Even though the prospect is hard to accept, your spouse needs professional help and later even you. As a mental condition, professional psychologists can help heal your partner’s troubled psyche and also prescribe the appropriate medication to ease the symptoms.

Set up a security plan – PTSD can be dangerous especially when your spouse experiences vivid waking nightmares or flashbacks. Your spouse can be dangerous to his/herself and everyone around him/her because your partner might be reliving an experience and might not be able to differentiate what’s real. Set up things like having a wireless phone anywhere in the house in case you need help, keep dangerous objects like knives and guns in places easily accessible only to you and practice a quick exit.

Civilianized: A Young Veteran’s Memoir

In this dark humored War Memoir, Iraq veteran Michael Anthony discusses his return from war and how he defeated his PTSD. Civilianized is a must read for any veteran, or anyone who knows a veteran, who has returned from war and suffered through Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

dark humored military memoir“An intense memoir.” -Kirkus

“I wont soon forget this book.” -Mary Roach

“A must read.” -Colby Buzzell

“[S]mart and mordantly funny.” –Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Anthony delivers a dose of reality that can awaken the mind…” Bookreporter

Order your copy of Civilianized: A Young Veteran’s Memoir .

Check out some of our other posts on PTSD.

Main Updated Article: Best Ways to Treat PTSD for You or Your Spouse.

What To Do When Your Child Has PTSD.

What To Do When Your Spouse Has PTSD.

What To Do To Prevent PTSD.

Is PTSD genetic?

Best Of, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living

The CARVER System For Goals – Part 2

Michael Anthony

Since my latest blog post about military time management, a lot of people have sent emails asking for a longer description of the military’s CARVER system.  So I decided to elaborate.

As stated in my previous post, the military’s system of time management is broken up into the CARVER system.

  • Criticality –the importance of a task.
  • Accessibility –is it easy to reach? Are the resources needed to do it readily available?
  • Return – What is the return?
  • Vulnerability –How long will it take?
  • Effect – Once the task is done, what will be the overall effect? This is slightly different than return. Will it have a bigger impact on the organization or the well-being of the individual?
  • Recognizability – finally, is the task clear and concise? No task can be done quickly and effectively with incomplete information.

Take your goals and rate them within the CARVER system.  Ex:  Say that you want to loose 20lbs, and you want to learn to speak French.  In the CARVER system, you would take the goals and start off by rating it within the Criticality category.  Let’s say that someone is more concerned with losing weight then learning French.  Losing weight may bet a rating of 4 and learning French may only get a rating of 2.  Then someone would rate their goals within the Accessibility category.  How easy is the goal to reach?  To lose 20lbs a person would have to buy new healthy food, they’ll have to get a gym membership or some type of weights.   To learn French a person may only need to purchase a few CD’s or a book.  The person would then continue within the rest of the categories and see where each goal rates.

(The higher score the better.)

Lose 20lbs Learn

French

 Learn How to Cook Clean The

House
Criticality 4 2 4 3
Accessibility 2 4 3 5
Return 5 1 3 3
Vulnerability 2 1 3 5
Effect 5 2 4 2
Recognizability 4 3 3 3
Total: 22 13 20 21

So based on CARVER a person who has the above goals, should put their focus on losing 20lbs – that’s the most important goal with the highest reward; the next goal to be focuses on, or to be focused on simultaneously, would be cleaning the House – since it can be done quickest and easiest with the highest return.

The best thing about the system is that it allows you to objectively look at your goals and see which are the most important – compared to which are the easiest – compared to which produce the highest return.
Related Posts:

Part 1 of the CARVER system

Smaller Goals VS Larger Goals

What the Military Teaches About Self-Discipline

I Will Never Accept Defeat.  I Will Never Quit.

Best Of, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living

Brian Tracy Interview- Intensity, Purpose and Communication: Part 3/3

Michael Anthony

Brian Tracy is one of America’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. A dynamic and inspiring speaker, he addresses thousands of people each year on the subjects of personal and professional development, including the executives and staff of such firms as IBM, Arthur Andersen, McDonnell Douglas, and The Million Dollar Round Table. Prior to founding his own firm, Brian Tracy International, he had successful careers in sales and marketing, investments, real estate development, distribution, and management consulting. Tracy is the author of over forty books including the bestselling book Maximum Achievement.

7) Question: How can I repeat the high level of activity and business in the military in my civilian life?

Answer: “The key to time management and high productivity is for you to set a schedule for yourself and then discipline yourself to keep to that schedule.”

Each evening, make a list of everything you have to do the following day. Organize the list by priority. Ask yourself, “If I could only complete one task on this list before I was called out of town for a month, which one task would it be?”

Whatever you have decided is the most important thing you can accomplish, begin on that one task immediately that you start work. Don’t waste time chatting with coworkers, drinking coffee, playing with the computer or reading the newspaper. Plunge into your work immediately and concentrate on finishing one important task as quickly as you can.

Practice single-handling. Military people have the ability to focus and concentrate on one thing at a time. This is still the most important single quality for success in any area of life, and you already know how to do it at a high level. Your job now is to repeat this focus and concentration on your major tasks every single day. This alone will motivate you into action and keep you motivated to work busily all day long.

(8) Question: What advice do you have for returning veterans who miss the intensity, purpose and focus of war but who now want to find something new and positive to be focused on?

Answer: Perhaps the most important thing that you can do for your future is to learn and practice setting goals and working on them every day.

Decide exactly what you want in each area of your life, and write it down. Set a deadline for the accomplishment of your most important goals.

Make a list of everything that you can think of that you could do to achieve an important goal. Begin work on that list immediately, and keep working on it day after day.

As you feel yourself moving progressively, step-by-step, toward a goal of your choice, you will feel more energized, purposeful, and focused than if you were just going from day to day with no clear direction.

9) Question: For service people who can only have brief, fleeting conversations with family and friends back home, how can they quickly and most effectively communicate with their loved ones?

Answer: The most important thing about communication is that it be regular, positive and loving. Never criticize, complain or condemn in your brief correspondence via email with the members of your family and your friends.

Always be honest, but be positive and cheerful as well. The people who care about you are more worried about your health, wellbeing and survival than anything else. Regularly tell them how well you are doing and how good you feel.

When they share their problems with you, be sympathetic and supportive. Offer advice and suggestions. Take an interest in your family and friends back home and make it clear that you care about them, even though you are far apart.

In closing let me say that I feel that you are some of the most important people in America. What you have done, and are doing, to support and defend our way of life is of far greater value than any of the business people or politicians going through their day to day work.

As veterans, you are men and women of courage, confidence and character. You have laid your life on the line to defend our way of life. You are some of the most important and respected people in our society.

The good news is that, of all the institutions in society, the military and the men and women within the military are the most respected. You are more respected than Congress, the Senate, school teachers, doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers and rich people. Military people are more esteemed than anyone else, and they should be.

Check Out the Entire Interview

Part one: Click Here

Part two: Click Here

Part three: Click Here

Best Of, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living

Brian Tracy Interview – Become a Better Communicator, Use Military Strategies for Success and Become a Better Leader: Part 2/3

Michael Anthony

Brian Tracy is one of America’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. A dynamic and inspiring speaker, he addresses thousands of people each year on the subjects of personal and professional development, including the executives and staff of such firms as IBM, Arthur Andersen, McDonnell Douglas, and The Million Dollar Round Table. Prior to founding his own firm, Brian Tracy International, he had successful careers in sales and marketing, investments, real estate development, distribution, and management consulting. Tracy is the author of over forty books including the bestselling book Maximum Achievement.

4) Question: Veterans overseas often have to turn off parts of themselves, specifically emotional parts. How can someone recharge or re-engage parts of themselves and their brain that they haven’t used in a long time?

Answer: Perhaps the greatest discovery in human history is that, “You become what you think about – most of the time.”

Your brain adjusts quickly to the stresses and demands of a new situation, especially in a combat situation overseas. It shuts down parts of your thoughts and emotions that might make you ineffective or distract you from the work at hand. This is normal and natural, and is a survival mechanism that is designed for your benefit.

When you return, you still become what you think about most of the time. Now, however, it is time to think of other things. Just as if you change your physical diet, you will feel differently, when you change your mental diet, you will feel differently as well.

When you return, you can begin the reprogramming of your mind in a positive way by reading positive books, listening to positive audio programs, associating with positive people, and even watching comedies and action programs on television that stimulate your mind and begin changing your thinking in a positive way.

Fully 95% of what you do, say, think or feel is the result of habit. Good habits are hard to form but easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form but hard to live with. The good news is that you can develop new, positive, healthy habits of thought and feeling by repeating the words, pictures and actions consistent with your new habit over and over again until they lock in.

Remember, the one thing in the world that you can control is your own thinking. And if you keep your thoughts on positive things; your goals, your relationships, your health, and your future, you eventually develop a whole new set of mental connections that keep your positive most of the time. Just remember to be patient with yourself at the beginning.

5) Question: In your book Victory, you talk about how to apply the proven principles of military strategy to achieve greater success in your personal and business life. How can veterans turn their experiences with military strategy and battle plans into personal and business plans?

Answer: My book, Victory, is a good piece of writing, filled with practical ideas that veterans can relate to immediately. Each returning veteran should read this book from cover to cover. To that end, anyone who comes to my website at www.briantracy.com/victory as a result of reading this article can download this eBook at no charge, as a gift from me to you, and in appreciation of your service.

When you get the book, read one chapter per day and take notes. Think about how you can apply these ideas to your current life.

6) Question: After some of the stories about leadership in the military, what advice would you give someone in a leadership position?

Answer: Many veterans have had many experiences in leadership already. They now need to learn to use those experiences and knowledge in leadership positions in the private sector.

I would suggest that each person reading this acquire my book, “How the Best Leaders Lead.” and read it from cover to cover. It will show you exactly how you can translate what you have learned in the military into getting valuable results for which companies will pay in the private sector.

Check Out the Entire Interview

Part one: Click Here

Part two: Click Here

Part three: Click Here

Politics / News

New Poll: The Majority of American’s Want U.S. Troops Out Of Afghanistan

Michael Anthony

So, Defense Secretary Robert Gates just announced that troops will be in Afghanistan until 2014.  He announced this on the same day that a Rasmussen poll came out and said that the majority of American’s wanted a withdrawal from Afghanistan within a year (31% wanted an immediate withdrawal).

Here’s what I don’t think people understand about the military.  Even after 2014, all the troops won’t be gone.  American military troops will most likely be in Iraq and Afghanistan for decades and decades.  We will never pull out all of our troops.  It just won’t happen.  We need a base in the Middle East and there’s no way in Hell that the military is going to allow ourselves to give up that position.

People can debate all they want about why we’re in the Middle East.  But the fact of the matter is we’re already there, and there’s no way we’re going to give up one of our strongest strategic positions.  Hilary Clinton said it herself in December.  She said that while she knows there’s low public opinion on the wars, public opinion isn’t going to change what they’re doing.

“I’m well aware of the popular concern, and I understand it,” she said. “But I don’t think leaders — and certainly this president will not — make decisions that are matters of life and death and the future security of our nation based on polling. That would not be something that you will see him, or any of us, deciding.”

Face it, unless we lose drastically like in Vietnam, we’re not leaving anytime soon and Hilary Clinton said it herself, they’re not going to allow public opinion to sway their stance (even if 72% did support a withdrawal).

Best Of, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living

Brian Tracy Interview- How Veterans Can be More Successful and How to Deal with PTSD: Part 1/3

Michael Anthony

Brian Tracy is one of America’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. A dynamic and inspiring speaker, he addresses thousands of people each year on the subjects of personal and professional development, including the executives and staff of such firms as IBM, Arthur Andersen, McDonnell Douglas, and The Million Dollar Round Table. Prior to founding his own firm, Brian Tracy International, he had successful careers in sales and marketing, investments, real estate development, distribution, and management consulting. Tracy is the author of over forty books including the bestselling book Maximum Achievement.

1) Question: How should veterans ease or jump back into life?

Answer: First, give yourself a certain amount of time, between two and four weeks, to rest, recreate, decompress and generally settle back into civilian life. It is normal and natural to need a time to transition from an ordered military life into a completely free civilian lifestyle.

Second, accept that you are 100% responsible for who you are, what you do and everything you accomplish. It is up to you to begin making the decisions that will lead to a happy, healthy and fulfilled life in the months and years ahead;

Three: Take out a piece of paper and write down ten goals that you would like to accomplish in the coming year. Go over that list and ask yourself, “If I could only achieve one goal on this list, which one goal would have the greatest positive impact on my life?”

Four: Take a clean sheet of paper and make a list of everything that you could do, starting immediately, to make that one major goal a reality. Think on paper. The more action steps that you write down, the more focused you will be, and the more motivated to take action.

Five: Take action immediately. Do something. Do anything. Get up and get going. Resist the temptation to sleep in, watch television and take it easy. Remind yourself that, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life.”

2) Question: After they have jumped back in, what are the immediate steps that they should take toward success?

Answer: First, set a goal to get a job as quickly as you can. You may not be able to get the job that you want right away, but take any job that you think you might enjoy doing, and get started.

Set a goal to become excellent at what you do. Treat your job as if you were going to be doing that job for the next ten years. Decide to be in the top 10% of people at whatever you have decided to do.

Develop a learning plan for yourself. Begin reading, listening to audio programs, and attending seminars that will help you to be better and more productive in your work. Each time you learn and apply something new, you get a positive jolt of self-control, self-confidence and personal power.

Expect to be disappointed. Expect to fail occasionally. Life is a process of “two steps forward and one step back.” Nothing is easy, not for anyone. The most important quality you have as the result of your experience is your ability to bounce back from disappointment. It is your resilience. It is your ability to respond effectively to whatever happens to you without letting it get you down.

The most important thing is to take continuous action toward your goals. The busier you become the more positive you will feel, and the more in control of your life you will be.

3) Question: Many returning veterans suffer from some form of PTSD, depression, or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). How can a person go about reframing their thinking and beliefs and dealing with these symptoms?

Answer: Overseas deployment in a combat zone can be quite traumatic. It you feel negative or depressed for any reason, it is absolutely essential that you get immediate medical attention for your symptoms.

The medical specialists available to veterans today are some of the best in the world. They have enormous experience in dealing with returning service people. They can often pinpoint with great accuracy any problem or difficulty you have, and quickly suggest a solution or a treatment of some kind. Don’t try to figure it out by yourself.

Perhaps one of the most important things that you can do is to talk it out with other people. Sometimes, the release that you get from openly and honestly sharing your thoughts and feelings, and even your fears, will act as a great source of relief and peace. Don’t keep your feelings bottled up inside of you.

Check Out the Entire Interview

Part one: Click Here

Part two: Click Here

Part three: Click Here