332_Veterans Mental Health Overview
Terry [00:00:04] Hello and welcome to the Giving Voice to Depression podcast brought to you by Recovery Rt.com. Each week we profile a guest who shares intimate details of their mental health journey they share because they understand that when people don't talk about their depression or other mental health conditions, those of us who struggle with them can feel like we're the only ones, that there's something wrong with us. Instead of understanding that we have a common and treatable illness, I'm Terry, the creator and co-host of this podcast.
Anita [00:00:32] And I'm Dr. Anita Sanz, a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 25 years in clinical practice. I know from both personal and professional experience how significantly mental health and other disorders can impact not just our lives, but those around us as well. By speaking openly and with the wisdom of lived experience, we help normalize conversations that are often avoided due to shame or stigma. Our episodes are honest and real, and we keep them hopeful because there truly is hope. Despite what depression tells you.
Terry [00:01:07] This podcast is brought to you by recovery.com, whose mission is to help each person find the best path to recovery through a comprehensive, helpful network of treatment providers for both mental health and addiction treatment worldwide. This and next week's episodes are a different format than usual as they have a different focus than usual. Since November is the month during which the United States honors all of its military veterans for their service and sacrifices. We want to focus on veterans mental health and how, as a society, we can better support and respect veterans. As you'll soon hear, we found the perfectly qualified guest to understand and discuss both those perspectives and the perfect person to interview him as he gives his voice to depression.
Anita [00:02:05] Hello, everyone. This is Dr. Anita Sanz, co-host of The Giving Voice to Depression Podcast. And today, I'm very excited to have a very special guest to interview my husband, Dr. Donald Sands. Don, I want you to tell everyone a little bit about yourself before we get started.
Dr. Don Sanz [00:02:23] Okay. Well, I am currently a licensed psychologist in the state of Florida, and I sort of specialize in working with trauma and many former military and current military personnel, as well as some survivors of the World Trade Center who are still experiencing some post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Anita [00:02:49] And can you tell me a little bit about your own experience in the military?
Dr. Don Sanz [00:02:53] Well, sure. I was a naive 23 year old kid going to college at FSU, and I saw this was right in the middle of the Vietnam War. And I thought, well, let's see, I could get drafted. I could maybe not get drafted or I could do my best thing that I could do and go to ROTC and be an officer if I went in. So I did, in fact, get commissioned when I graduated and went into Infantry Officer Basic and from infantry school to Fort Bragg and and Special Forces training and some teaching at the JFK Special Warfare School.
Anita [00:03:39] Well, first of all, thank you for your service. And so how did you go from being a veteran to becoming a psychologist who works with veterans?
Dr. Don Sanz [00:03:50] Well, you know, I had another career path in my mind when I went to Vietnam. And after spending a year in Vietnam and seeing the level of trauma that happened with everyone, I was still in the social services arena. And I thought, you know, I think the best thing that I could be doing would be to be working as a psychologist or mental health worker to help folks manage this level of trauma.
Anita [00:04:19] That sounds really interesting. And your many years of working with veterans that I know you've had, what would you say are the the main issues that that most veterans are probably going to struggle with when that when they when they return?
Dr. Don Sanz [00:04:35] Sure. Most veterans do not develop a mental health condition. But but still, the idea of having to to readjust to society, and I'm focusing more on veterans that are leaving the military. But it's somewhat true also for veterans who are staying in the military. But when you have to come back home after being in a war zone, then you have many readjustment issues. And there's a lot of good literature that the VA puts out about some of the readjustment issues. And I'll I'll mention just a few of them just so that you might know. But certainly having to be around people all the time that the don't really understand or appreciate what you've been through and have no idea and sometimes say really silly things about it. How to get back into the workforce if that's one of the things that you're going to be doing. And certainly returning to a job which has a very different type of time schedule than the one that you're used to. How to create structure for yourself. Because the military provides structure and you don't have to worry about that. But as it turns out, you have to provide your own structure. And then how do you go about adjusting to some of the basic necessities of life? How do you go about with food? How do you go about with a schedule? How do you go about doing these.. what kind of housing do you have? What is your family situation like? How do you do that? How do you adjust to that? How do you adjust to a new pace of life? And how do you access certain kinds of services that can help you?
Anita [00:06:20] It's a lot to adjust to, basically.
Dr. Don Sanz [00:06:24] Well, it's an awful lot. And very typically, after returning from a war zone, you it's very confusing because there's all sorts of new stimuli and you're not sure how you're going to deal with all of that. And it's an extremely confusing time for you and requires quite a bit of work to get yourself back into another pace of life.
Anita [00:06:49] That makes a lot of sense. Now, I imagine that not all veterans do struggle with mental health issues when they return, but for the ones that do, can you talk a little bit about what would be the most common?
Dr. Don Sanz [00:07:03] Well, certainly the the most common mental health issue for people returning from a war zone is post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. And the PTSD, there's a bunch of symptom clusters that are associated with the kinds of symptoms that you would see if you might be experiencing post-traumatic stress. And post-traumatic stress becomes diagnosable when it interrupts your life. That is everybody that's been in a war zone or have been experiencing any kind of trauma like the World Trade Center or an assault or some other terrific traumatic event, anyone is going to have some symptoms of post-traumatic stress. That doesn't necessarily become diagnosable until it really interrupts your life.
Dr. Don Sanz [00:07:55] But let me mention some of these symptom clusters. The first is symptoms of intrusion. That is where you have these intrusive memories and you've probably heard about flashbacks and nightmares and all of these types of things or are in the cluster of intrusive types of things. The second cluster is about avoidance of stimuli. I have 9/11 people who still duck every time a plane goes over. And so they try to find a place to live where they're as far away from an airport as they possibly can. And that's true of other kinds of sounds, sights and smells. And people try to avoid them so they can avoid the reaction that they have to the stimuli. The third cluster has to do with alterations in thoughts and feelings. For example, mood changes. And when you have a mood change, sometimes you might feel, and this is very common for Vietnam veterans, survivor guilt, shame because the country was at war with itself about support for the war. There's a lot of guilt. We left a lot of our folks back behind. We have sometimes distorted beliefs about the government. There's sometimes a lot of anger about that sort of thing. And sometimes we feel like that that the government may have been the bad guy in all of this, that type of thing. And then the fourth cluster is alterations in arousal. And that's where you'll find you're irritable. You'll find yourself being hyper alert. It's very, very common for people with PTSD to have sleep problems. Very common to have lots of problems with concentration. So these are just a very broad brush type of of ideas about the different kinds of symptoms that you might be experiencing if you have post-traumatic stress disorder.
Anita [00:10:03] And you were talking about the fact that it's it's when functioning is is being affected. Can you just speak a little bit to how would you know how would you know when you're functioning as being affected in different areas of your life?
Dr. Don Sanz [00:10:18] Well, when you're getting feedback from folks that you're not acting in a normal kind of way.
Anita [00:10:24] When you're when your partner is saying, hey, we've got a problem here.
Dr. Don Sanz [00:10:28] Yes, absolutely. That is not unusual. When you notice that you might be using substances to blunt your feelings about how things are going on with you. If you're drinking more than you should be or using other substances in a way to try to avoid stimuli, then you know there's some kind of problem. When you can't get along with people on the job. When you are when you're constantly angry and upset, when you're constantly in this aroused type of state, then you notice something is wrong, something is going on and you have to do something about it.
Anita [00:11:06] So you may know or it may be some of the people closest to you who may know.
Dr. Don Sanz [00:11:11] Yes, that's exactly right. And it's very important to be able to listen to it without overreacting.
Anita [00:11:17] Okay. Well, thanks for that overview. That was a lot of information. It's going to be very helpful. And I know that you are coming back next week to talk more specifically about how those friends and family members and and members of the community can best support veterans. And so I appreciate your being willing to be here. And as always, as you know, thank you for your service.
Dr. Don Sanz [00:11:43] Well, you're very welcome. And I'll be happy to come back.
Anita [00:11:52] We truly hope that our podcast brings a little more understanding, helps you better articulate and reflect on your own experience with depression, or better understand how to support someone else who is struggling.
Terry [00:12:05] If this episode has been of comfort or value to you know that there are hundreds of others like it in our archive, which you can easily find at our website. Giving voice to depression.com. And remember if you are struggling, speak up. Even if it's hard if someone else is struggling, take the time to listen.
