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Its been 56 years and yet just the sound of these birds can get the adrenaline going and the pulse quickening. Slick driversIf you've never sat on the floor of a Huey holding on to the pilot seat frame as your slick was running balls out a hundred feet above the jungle headed into a hot firefight, door guns, mini guns and rocket pods blazing. Well, then at 18 years old you just never experienced one of the most intense adrenaline dumping events in your short life.

In a recent breakthrough that could pave the way for novel treatments for anxiety and stress disorders, a team of neurobiologists from the University of California San Diego has uncovered a “fear switch” in the brain. This discovery could alter our approach to understanding and handling fear by mastering control over this neural switch, potentially offering relief to millions suffering from generalized anxiety disorders and PTSD. “Our results provide important insights into the mechanisms involved in fear generalization,” said co-author and professor of neurobiology at UC San Diego, Dr. Nicholas Spitzer. “The benefit of understanding these processes at this level...

For military veterans, many of the deepest wounds of war are invisible: Traumatic brain injuries resulting from head trauma or blast explosions. Now, researchers have discovered that the plant-based psychoactive drug ibogaine, when combined with magnesium to protect the heart, safely and effectively reduces PTSD, anxiety and depression and improves functioning in veterans with TBI. Ibogaine is found in the roots of the African shrub iboga. Since 1970, ibogaine has been designated as a Schedule I drug, preventing its use within the U.S. Before the treatment, researchers gauged the participants' levels of PTSD. Participants then traveled to a clinic in...

As Veterans’ Day arrives, it is important for those who have never served to take a moment to understand the solitary world of a vet. Millions of vets are and have been successful in all endeavors. They are doctors, lawyers, business people and a thousand other professions. Not all have PTSD; not all are the troubled, brooding, street corner homeless guy, although they exist and need help desperately. No matter how successful a vet might be materially, more often than not, vets are often alone, mentally and spiritually each day and for the rest of their lives. Vets’ stories are...

The drug ketamine can reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and symptoms of depression in patients as early as a day after injection. That is the key finding of my team’s new meta-analysis, just published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy. Ketamine is an anesthetic that is sometimes used as a substance of abuse but is increasingly being explored as a treatment for a range of mental health conditions. We analyzed six randomized controlled trials representing 259 patients with moderate to severe PTSD. In all trials, about half were injected with ketamine. The rest received either salt...

NewsNation’s exclusive interview with UFO whistleblower David Grusch sparked international attention with his claim the U.S. government has secretly been in possession of nonhuman spacecraft. Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart says Grusch believes the government may now be behind an effort to release his medical records in an effort to smear his credibility. In a statement to NewsNation, Grusch said he learned The Intercept intends to publish an article that highlights previous struggles he had with post traumatic stress disorder, grief and depression, specifically incidents in 2014 and 2018. Coulthart thinks someone in the intelligence community leaked Grusch’s medical records to...

Starting July 1, Australia will allow doctors to prescribe MDMA and magic mushrooms to treat PTSD and depression. It’s a worldwide first that comes as research uncovers how psychedelic drugs have real potential for treating mental health conditions. “Australia is creating an interesting model that could pave the way forward for the rest of the world,” Dr. Michael Alpert, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, told ABC News. MDMA is a synthetic hallucinogen, often linked to rave parties, that’s also known as “molly” or “ecstasy.” According to the new rules established by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, MDMA can be prescribed...

Sen. John Fetterman offered full-throated support for psychedelics as a form of mental health therapy, bringing the emerging drug reform movement to Capitol Hill. Fetterman, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, made the comments on Wednesday during Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing, saying he’s “been an advocate of psychedelics in terms of magic mushrooms for PTSD and for veterans especially.” “I always thought it could be - and maybe I’m wrong - an amazing economic kind of boom for the mushroom [sector],” said Fetterman, as quoted by the website. “I think it could be a revolution in mental health.” Fetterman, a Democrat...

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, suffers from PTSD but not really. Whatever it is he suffers from, though he calls it PTSD, was brought on by Donald Trump and the death threats he would receive after a mean tweet against him was posted by Trump. Because, of course it’s Trump’s fault. Never mind Khan received threats before Trump was president. He’s pointing a finger at Trump. And, you know which finger it is.The far-left progressive considers his mental anguish to be PTSD but he doesn’t want to sound like a total jerk and have others make comparisons to real...

Kathy Griffin shared in a TikTok post that she has recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and that she sometimes vomits from her anxiety.The 62-year-old comedian implied that the condition stemmed from her public falling-out after she posted a picture of then-President Donald Trump’s fake severed head in 2017.“You can laugh or whatever, but I’ve been diagnosed with complex PTSD, and it’s called an extreme case,” she said in the video posted Tuesday.“If any of you know my story, you’ll understand that this really started for me about 5 1/2 years ago. Wink,” Griffin continued, referencing the 2017 incident.In...

There is new evidence that a 50-year-old blood pressure drug could find new purpose as a treatment to mitigate PTSD, scientists say. Clonidine is commonly used as a high blood pressure medication and for ADHD. It's also already been studied in PTSD because clonidine works on adrenergic receptors in the brain, likely best known for their role in "fight or flight," a heightened state of response that helps keep us safe. These receptors are thought to be activated in PTSD and to have a role in consolidating a traumatic memory. Clonidine's sister drug guanfacine, which also activates these receptors, also...

Robert Serocki Jr. spent a little less than a year fighting on the front lines in the first Iraq war. The Mesa man spent more than 25 years fighting its impact on his body and his soul. Serocki, 52, has chronicled his struggle with post traumatic distress syndrome in three books, and each week he broadcasts an internet radio show at robertserockijr.com in the hope of helping other men and women recover from PTSD. Now he has published a new book titled “The Blacksmith.” Inspired by an old Civil War photo that looked uncannily like him, the book offers a...

Typically, in American schools, bullying is like the dark cousin to prom, student elections, or football practice: Maybe you weren’t involved, but you knew that someone, somewhere was. In 2011, President Obama spoke against this inevitability at the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention. “With big ears and the name that I have, I wasn’t immune. I didn’t emerge unscathed,” he said. “But because it’s something that happens a lot, and it’s something that’s always been around, sometimes we’ve turned a blind eye to the problem.” We know that we shouldn’t turn a blind eye: Research shows that bullying is...

Kelvin Blowe was shot and killed in Washington, D.C., on the same day the city council voted unanimously to pass a bill he advocated for that reduces penalties for serious offenses such as robbery, burglary, carjackings, and carrying a firearm without a license. The Washington Post reports Blowe had spent over five years in prison for robbery, and the experience "instilled in him a passion to right inequities he believed he encountered." After getting out, he joined DC Justice Lab, one of the groups that pushed to overhaul the city's criminal code. He testified in support of the proposed bill...

Prayers for my dog, again, please

It’s clear the FBI has no interest in students threatening to shoot up schools (Nikolas Cruz), team doctors who assault underage gymnasts (Larry Nassar), or crackheads illegally possessing guns (Hunter Biden). No, if you’re a criminal, a pervert, or a Democrat -- or some combination of the three -- the Feebs won’t be busting your door down at three in the morning and dragging you out into the street in your tighty whities. The folks the Bureau’s been busting lately with great fanfare, and occasionally a CNN news crew in tow, are a different sort altogether: folks who vote Republican;...

The Washington D.C. police officer who beat a Minnesota woman with a metal baton at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is a 19-year veteran with a history of use-of-force complaints. Victoria C. White, of Minnesota, was struck nearly 40 times in a four-minute span in the Lower West Terrace tunnel leading into the U.S. Capitol, security video footage showed. The officer who delivered most of the blows was identified in new court filings as Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) commander Jason Bagshaw, 45. “The tunnel CCTV footage shows that over an almost two-minute span running from approximately 4:07:00 to...

A Canadian Forces veteran seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury was shocked when he was unexpectedly and casually offered medical assistance in dying by a Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) employee. A V.A.C. service agent brought up medical assistance in dying, or MAID, unprompted in the conversation with the veteran and then made comments about having assisted a previous veteran in death.

Canada’s federal government has ordered a ‘full and thorough’ investigation after a Veterans Affairs Canada employee encouraged a veteran to undergo assisted suicide when he called for help. The Canadian Forces veteran was seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury when he was casually offered medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in July. A VAC employee reportedly brought up MAiD unprompted in the conversation with the veteran, who was ‘deeply disturbed’ by the suggestion.

My PTSD dog/best friend goes for chest x-rays tomorrow to see if his osteosarcoma has spread or not.