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War Stress Relief

"Free Help For Our Soldiers

and Their Families"

 

Free Help Here

"No hype.  Just help.  free."

what are we doing for you?

a personal message

To those who serve our

great country

This website is dedicated to providing an ever expanding directory of free, no strings attached, helpful and healing services and products to our incredible service men and women and their families.

In essence, it is a directory that will hopefully grow to have thousands of healers listed who will freely give to you their healing skills.

And, there is also a directory for those who want to help in other ways--say with house repairs, yard work, car repairs, painting or anything else.

It is a rule that anyone listed on this site will not, in any way, solicit you to purchase anything.  They are volunteering to just give to you in whatever way they can.

Furthermore, it is the purpose of this site that together we will somehow help you in whatever way we can to make your journey more bearable.

"May the road rise up to meet you.

 

May the wind be always at your back.


May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand."

 

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Special Thanks to the wonderful people at Round The Bend Wizards who donated this web template. 

 

"I have purchased templates and services from RTB Wizards and their service is fantastic plus they have great templates at excellent prices."

- R. Hastings, Vice President

WFC Resources

 

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Stress from war leaves a heavy toll: Little is done to aid veterans' daily struggles

ROMNEY, W.Va. - Michelle Turner's husband sits in the recliner with the shades drawn. He washes down his Zoloft with Mountain Dew. On the phone in the other room, Michelle is pleading with the utility company to keep their power on.

"Can't you tell them I'm a veteran?" asks her husband, Troy, who served as an Army scout in Baghdad and came back with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Troy, they don't care," Michelle says, her patience stretched.

The government's sweeping list of promises to make wounded Iraq war veterans whole, at least financially, has not reached this small house in the hills of rural West Virginia, where one vehicle has already been repossessed and the answering machine screens for bill collectors.

The Turners have not been making it on an $860-a-month disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Click here for the rest of story

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Army starts stress program but lacks resources

Excerpt: The U.S. Army will start training all soldiers on Wednesday to recognize signs of post-traumatic stress and seek help when needed, but it still lacks the mental health resources to treat those troops.

About 1.5 million U.S. service members have been sent to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001. Repeated and extended deployments to those war zones have driven up the need for mental health services.

But the military's mental health system is too short of funds and staff to help service members, according to the Pentagon and the American Psychological Association, which found more than 30 percent of all soldiers met the criteria for a mental disorder.

Click here for the rest of story

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Stress management critical for service members

Excerpt: "(Stress) impacts all areas of life -- honestly," said Maj. James Young, Mental Health Clinic flight commander.

"It impacts our relationships, how well we handle problems in relationships or issues in relationships. It affects our ability to perform adequately on the job. It definitely affects our health and well being." 

Click here for the rest of story

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Guide To PTSD Resources

Emily Afuola of Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc., has posted a comprehensive guide to PTSD. 

 

Click here to download this invaluable resource guide.

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Peace Groups Warn More Post-Traumatic Stress On The Way

 

Excerpt: Donald McFarland of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq argued that post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, will become more common because the military is stretched so thin.

"Extended deployments and reduced time off between deployments puts strains on troops and families."

McFarland cited a June 4th article in the Army Times pointing to a high incidence of PTSD in returning veterans. The study, by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, examined 56 veterans including 39 reservists and 17 active-duty service members.

Overall 55% were diagnosed with "mental health concerns" including PTSD. Among reservists 49% complained of post traumatic stress, while 36% of the active duty personnel examined by doctors had PTSD.

 

Click here for the rest of story

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Lock and Load

According to Steve Robinson, director of government relations for Veterans for America:


"We should not see any attempt by the [Defense Department] to crush the responsiveness of a community that wants to be involved in helping soldiers," he said."

 

"As a practical matter, they're not doing a good enough job to turn people away."

 

Ed. Note: This was said before the Walter Reed scandal.

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A 2006 military study found that more than one-third of troops who served in Iraq sought mental health care for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or other problems in the year after they returned home.

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In Los Angeles, therapists offer free services to soldiers and families through a nonprofit group called The Soldiers' Project.

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In Massachusetts, a network of 70 mental health counselors dubbed SOFAR (Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists) offers free individual and group counseling to families of Guard and reserve troops.

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What kind of help can you get for free?  There are three kinds of assistance being offered to you on this website.

First, free helpful services offered by those who appreciate your service and sacrifice.  Personally, I don't think 'Joe American' has any idea the kind of stress you troops or your families are under. 

The second type of assistance being offered is General Help

Let's say your husband is away in Iraq and you need help around the house with shoveling, painting, repairs and that sort of thing.  People listed in the General Help directory can help you reduce stress by helping with projects.

Keep checking in with this site because over time there should be Americans from every state and every town across America who are willing to do something.

And, there will be many more categories for you to choose from so that you can find exactly what you need.

The directory is arranged by state so that you can find someone close to you.  Remember, over time this directory will be big enough that you will find someone near you to help so come back if at first you don't find someone. 

Also, if appropriate, check to see if a listed practitioner will do phone work.

The third type of assistance being offered is Free Stuff some of which can help to reduce stress, improve sleep and much more. 

Please remember that there are so many of us who care for you and deeply appreciate what you, our troops, and your families, have done for us. 

P.S., before doing anything else, please read our Policies page because there is some very important information there.

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Healing Tips for Troops needs your contributions and questions.  Click here to help other G.I.'s or to get help from other soldiers and their families who have been through tough times.

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Sometimes you just have to laugh.  But if you laugh for no reason, people near you will think you've been out in the sun for too long. 

So, please contribute funny stuff to the the Humor section. 

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"Trust your hopes, not your fears."
                      - David Mahoney

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"Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible."
                    - Frank L. Gaines

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VA Giving Alternative Medicine More Credence

Excerpt 1: The Iraq veteran in George Gafner’s Tucson office had a problem that confounded his doctors and his wife: Since returning from the war, he was impotent, for no reason that medical science could detect.

Gafner, a therapist at the city’s veterans hospital, suggested hypnosis to see if the soldier’s unconscious mind might yield a clue.

Excerpt 2: Former soldier Donald Rayos was one of first on the scene of a widely publicized air tragedy in 1982, when an Air Florida jet crashed into a bridge near the Pentagon and plunged into the Potomac River. Memories of the carnage helped fuel a long battle with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rayos, 50, said hypnotherapy has helped him cope with his raw nerves, raging outbursts and tendency to avoid others. 

“It takes the edge off,” he said. “It helps me soften my memories and set them aside, even though you never forget.”

Click here for the rest of the story

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The Army is Ordering Injured Troops To Go To Iraq

"This is not right," said Master Sgt. Ronald Jenkins, who has been ordered to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that doctors say would be damaged further by heavy Army protective gear. "This whole thing is about taking care of soldiers," he said angrily. "If you are fit to fight you are fit to fight. If you are not fit to fight, then you are not fit to fight."

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.

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"Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed."

 

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Pentagon: Military's mental health care needs help

• A new report says the military is unable to provide adequate psychological care
•Insufficient funding, prejudices toward mental illness are part of the problem
• Long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have made mental health a major issue

"The military health system lacks the fiscal resources and the fully trained personnel to fulfill its mission to support psychological health in peacetime or fulfill the enhanced requirements imposed during times of conflict," according to "An Achievable Vision," a report from the Pentagon's Task Force on Mental Health.

Click here for the rest of the story

 

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Suicides have been rising during the five-year-old war in Iraq and nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan.

Excerpts: "The increases in suicides come despite a host of efforts to improve the mental health of a force stressed by the long and repeated tours of duty.

Increasing the strain on the force last year was the extension of deployments to 15 months from 12 months, a practice ending this year."

Ed. Note: This article is heartbreaking because of the terrible toll on our dedicated soldiers but who is talking about the families?  What is going on with them? 

 

If you are reading this and you or someone you know have not yet volunteered even one hour a month to help in some way, please do so now.

 

Click here for the rest of the story

 

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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Impacts Soldiers

 

Excerpt: Adam started having hallucinations and seeing his dead Sergeant. On his drive back to Fort Carson after returning from Iraq, Kaplan started to have panic attacks.

"Driving into Fort Carson was the absolute most terrifying thing I could possibly do," he said.

So Kaplan self-medicated. He went from drinking, to marijuana to meth. His parents knew their son suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Therapists also made the diagnosis.

Click here for the rest of the story

 

 

 
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