treatment, Vietnam veterans showed no long term effects of their therapy in a study conducted by the "National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" in New Haven. The men received individual and group psychotherapy and behavior therapy as well as family therapy and vocational guidance. Although they left reporting increased hope and self-esteem, a year and a half later their psychiatric symptoms had actually worsened. They had made more suicide attempts and their substance abuse was dramatically increased (Johnson).The Harvard Mental Health Letter published February/March of 1991 asserts the important result of therapy (of any kind) is the enabling of the patient to think about the trauma without it taking over and being able to control their feelings without systematically avoiding or diverting their attention. People who are afflicted with PTSD never feel safe because they are controlled by their fears; nightmares and flashbacks only confirm their perceived helplessness and remind them of how they were unable to protect themselves from the event. Healing has taken place only when the person can invoke and dismiss the memories at will, instead of suffering the intrusive involuntary recall (Johnson)....
