Music, for a while

I forced myself to watch the first clip below, because if 5.2 million Americans are living it daily, shouldn’t I be able to take 13 minutes?

Yes.

30% of the veterans will have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, with symptoms that include persistent memories, nightmares, aggression, irritability, and inability to feel affectionate with others. Oh, but that’s just the emotional side. On the physical side, there are the night sweats, the gastrointestinal complaints, the chest pain, and so on.

There’s also the little problem of sleep—PTSD people frequently have sleep apnea and insomnia. Then we have to consider the social problems—the isolation of the victims, the effect on families and spouses, as well as children.

The disorder lasts six months—for some. For others, death is the only cure.

And it’s no little problem—14 million Americans have seen active combat. Here’s what the Rand Corporation has to say about the scope of the problem.

A release from the Rand Corporation reported that 300,000 US military personnel deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression.

Another reports that one in six soldiers who’ve served in Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom suffer from PTSD or service-related stress. Regardless, the numbers are overwhelming.

Unlike past wars, where there were front lines and safe areas, the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq never know when or where the horrors of war will come to them. The level of mental and emotional stress is unprecedented, as is the shock of military and civilian attacks. Early evidence suggests that the psychological toll from these wars will be disproportionately high compared to physical injuries.

Other evidence points to the fact that the multiple tours of combat duty, unique to Iraq and Afghanistan, dramatically increase the percentage of soldiers coming home with PTSD or other psychological damage.

So how much is this going to cost us? Well, according to two economists, Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, the total cost will be between 4 to 6 trillion dollars. Oh, and the costs will peak in 30 or 40 years time.

The economists also point out that it isn’t just treating the mind—patients suffering from PTSD use medical services 71% to 170% more than non-PTSD vets. Why? All that stress leads to physical illness. Here’s what Bilmes has to say….

This was the experience with Vietnam veterans diagnosed with PTSD. And recent studies show that PTSD sufferers are at a higher risk for heart disease, RA, bronchitis, asthma, liver, and peripheral arterial disease. They are 200% more likely to be diagnosed with a disease within five years from returning from deployment.

Well, I got into this whole question when I came across an article using music therapy on PTSD victims. Would it work?

There’s some evidence that it might. In fact, Walter Reed hired a music therapist and created a program late last year. And music has often been cited as a healing force; doctors noticed that hospitalized soldiers improved faster when exposed to music.

But according to Oliver Sacks, it’s really only been in the last five years that had come to understand neurologically what music does. He claims—and who am I to take on Dr. Sacks—that music occupies more space in the brain than language does. And as you can see in the clip of Gabrielle Giffords and her music therapist, while Giffords cannot talk, she can sing. That’s because the part of the brain that processes music was unaffected. The amazing thing, though, is that the music is essentially teaching speech back to Giffords, and in doing so, creating a new language center in the right side of the brain, not the left, as it normally is.

So will it help the shattered veterans, as they live their hellish lives? Well, I can only tell you this—I googled “music” and “amygdala” together and came up with the words of this blogger, citing a study by Stefan Koelsch:

The amygdala, which processes emotions thought to be essential for survival, is a limbic structure. Studies have demonstrated that the amygdala responds a certain way to strong music-evoked emotions (chills). Even when chills aren't experienced, different specific changes in amygdala activity (and activity of associated structures) are observed in response to joyful versus dissonant music. Other studies have shown that certain limbic and paralimbic structures exhibit increased activity in response to videos shown with music, as compared to videos presented alone. Video/music studies have shown different neural responses depending on whether the music played was joyful or fearful.

These limbic/paralimbic structure studies provide support for Koelsch's assertion that music-evoked emotions are just as real as everyday ones, since they activate the same structures.

If that’s true, that’s amazing.

“Music for a while, shall all thy cares beguile,” begins a famous song by Henry Purcell. Wouldn’t it be interesting if it weren’t only for a while, but permanently?

The Edge

“It’s badly organized,” my friend told me bluntly.

Well, I had sought her out for her opinion—what right did I have to be offended?

And she may well be right—organization is not my strongest point. You want ideas? Hey, sit down, grab a pencil and start writing. And probably you won’t be able to keep up.

But there was more. An ardent supporter of independence, she took umbrage at being included in a project involving the fifty states.

“We’re a separate nation,” she said, “and we’re recognized by the international community as a separate nation….”

I learned long ago—this is the thinnest of ice. I heard her out, and agreed on several points.

Virtually all the guns here in Puerto Rico are illegal, and come from the United States, where they are cheap and plentiful. And since we are a colony of the United States, we rely on the federal government to police our borders—if we were independent, we could do the job ourselves.

In addition, it’s our status as a colony that has made us a major entry point for cocaine and other drugs, which we ship up north. What comes back? Guns.

She made another point—we are about to privatize our airport, and to whom? Well, critics on the left say to a company which has ties to the drug traffickers. If true, the situation will be a mess—the drug lords will have assured their logistics, better than even Sam Walton could. And there will be guns littering our streets like cigarette butts.

Well, her suggestion was to focus on the Puerto Rican angle, organize better, get the media involved, and especially get well-known people involved. That’s how it’s done. One person sitting in a square reading names? Just another lunatic.

Or maybe a writer. I spent seven years inside a cold grey building. Then I spent another year alone in an apartment, creating a new life for my mother. Now it’s time to get out, get stirring, take the plunge, talk to people.

I’m scared, of course. Scared that some nut will pull out his gun and kill me, or worse, incapacitate me. I can’t look at Gabby Giffords without wondering—could I do what she’s done? Would I have that strength, that courage to come back after that kind of trauma?

Scared of looking ridiculous, though that’s lesser. I pretty much AM ridiculous most of the time—unlike organization, it’s really one of my fortes.

Scared of the passion that some gun owners have: the blind fury and paranoia that, mixed with fear and hate, makes them seethe with rage.

Which may be why I had a waking dream—a dream in which, inadvertently, I had stepped from a tall building, and was falling, falling to the pavement below.

“Courage is a muscle,” said Ruth Gordon, “and like a muscle, it gets stronger with use.”

Or words to that effect.

I say that it’s time to move out of the comfort zone. If you’re not out there poking around, hearing stories, getting people to talk or rant or weep, you’re not where you should be.

On the edge.