Dan Hoaglin may be the poster-child for PTSD in upstate New York.<\/p>\n
Last spring, Hoaglin talked with News8 television in Rochester, N.Y., about how difficult it was to return to civilian life after being conditioned by years of survival under battlefield conditions. A retired staff sergeant with the 89th Military Police Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, Hoaglin has served tours of duty in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and two stints in Iraq during 11 years in the Army.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people don\u2019t have the ability to say yes, I saw a mortar round blow up five car lengths away, but I have. So now when a car backfires, that same response, the same initial surge that kept me alive years ago causes problems for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can be devastating. My heart will begin to race. I start to look for spotters on the tops of buildings. I\u2019m looking for who guided this in. If I see something, that will pose a threat to me. And all threats to me, I deal with with a great deal of hostility.\u201d<\/p>\n
His wife Angie told the news channel that her husband\u2019s behavior changed drastically after his second tour in Iraq. \u201cHe was not happy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like five hours after he got home we got into a huge fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoaglin said he tried just about everything \u2013 diet and nutrition, hypnotherapy, exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, medications, and Reiki energy therapy \u2013 but he was still thinking about committing suicide on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
It all came to a head on the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of the 9\/11 terror attacks, when Hoaglin told the news channel that he began to experience an \u201cempty rage.\u201d He began drinking heavily and passed out in the driveway of his upper New York state farm with a sword in his hand. \u201cWhen I woke up, there was a person in a black uniform pointing a pistol at me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a cop that was coming to pick me up to take me to the hospital. But I didn\u2019t recognize him because I had slipped back into being down range.\u201d<\/p>\n After that, Hoaglin quit drinking, and he turned to an alternative energy therapy called EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques).\u00a0 That involved remembering the events that stressed him, then telling himself that he was not to blame for those events. As he did so, he began tapping on his acupressure points on his face, his torso and his hands.<\/p>\n Some energy therapists believe this allows the body\u2019s energy to flow freely after being blocked by bad memories, but Tempe, Ariz., psychologist James R. Lane, writing in \u201cEnergy Psychology\u201d magazine, had a more detailed medical explanation:<\/p>\n \u201cRecent research indicates that manual stimulation of acupressure points produces opoids, serotonin, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and regulates cortisol. These neurochemical changes reduce pain, slow the heart rate, decrease anxiety, shut off the fight\/flight\/freeze response, regulate the autonomic nervous system, and create a sense of calm. This relaxation response reciprocally inhibits anxiety and creates a rapid desensitization to traumatic stimuli.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoaglin learned the technique from Tom Porpiglia, a Vietnam vet who runs Life Script Counseling Services in Rochester and who is working with the Veterans\u2019 Stress Project to test the effectiveness of EFT on combat vets with PTSD.<\/p>\n Porpiglia said Hoaglin tested in the 70s on his initial PTSD evaluations (the max is 85, and anything above 50 is considered clinical PTSD), but that he dropped to a 24 after six sessions. That was last April, and News8 said only time would tell whether the improvements would hold up over time.<\/p>\n Last week, Porpiglia told me that Hoaglin\u2019s scores had risen from 24 to 38, adding \u201cthis is a bit unusual so early in the cycle, but given all that he has been through, understandable.\u201d<\/p>\n Tapping the acupressure points to remove anxiety is something that Hoaglin can do himself, but Porpiglia said he would offer more services if Hoaglin\u2019s condition worsens.<\/p>\n