October is National Depression Awareness Month, with the theme “The courage to hunt help.”
The Army is looking on commanders and leaders to notify Soldiers, dependents and civilian personnel that depression is treatable, and help decrease the stigma related to seeking treatment.
“We are attempting to elevate awareness regarding depression and inspire Soldiers and folks to hunt help. It involves screening, with efforts to aim and decrease the stigma linked to depression, so people will feel more well-off about seeking help,” said David Dodd, clinical psychologist and deputy director of Fort Sill’s Behavioral Health program. “This year’s theme, “The courage to hunt help,” is nice since it does take an even amount of courage for folks to make that initial contact and admit that they’re feeling down or discouraged to the purpose of being depressed.”
OVERCOMING STIGMA
Dodd said there are several aspects to the stigma that Soldiers face. The primary is a private or internal perception that the majority service members feel. Once they hunt down help and admit there’s a problem, they feel that they’re seen as weak or inadequate somehow.
“Nobody really likes that feeling. But despite the fact that they get beyond that aspect of it, there’s a stigma that’s reinforce by the system, by those who don’t understand and feature never experienced depression. Therefore they treat people differently. many people within the military, as opposed to feeling depressed, express their feelings with anger, frustration and rage. It’s more acceptable inside the Army to be angry and irritable, and to yell at people than to be sad or depressed. That’s component of the system,” Dodd said.
He added that it is not uncommon for folks to return to behavioral health seeking help, because they may be finally so miserable they can’t function. Often a superb friend or battle buddy has suggested they seek help.
“But then they return to their units and somebody will say they may be pathetic, weak, broken or whatever, and that’s the other side of the stigma. So battling depression and stigma could be a multi-level approach from different angles,” he said.
HOLISTIC APPROACH
In addition to the behavioral health clinics here, Fort Sill now has a brand new resource to aid concentrate on depression – the military Wellness Center. Stephanie Ryan, the recent AWC director, says the heart takes a holistic strategy to their services, specializing in the mind and body as an entire, through multiple disciplines.
“Our core disciplines are fitness, nutrition, stress management, healthcare, tobacco education and responsible drinking. And people multiple disciplines provide many opportunities to administer depression,” Ryan stated. “One of our six programs is stress management and our goal is to extend the collection of clients who maintain healthy stress levels. That features stress evaluation, stress management education classes and biofeedback – with one-on-one sessions with a health educator.”
Ryan explained that biofeedback evaluates someone’s stress levels using instruments that measure the body’s response to external factors. That information teaches a person find out how to become more in charge of their body’s responses to these factors.
“We use software that monitors your heart rate variability, and according to that we will determine what’s called your coherence level. A low coherence level can be a frustrated state, while a high coherence level could be a peaceful state. So it gives the patient a visible picture of what it seems like after they are wired, as opposed being calm. It’s common for some people to be in a low coherence state and never even realize how stressed they’re because they only think that’s just the style life is,” said Ryan. “It helps you discover ways to control what you could control and let go of the things which are beyond your control.”
Dodd said that behavioral health also uses biofeedback to provides information on what’s going biologically in a person’s body. When people have a stress response, it causes things that happen of their bodies.
MANAGING STRESS
“Some responses are because of acute stress, similar to a threat – someone is making an attempt to kill us, a near-fatal car accident or a dog is chasing us. And your body has that flight-or-fight response so as to break out. And that’s natural. But some people develop a more chronic, high level of stress and it becomes so common that individuals aren’t even aware,” Dodd said. “So it’s not uncommon to position someone at the machine and it shows they don’t seem to be nearly as relaxed as they believe they’re. And that’s once we start to educate them and train them to understand the way to relax and the way they feel once they really relax. The biofeedback delivers data and knowledge on the right way to develop a calm response. If you can control that, you can implement it whenever you need to.”
Dodd said that using biofeedback doesn’t mean that when a person is being chased by a dog or someone is trying to hurt them that they won’t still have that response of fight or flight. It just helps a person be more in control so they can take their emotions down a notch when they want to. “It helps shift the control of my stress response from external to internal. In the biofeedback response, it is just one way of saying I can control my breathing, I can control my thinking and help get myself down to a somewhat mellow state,” he said.
“The wellness centers are the wave of the future across our country. It’s the way of determining how to prevent illnesses and maintain your health over time. Research says if you are mildly depressed one of the best things you can do is exercise. And so you may not want to go into the wellness center and start with stress management, but you can go and work out. If you exercise regularly during the week, and do it week after week, that can actually modulate stress as well. So the wellness center focuses on those six core areas and it is a great place to start,” Ryan said.
SEEKING HELP
But if someone is dealing with moderate or severe depression, they are well past the wellness stage. That’s when it is important to pay attention to the moods and behaviors of those around you.
“If someone you know, a Soldier, family member or coworker, shows signs of severe depression and says that they don’t feel like living, you shouldn’t leave that person alone. You should go with them to get help. And if you have moderate or severe symptoms of depression for over two weeks, and it’s impairing your ability to function, then it’s probably time to go get some help,” Dodd said. “You can get help anywhere at any time. Most behavioral health treatment is not done in behavioral health clinics, it’s done in primary care. So people don’t need to feel bad that they are going to be labeled or stigmatized.
“We have a system of referral that can put someone in the care of medical personnel. It used to be which you could only get help at behavioral health but now there’s help in every direction. You can go to the chaplain, you can go to your commander or you can go to your NCO. At every primary care visit for active duty Soldiers they do screenings to measure for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. The key is — in case you have the courage, seek help somewhere.
In case you or someone you know is facing depression, seek help by going for your primary care provider at Reynolds Army Community Hospital, or by contacting Fort Sill Behavioral Health at 580-442-4832 or 4833.
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