PTSD and gambling?

[11cvolley]

So I found out today that my Uncles neighbor is 100% for only ptsd. He tried talking to me while I was visiting my uncle. He then invites me to go to the casino with him to play cards; which, I declined. I'm not judging but it is peaking my curiosity. How do 100% ptsd veterans manage to go gambling in a crowded casino that requires interaction, but can't work? I'm not judging or plan on reporting. Not my job or business to try to report people. I just want to understand it.

[GeekySquid]

20 minutes ago, Navy4life said:

Any drug use isn't casual enjoyment in my opinion, as using drugs are illegal.  Obviously with the exception of prescribed drugs, but again, that 'can' be addictive

@Navy4life

thank you for the response.

Not to belabor the point but your response does the same thing again, just a different version.

Legality and Addiction are not synonyms, nor are they proxies for one another.

Caffeine and Nicotine are legal. In 30 plus states pot is legal to some degree or another.

All "can be addicting", just as thrill seeking is addicting. To some people, in some contexts, at some times, they "can be" but they are not always addicting to the majority of people.

Conversely, Hillbilly Heroin, a.k.a. Oxycontin, Hydrocodone, Oxycodonen etc, are legally prescribed drugs that frequently lead to addiction, and crime. In some cases, in as little as a single dose according to the literature from the NIH and CDC. It is literally the basis of our national opioid epidemic

The point is not to say you cannot have a different opinion, you can believe whatever you want to, the point is that broad stroke generalizations and hyperbolic concept-associations are problematic for people and society in general.

For you specifically,  as someone who has the experiences and conditions you post about, your long term path to "getting over" (bad term but there really is not a good one) or gaining control of your situations involves granular specificity and understanding of how you associate things in your emotions and mind. If, when, and how you get there is between you and your therapists.

The whole idea behind programs like Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming (EMDR) is to change how we associate our feelings & thoughts about our harmful nexus events. In the long term each of those, along with talk therapies, all move towards specificity and away from generalities.

For example there is a documented association between feeling guilt and generalized feelings about how things "should be" or "what we did wrong" in relation to our traumatic events. When we dissect and distill the events through analysis we move from the general to the individual and specific parts of the event and why we feel guilt. The analysis is meant to decouple guilt from the event as each specific part is understood and addressed.

MST victims often have a nagging and unformed feeling of "what did i do to encourage this/deserve this", and of course the answer is nothing, but as a generality that does not help them get control of those feelings. Breaking down the events to specifics  can let them work towards decreasing that nagging thought by dismantling the components, which reduces their power to affect them or creep up on them.

On the more humorous side of generalities being bad things, a few years ago a private study conducted by a national institute concerned with insurance rates and accidents found that people who had bumper stickers with slogans like "God is my copilot" or "When the rapture comes, don't bother to honk" were worse drivers than people without those stickers. The conclusions were based on a  meta-analysis of drivers who had more than one reported wreck in the previous ten years. Somehow the study leaked out and was reported in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

It is an unfair generalization to say that all religious people are bad drivers, but the numbers found in that study make the general case that it might be true.

Funny? yes, Accurate? no, Fair? no, Helpful? no.

Hope you have a nice day and that you will consider how you use generalities in future.

[Navy4life]

Not debating with you...just agree to disagree..your original post about a Veteran with 100% PTSD going gambling was what I was really focusing on in my post.  

[GeekySquid]

22 minutes ago, Navy4life said:

Not debating with you

You must be misunderstanding my response, I was not debating anything. I pointed out a fallacious linkage between legality and addiction. Any agreement or disagreement you feel is with the dictionary and reality.

If you don't want to accept what I posted, that is up to you.

Good luck in your progress

[11cvolley]

1 hour ago, Navy4life said:

In all fairness, yes I agree "can be addictive" for TWO out of the THREE...Gambling and Alcohol can be casual enjoyment.  Any drug use isn't casual enjoyment in my opinion, as using drugs are illegal.  Obviously with the exception of prescribed drugs, but again, that 'can' be addictive.

I understand what you're saying. A therapist I was seeing brought up sugar when I told her how I felt about being on medication. She even said she has seen patients addicted to sex. She was telling me that don't look at has only an addiction, but what it does for/to you. She is addicted to coffee, but she moderates and it helps her in the morning. My medicine helps me through the day and helps me sleep at night. 

 

I should clarify my original post. I was also concerned about gambling because I've seen what it can do to people. Much like a shopping addiction. It can set you on the path to being homeless. I known someone that almost lost their house because the wife was the money manager and she was spending all the money on TV channel shopping networks. From my reading PTSD and gambling are linked together. I may be wrong because my concentration is crap nowadays. I just think every veteran deserves a support network. A lot of us ptsd/mst don't have that. I don't count family as support tho. Last time I told my mother what was on my mind she just gave me that look, 'like wtf?!' 

[porgee]

really its none of your business you cant live or die for this veteran also all 

treatment in MH will tell you to do something with your life and to not lay down to 

die.....Maybe your care ant right or you need a job for the VA telling on your brothers

[jamescripps2]

On 10/16/2018 at 6:43 PM, vetquest said:

I am a 100% veteran and spend a lot of time with church activities.  I may look normal, if you overlook the leg braces, but most of my disability is invisible.  I question my disability many times but my wife reminds me that I have a very compromised memory and I am not always fully up to par.

Do those leg braces qualify you for the clothing allowance, vehicle grant, and Special addaptive housing allowance? 

Not prying, rather, informing. I am also in Tennnessee and wear leg braces.