Guided Imagery for Combat Stress Gets a Shout Out
For as long as we’ve had a website (since 1997), my go-to site for smart, reliable, up-to-date, research-based, practical answers to holistic health questions has always been Ask Dr. Weil. I trust what he has to say. He doesn’t oversell his advice, and if there’s only modest back-up for claims of efficacy, he says so.
He’s also on top of the latest research, so I often learn about new findings from him. And because he was trained as a botanist before he became a doc, he’s got a real affinity, knowledge and love for the healing that plants and the earth’s natural elements have to offer.
So it was a real kick to see that in his latest post, he talks about posttraumatic stress – especially combat trauma in our service personnel – and the power of CBT and guided imagery to help remediate symptoms. He even points to our Health Journeys page for military and veterans. Very gratifying!
And true to form, he introduced some new ideas (at least new to me), reporting on recent studies using psychedelic drugs, and the potential of methylenedioxy methamphetamine (Ecstasy) and psilocybin (mushrooms), alongside psychotherapy, for helping traumatized soldiers overcome PTS. Who knew? Not I.
Actually, there’s a whole host of new studies combining various medications with CBT to see if remediation of PTS symptoms can be speeded up and deepened. They’re in process now – I’ll report on them as soon as findings are published.
The whole Ask Dr Weil piece is here. Check it out and sign up for the e-newsletter. It’s a terrific resource, and the Q and A database is loaded with important, useable, constantly evolving information.
By the way, we hope you’re finding your way around this new merged BR Blog and HJ Blog without any undue confusion. Let us know.
Take care and be well,
All best,
