Thread by @zachiscol

1. A thread, maybe we should call this a rant. This is tragic. It also plays out some 20x a day. The military and veterans community has a huge problem w suicide AND a huge problem w the litany of bad ideas being prescribed to address it. armytimes.com/news/your-army…

2. Though well intentioned, it's the equivalent of anti-vaxxers. PTSD and PTSD related suicide are treatable. There is no substitute for competent mental health care professionals.

3. When we first started @HeadstrongProj , I said to our medical director, a psychiatrist with 30 years of experience, top of her class at Stanford and GW, and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell, that it was important for our clinicians to have military experience.

4. Her response: If you had a heart attack and were being wheeled into the emergency room, would you ask the surgeon what unit they were with? My first lesson: mental healthcare is real healthcare and it is time for us to start treating it as such.

5. Since then, @HeadstrongProj has treated over 1200 veterans and manages the care for over 700 a month in over 25 cities. We do this with a third the cost, 3x the outcomes, & zero suicides since our founding 7 years ago.

6. If you're a leader in the military or veterans community, start respecting the science and stop listening to the good idea fairies. Just because somebody served in the military or a special operations unit, does not make them an expert on mental healthcare- even if

7. they have a limited amount of training or experience. You wouldn't trust them to treat cancer or do heart surgery, so stop prescribing their snake oil. PTSD is entirely fixable. It is a survival mechanism-

8. the inability to turn off the fight or flight response. Hyper vigilance, anxiety, restlessness, sleeplessness- these are all symptoms that help you survive and even thrive in dangerous situations. It is your brain AND body's response to trauma. THIS IS 100% TREATABLE.

9. Like any treatment, it starts with a proper diagnosis. Different cancers require different treatments. Different heart issues require different treatments. Different pulmonary issues require different treatment DIFFERENT MENTAL HEALTHCARE ISSUES require different treatment.

10. PTSD is not the same as bi-polar, schizophrenia, manic depression, impulsive disorders, neurocognitive disorders or a host of others. This might sound self-evident, but before @HeadstrongProj I put all of these in the same bucket. 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

11. It is also important to understand what works for the patient. Not everyone wants or needs the same type of treatment. There is no panacea other than highly competent mental healthcare professionals managing the care. Different people have different traumas, childhoods,

12. proclivity for substance abuse, life situations, etc...a one size fits all approach doesn't work. There is no little blue pill. What does work is putting a service member or veteran in front of a qualified, competent, and experienced mental healthcare professional.

13. I'm often asked what I think about MDMA, marijuana, Ketamine, or other non-traditional forms of treatment. I think they can be very helpful if done under the supervision of a competent clinician. Otherwise its called self-medicating and is a dangerous path.

14. The biggest barrier we have @HeadstrongProj is getting people into treatment. Once they are in, that's is the easy part. The stigma and other barriers to care are by far the biggest challenge to getting them better.

15. Bottom line, if you want to help, get help & start telling everyone about your experience IOT normalize mental healthcare as real healthcare, start thinking about mental healthcare professionals

16. In addition 2 @HeadstrongProj there are a # of great resources out there, including @BCRforHeroes @wwp 's #warriorcarenetwork @Vets4Warriors @MI4BrainHealth @CohenVeterans @EmoryVeterans @Operation_Mend @Road_Home_Rush @homebaseprogram and yes, even the @DeptVetAffairs