I believe he needed to be taught to feel gratitude minute by minute and to turn all of his focus to thoughts of joy and pleasure and contentment (all determined by him). The hours he spent recycling all the bad emotions gave him nothing but more bad emotions. He was truly in an emotional loop.
I’m not saying medicine can’t help the severe PTSD patient, but it has limitations. It is far more important to have someone help you inpatient every hour of the day for a couple weeks re-focus on the good. Be in the moment of eating a delicious fruit popsicle, say, slowly savoring in the present. Then watch a fun sporting event, take a walk in nature, pet a sweet animal, watch a comedy, read something uplifting, listen to great music you love, the whole day, every day, for weeks. Therapy should consist of RELIVING POSITIVE, BEAUTIFUL MEMORIES instead of wallowing in the bad feelings from illness and recovery. Yes, feel the bad feelings. But it seems he was, and had, and it was time to hold his hand to teach him how to focus on gratitude. Within or without his religion. The point is that your thoughts create your reality, and he was heavily medicated for so long, he needed 14-30 days of learning how to create POSITIVE FEELINGS. They and gratitude lead to happiness. I wish him success.
“It is far more important to have someone help you inpatient every hour of the day for a couple weeks re-focus on the good.”
I was very fortunate that after thirty months RVN and some holes in my hide an uncle hired me.
He had been WWII 42nd Infantry Division (RAINBOW) infantryman. Most of his employees were veterans and when I was a little ‘jumpy’ they understood.
I retired from a mega-corporation thousands on the campus and a few hundred in my building I knew less than ten veterans, most my age.
If someone gets ‘jumpy’, call security.
“Be in the moment of eating a delicious fruit popsicle, say, slowly savoring in the present.”
Sensory awareness exercises!
Yes, I had a therapist that walked me through them.