Free Republic

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Day is an opportunity to draw attention to PTSD, raise awareness for the treatments available to those affected, and recommit to supporting Americans who are burdened by this disorder.Post-traumatic stress disorder results from having experienced or witnessed a terrifying event.  The most common traumas associated with PTSD are sexual and interpersonal violence, being involved in a car accident, witnessing serious injury or the death of another person, or being in combat.  Those experiencing PTSD often struggle to control their emotions and may have unexpected outbursts, often straining supportive personal relationships and causing them to...

A local Marine veteran’s therapy dog that disappeared for four months has been found safe and reunited with her owner. Animal Services' officials received a call on Thursday morning that Nahla had been found in the San Ysidro area; the residents there said they found the dog as a stray in the area. Nahla was rescued safe, save for some serious skin issues, fleas and a bit emaciated, but should fully recover. Hernando Quandt and his wife, Vivian, were reunited with Nahla at Thursday afternoon at the San Diego County Animal Shelter in Bonita. Nahla appeared overjoyed to be reunited...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is taking what President Barack Obama calls "a long overdue step" to aid veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, making it easier for them to receive federal benefits. The changes that Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki will announce Monday fulfill "a solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits they've earned when they come home," Obama said in his weekly radio and online address Saturday. The new rules will apply not only to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but also those who served in previous conflicts.

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - The judge in the Michael Jackson molestation trial on Thursday barred prosecutors from calling an expert on domestic violence they hoped would explain the apparently erratic behavior of the accuser's mother for jurors. Judge Rodney Melville also said he would allow evidence showing that Jackson's then-13-year-old accuser and younger brother had masturbated while looking at the pop star's pornography, potentially bolstering defense claims that the boys had run wild at Neverland. Both rulings were setbacks for the prosecution, which is in the final stages of presenting its case to the jury of eight women and...

<p>Sekou Mims's son was 16 when he experienced a sudden psychotic breakdown. Over three months, the black teenager had a series of delusions - that white police were following him, that white strangers on a train were staring at him menacingly. He'd hyperventilate walking down the street. All his delusions revolved around racism.</p>