The brain composes thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. It is very much like a soggy computer where the complex connections (fiber tracts) rival a very sophisticated AI processor, but the components are composed of soft tissue. Disturbance of brain function can occur due to physical trauma (TBI, concussion, blast injury with one blast equating to 100 concussions, direct wounds, surgical intervention, etc.), toxic exposure (burn pits, fire exposure, chemical exposure, medications, substance overuse, etc.), infection, and inflammation caused by psychological trauma due to cortisol (HPA Axis and the Thyroxin Axis). Any of these factors or a combination of them may cause disturbances in function and are common sources of injury resulting in Diffuse Axonal Injury Neurobehaviors further affecting an individual’s mental health.

What is your brain versus your mind? Your brain is a physical organ made

up of nerve cells, astrocytes, blood vessels with a blood-brain barrier, and

unique metabolic environments Your mind is the complex set of mental

processes that allows you to think, feel, perceive remember, and imagine: it

includes both conscious and unconscious processes.

The comparison between brain and mind clarifies that blast injury and other 

physical brain injury (TBI)  that veterans and others experience are physical 

wounds that need to be healed. What we consider to be the “mind” is the 

evidence of function or dysfunction of the brain. 

Breacher syndrome has been acknowledged in medical literature, but the acknowledgement leaves out the fact that essentially all combat veterans have experienced multiple blasts and therefore have suffered some degree of brain injury. Forceful blasts are part of war: large caliber weapons, IED’s, door breaches, small weapons fire, etc. It has been acknowledged that blast waves create micro tears in brain tissue, damage blood vessels and create chemical disturbances in the brain. Brain injury and the associated symptoms are the signature injury of the post- 911 conflict, yet there is no effective plan in place to evaluate and treat this injury.

What do Football players and military combat veterans have in common ? Their job puts them in line to injure an injured brain. Neurologists are concerned when a patient suffers 2 concussions within a year, but Football players and military combat veterans may suffer multiple injuries within a few hours and often on a daily basis. They have the highest rates of neurodegenerative conditions (dementia, Parkinson’s etc) in our society.s is a short two or three-sentence summary designed to help hook the reader and convince them to click. When someone finds your blog post through an online search engine like Google, they should see your blog title plus a great description that gets them to click on your link.

The VA budget for suicide prevention has increased by $3.3 billion since 

2015 (as per TreatNow.org reported data).  The average cost of $89K per 

veteran for suicide prevention has not resulted in decreased suicides; in fact 

the suicide rate continues to  increase.  What measures has this increased   

VA expenditure funded ?   A VA crisis line, a “self check” quiz, a safety plan 

for making firearms inaccessible, shortening the crisis number to 988, PSA’s, 

community based coalitions and all 50 states have a “Governor’s challenge” 

to prevent suicide in veterans. Why aren’t all these measures helping ?