Honors Thesis: Associations Between Diet & PTSD

Hello and thank you for visiting my GoFundMe page!

My name is Jani Skala, I am a disabled Army combat Veteran currently pursuing my Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. My overall plan is to graduate with a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and open a clinic that focuses on treating Veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder. My goal right now is to focus on finding new treatment options for PTSD.

In my experience, living with PTSD and going through the ups and downs of different therapy modalities and different medications was heartbreaking and at points, seemingly hopeless.

If you or you know of anyone that has been on any anti-depressant or psychotropic medications, you know that a common symptom is weight gain. Throughout struggling with weight while in therapy and on medication, I was successful at completing a bout of a specific diet that eliminated certain foods. One thing I noticed was the difference that my dietary choices made on the severity and frequency of my symptoms.

My honors thesis is intended as a pilot study to find if and what different foods affect PTSD symptom severity. 

This starter study will document the dietary intake and frequency and severity of symptoms of 30-50 Veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Upon completion, I (we) will hopefully be able to pinpoint some trends in specific food groups that correlate with any increase or decrease in PTSD symptom frequency and severity.

I am looking to raise $5000 to pay each veteran for their time and efforts in documenting their food and drink intake and for taking the time to thoroughly answer every survey at the end of each day! If by chance, donations go over the amount, extra funds will be donated to help veterans with PTSD.

Hopefully, throughout my studies, we as a community can come together and find new and better ways of helping our veterans (and civilians!) who may struggle with day-to-day life living with PTSD.

If you know of anyone that would be willing to participate in this study, please follow this link: Associations Between Diet and PTSD Symptoms