Combat PTSD
Have you seen a change in the stigma associated with PTSD and "mental health problems"?
There isn’t much of a change except no one refers to troubled veterans like they did in the Vietnam Era as the "crazy Vietnam veteran". You never hear the "Crazy Iraq veteran". I also feel since so many people are claiming PTSD, many for being separated from their family or being forced to serve outside the US on many tours, the term PTSD is being softened too much and those who may really need help will be neglected.
Some soldiers suffering from PTSD commit suicide. What do you think stops them from getting the help that they need (in general)?
I don't believe having PTSD makes you suicidal. If you are a combat veteran with PTSD, you are normally a survivor and will survive at all costs. That's what the military teaches. Your job is to kill the enemy and survive to do your job.
I think many military suicides today are from family problems back home because many more people are married. I saw guys in Vietnam get Dear John letters and lose it. I had to wait nine months to get one two minute call to the states when I was in Vietnam.
Today with communication being so good, troops can be close to home each night or stay in touch. So they have to deal with their own problems and the problems back home, too. It's a bad idea to give troops cell phones and computers. So I figure most people who kill themselves were mentally ill going in because of lower standards of admission or they had family problems. I don't think many kill themselves over combat issues. This is just my view of things. I’m sure some psychologists would argue with me, but most of them will have not served in combat.
Explain what you're doing specifically to help those with PTSD and why it's important to you.
I have dealt most with Vietnam veterans, but some veterans of all wars. What I do is listen. I've been there and I wrote the original instructions for PTSD claims the VA uses while I was a work-study under Voc Rehab. Most veterans want someone to listen to their stories and to guide them through the PTSD claim process. The service organizations don't have the people to do that. The service officers often don't know what to do or have so many cases they can't take the time to listen or help beyond filing a claim. That's what I do.
I've had calls at all hours of the day and night, and several times vets have come to my house for help. Most times I've never met the vets I help. I write a bi-monthly newsletter, The S-2 Report, and I've published it for 18 years. Many of the vets have subscribed since the first issue. Helping other combat vets makes me feel I'm still fighting the war in a positive way and helping others I couldn't help during the war. I have issues with survival guilt.
Do you think that some veterans are just falling back on PTSD to avoid trouble? What do you think that this does to compromise those who truly have a problem?
I think PTSD has often been used as an excuse for crimes or bad behavior, and most times criminal behavior has nothing to do with PTSD. PTSD will not make you torture or kill your family or beat your wife and kids or rob banks and rape children or others. Anyone who did those things and claimed PTSD had issues before their military service, like alcohol and drugs or previous mental illness. PTSD is a convenient excuse for crime in many cases when every other defense fails. PTSD is a reaction to combat situations, which usually involves survival and fear of loss and the inability to not be on guard 24/7. If a PTSD vet is attacked by strangers, the vet will usually react with deadly force if possible, but having PTSD is by no means an easy excuse for criminal behavior.
What do you think would help to lower the PTSD rate in the military?
My solution to prevent PTSD, or an idea that would go a long way in preventing PTSD, is to require the MMPI for every recruit to uncover personality disorder, and to make it a requirement that all new recruits be single without dependents.
Also, all daily communication with home should be severed in a combat zone and should be rationed like in previous wars. I believe that would not only lower the suicide rate but it cut the rate of severe PTSD.
A soldier cannot face war daily and deal with problems at home at the same time. The politicians would dismiss this route as impractical because they would have to begin a draft, and bringing back the draft might hurt them during election years.
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