My View On Combat PTSD

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.

S-2 email

Law and Order Is Breaking Down

The Criminals Are Winning

Here is some inside information out of Cincinnati, which I believe can be applied to many cities in the country. The criminal cases number 35-40 thousand a year, over 100 a day. Most criminals have an open-end get out of jail free card.

There are currently no women in Cincinnati jails, unless they have done something extremely violent. Right now there are no women being held in the system.

For men, almost any crime short of murder rates probation instead of jail time. Breaking and entering, robbery, drug offenses, etc., all probation offenses and the criminals let out on the street to do it again. Probation departments can't possibly handle or track all their clients.

There is no room in the jails, and the funding keeps getting cut. Crime in Cincinnati is rampant, with multiple shootings almost everyday. We are on the verge of a society where citizens will have to fend for themselves because the police and courts will no longer be able to help.

If you have no means other than good intentions to protect yourself or your family, it is time to arm yourself for defense or you chance of become a victim increases daily.

PTSD Veterans

 For a combat veteran suffering with PTSD, this can only lead to a heightened security approach to home and family defense. PTSD veterans don't need additional paranoia to complicate their daily lives. But it is here whether we want it or not.

In some ways this is a good thing. PTSD becomes part of your permanent personality, and is horrible to live with 24/7. But having a combat veteran in the home, especially one with PTSD, creates benefits for family protection. Like a good watchdog, we will always have our perimeter secure. We will have enough weapons within reach. We won't try to reason with the enemy, and we won't hesitate to protect our family unit and home base camp.

I once asked a hardcore anti-gun liberal what they would do if someone broke into their house to rob and possibly kill their family.

"If we are supposed to die that way then we will," the person said.

I was shocked at the answer. It doesn't register in my brain to just give up and not protect my family. In fact, such behavior is psychotic and goes against the will to survive. And that's one thing most combat vets are going to do: survive.

So don't let your guard down. As combat veterans we are still this country's most valuable asset in preserving our freedom.

PTSD Comp Exams Again?

  I’ve heard from several veterans in the past few weeks about being called in for PTSD Comp Exams after they have been 100% unemployable for years. It’s usually those who are not P&T (Permanent & Total) who get called in, because the VA can call them in at any time just like they do for vets with physical wounds and certain cancers: just to see if you have improved enough to cut your percentage.

  Each new administration in DC gives orders to cut veteran benefits. In public, they say how they are going to continue to help veterans, but it’s only because they have to help us. Behind our backs, they always try to screw us over. Most politicians aren’t veterans, and they don’t want to waste money on people they have used up.

  But, I told the veterans not to worry for several reasons.

  1. PTSD never goes away or gets better to the extent that it can change the way you function or the way you react in the workplace. If the VA agrees you are unemployable, and you are a Nam vet past prime working years, you will remain unemployable.

  Voc Rehab isn’t likely to accept an unemployable Nam vet even if the VA says the vet is now employable. And if Voc Rehab turns you down, there is no other alternative except to make you unemployable again.

  Even if Voc Rehab did say they would accept you for retraining, there is no guarantee you will employable after training. So you would stay unemployable while in training, and if you did make it through the training, you would be unemployable until you found a job, if ever.

  Since the VA is trying to save money, Voc Rehab is not a very thrifty alternative for an unemployable Nam vet.

  (I went through Voc Rehab years ago before I was even rated unemployable. I went to school full time and worked for the VA work study program after school hours for minimum wage. My goal was to work in publishing or become a publisher. I got my BA in English, but since the SBA considered publishing to be too risky, I couldn’t get a business loan and I couldn’t make enough freelance to support myself. After a stint as a DVOP for Ohio, I was rated unemployable when that job ended. Voc Rehab does not guarantee employment success.)

  2. A sudden higher GAF rating does not mean a reduction is in order. The GAF (Global Activities Function is one way to say it) is often used to show how a veteran is feeling on a given day. Usually, 50 or above means pretty close to normal. Most vets with PTSD will be in the 30s and 40s. Below that is almost considered comatose in the ability to communicate or hold a job.

  A GAF rating is an opinion of one health professional on one given day. Just because a PTSD veteran feels good one day, doesn’t mean he will feel good the next day.

  The GAF cannot be used to take a percentage away from a PTSD rated veteran. And if they tried, you would win on appeal.

  3. There is a ten year rule for PTSD and unemployability. If you have the same percentage for 20 years, it’s yours forever, so they say. Actually, after five years you are pretty secure with PTSD. After ten years at unemployable, the VA cannot lower your disability without reviewing the entire case history of the claim. And chances are, they would always lose in the appeal unless you have been working full time on a permanent basis.

  So, if you have PTSD and have been rated unemployable, whether permanent or not, the chances of your percentage being cut is slim to none. They may call you in for a Comp exam if you are not permanent, but they are just going through the motions.

  The PTSD percentage is based on your ability to support yourself in a manner equal to non-veterans in your age group. It is not based on how you feel on any given day. If you are unable to work long term and full time, your percentage cannot be cut without violating the CFR regulations.

 

(Look for Dennis Latham books and stories on Amazon and B&N. Email contact: ysgazelle@gmail.com)

How Has PTSD Changed You?

Camp Books 122 rocket strike on bunker Tet 1968

(from the S-2 Report Newsletter by Dennis Latham)

How has PTSD changed you?

  I have long term PTSD. I don’t drink and I’ve never done drugs. I have to maintain iron control and always be ready to defend my perimeter. I’m most at ease around other combat vets. Combat vets are my extended family.

  I can’t go to bed until I’ve checked the perimeter and set the alarm. I refuse to be ambushed. My dog stays up all night on 100% alert. I would sleep a lot less if she wasn’t there to stand watch. When I wake up, I’m up fast and fully alert. I’ve trained myself to respond within a few seconds.

  Strangers are like objects to me. If threatened, I would try to avoid the situation, but would feel no regrets about taking them out because in my military mind they are not human.

  I couldn’t live in a crowded subdivision or in the city so I remain isolated. I don’t understand people who have never been in the military and don’t feel the need to have a weapon. I guess that’s a carefree way to live, but from my viewpoint, not very realistic. If something happens, they will be the first to suffer because they can’t protect themselves. I have a weapon within reach anywhere I go in my house: guns, swords, hatchets, knives.

  Before I was married and had heavy curtains, I taped dark garbage bags over many of my downstairs living room windows. I couldn’t sit in that room at night on the lower floors just knowing someone could see inside and possibly ambush me. I know this may seem crazy, but this was the way I had to live at the time.

  I’ve known others who are more extreme. I knew a Nam vet in Alaska who had a shooting range in his living room. I have a range in my yard. I like to go shooting with my Nam vet Marine friend Rocky. I feel comfortable around him.

  We all deal with PTSD in our own way. It’s unfortunate that many combat veterans deal with PTSD by alcohol and drug addiction. When that’s added to anti-depressants, often mixed all together, the results can be deadly.

  The worse thing I face with PTSD, despite thinking about Vietnam each day, is knowing that I’m a different person than I could have been had the war not intruded on my life. I look at the few old pictures of myself from before the war, and I don’t even remember that guy.

  I could see the change years later in the few pictures I had from Vietnam, taken well into my tour. I looked different. My eyes looked almost hollow, like there was nothing behind them or I was hiding something from the camera. I had changed forever. Time marched on, but inside, I still struggle to find the person I was before the war.