By Shoshana Guy
Rock Center
Sergeant Louis Loftus first noticed something was wrong when a simple picture brought him to tears.
“I came home on mid-tour leave and I was showing some family members pictures of my deployment,” said the veteran, 24, who served in Afghanistan. “And just from seeing a picture that reminded me of something where someone had been killed...right there I just started crying.”
By the time he was home from his second deployment he was plagued by a sleep disorder and nightmares, followed by anxiety and the impulse to isolate himself from his loved ones. Eventually he was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Some 2.4 million soldiers have been through Iraq and Afghanistan and the psychological toll of the wars is mounting. Last year the Veterans Administration treated almost 100,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for PTSD. But many agree that the numbers could be higher because not everyone who suffers seeks treatment.
“I used to be one of those guys that made fun of people with post-traumatic stress -- in my mind, not to their face,” said Loftus in an interview broadcast on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams. “But now I realize that it’s a real thing.”
We first met Sergeant Loftus in the notorious Arghandab Valley in Southern Afghanistan in June 2010. A true Taliban stronghold, Loftus and the members of 82nd Airborne were under constant attack. The dense farmland was fertile ground for improvised explosive devices, and because many of the roads were too narrow for mine-resistant vehicles, the patrols had to be executed on foot.
In just one year the unit found more than 6,000 IED’s. Roughly 200 soldiers from the brigade were injured and 38 were killed in action. Loftus was nearing the end of his tour and the deployment was taking its toll. When we asked him about a fellow soldier whose memorial we attended he dissolved into tears.
“You see I try not to think about it because when you think about it, then I get like this,” said an emotional Loftus. “I try to hide it. I try not to think about it because I got to stay 100 percent, you know, I got to keep a good example in front of the other soldiers.”
NBC News
Louis Loftus and his girlfriend, Deidra Lopez, unpacking Loftus' things when he returned from Afghanistan
Our meeting with the young soldier would be the beginning of a nearly two year journey as we followed him from the front lines of war to the day-to-day life at home. By November 2010, five months after we met him, he was honorably discharged and back in Akron, Ohio. Almost immediately there were warning signs that the emotional struggle we had witnessed in Afghanistan had followed him home.
“It’s not hard to understand the difference between combat and being at home,” said Loftus. “But it's hard to change your emotions back like that.”
Captain Paul Hammer, who is a psychiatrist and director for the Department of Defense’s Center for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, says that when a person experiences trauma the brain gets stuck in fight-and-flight kind of response.
“The cognitive part of your brain has difficulty telling it, ‘No, I'm OK now. I'm in a safe place,’” said Hammer.
Initially Loftus insisted his symptoms were manageable, but things changed over the winter. Depression set in, he gained weight and began drinking more. A 2012 report from the American Journal of Public Health found that that 39 percent of veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan screened positive for alcohol abuse.
Part of the problem, says Hammer, is that for a lot of soldiers they are doing the most important work of their lives when they are deployed. “Then you come back and there's weirdness, and vagueness, and relationships,” he said. “That seems mundane and doesn't seem as purposeful.”
Loftus sought help at his local VA and was prescribed medication and began therapy sessions. But avoidance is one of the four criteria when diagnosing PTSD and Loftus was avoiding a lot of the emotions. Rage began to surface.
“I think what got me was how on edge he was all the time,” said Deidra Lopez, his girlfriend. “I would say something and he would just flip.”
By the summer of 2011, Loftus’s life was spiraling out of control. His girlfriend was pregnant but the relationship had disintegrated, and after reading a news report about an attack in Afghanistan, he suffered a sudden and powerful anxiety attack that hospitalized him.
NBC News
Louis Loftus with his son, Mason.
“From there I started feeling that, well, since that happened everything now should go up,” said Loftus.
But in fact things got worse. In the midst of trying to reconcile with Deidra, the two got into an argument while driving to get groceries and when she refused to get out of the car, he physically threw her out. The result was a domestic violence felony.
To make matters worse, he was also charged with resisting arrest when several days after the incident he got drunk, beat up his father and fought with police.
But Loftus got a chance to make things right. In January, just a month after being sentenced to three years’ probation and a stint in a half-way house, he and Deidra welcomed their son Mason Lopez Loftus into the world.
And while managing his PTSD is still a day to day struggle, life for Loftus has stabilized.
“I do feel that, eventually, it will get better,” he said. “Maybe not a year, maybe not two -- you know, three, four, five years but I do think the way I handle it will be better.”
Additional Resources:
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Leave a Comment:
Audie Murphy, the most decorated US Soldier ever, suffered greatly from PTSD.
When I was in high school, Audie Murphy came to give a motivational speech and to promote "The Unforgiven." He was a very small man, but intensely charismatic.
All I can say is welcome home my brother welcome home !!!
PTSD is no joke nor a laughing matter. Please leave no stone unturned and get ALL THE HELP YOU NEED !!!! Most of the guys my age have suffered with ptsd for 40 plus years.
bob
I have no doubt that PTSD is real and that quite a few veterans suffer from it's effects. I also think that their are a lot of malingerers out their who see claiming PTSD as an easy path to a disability to check. This has become so rampant that some jokingly refer to PTSD as standing for "please take some disability." It is these people that make it so hard for those who are really suffering with PTSD to be taken seriously and respected. There needs to be a better way of screening out those who are just looking for the disability check. This will do two things - It will leave more resources available for those who really do need the help and it will make it easier for those who really are suffering to get the respect and recognition they need and deserve.
War tours of 2-3-4-5-6. These soldiers are not robots. Only 1 tour can screw your brain up.
I don't think I have met a single combat vet who doesn't experience PTSD on some level. There might be a malingerer out there but JS in SD you don't have a clue. Could be you are in denial yourself. There are several screening tools used to weed out malingering and they are not perfect but very accurate.
Is PTSD the fact you acceot and expect death but it didn't come?
My son in law , home now from his 3rd tour; I talk to him and his fellow soldiers often; he is changed, I do not know if he has ptsd, or he just saw so much savage , that he is just trying to suppress it; he will not talk about what went on over there, so i do not bring it up; his buddy solder's are all also changed, to many deployments, to much warfare, to little knowledge of what that much combat can do to a person.
Yes, but only one of the causes. Combat is horror - real, not Hollywood movie type, but horror on a scale most can't imagine. Pretty difficult to see the soldier next to you have their face blown open and not have a lasting effect on you. Vets with PTS can/do benefit from 'exposure therapy' at VA. Suggest it to anyone who may need it. And most VA's are now fantastic - VA personnel are wonderful!!
War is He11. That's why we don't need leaders that lie us into conflicts.
I really feel for our veterans - They were used as pawns, only to be discarded after the moves, where they were willing to sacrifice their lives, were made!
Those in decision-making positions affecting the lives of American veterans, with the exception of a few, should be cited, penalized and dismissed!
Don't worry the gov has the answer, keep recycling them through Afghanistan.
Like they were recycled for 6+ years through Iraq?
There is a fantastic free program for vets called Vets Journey Home. Google it for more information.
I have had the honor of staffing two weekends and have seen great results for the vets.
Another great program in San Antonio, TX: Train A Dog, Save A Warrior (TADSAW) - an amazing group that matches veterans with service dogs, offers training and support, and at no cost to the veteran. It is AMAZING what a dog can do to help with PTSD and anxiety issues. Patriots and Pets, Saving Lives; Pets to Vets; Pits for Patriots; Pets for Patriots, and Pets 4 Vets also match up service dogs with veterans struggling with PTSD and transitional issues. Each organization has a FB page. All of the dogs, BTW, are rescued from pounds. Saving lives two at a time....
My son did two tours in Afghanistan one with the 10th mountain, one with 101st airborne. He also did a tour in Iraq with the 101st. He is not the same person he was when he first deployed. He has ptsd rage and ptsd insomnia and is on meds for both. He is currently on recruiter duty in the Chicago area.
I've only had 1 full good night's sleep in over 10 years. I took up cooking to get over most of my rage problems, but sometimes I can still slip. But sleep is still something that alludes me. My family says the same thing about me, I am no longer the same person. My emotions and my ability to feel close to others the way I used to is no longer there.
Vernon
Have your son find a good psychologist that knows combat PTSD. With that person he will learn a great deal about what bothers him. Anniversary times, night sweats, night Myer's, flash backs and triggers. He will be much better ( but not cured ) if he is told about these things and tough how to deal with them. The V.A. hospital in North Port Long Island has the best program I have ever seen for PTSD. True it is a ninety day lock down period in the hospital but it is well worth it. The PTSD unit is staffed 24 hours a day. Believe me he will be in the best of all possible care. Dr. Krish and his staff are dynamite. The know there their stuff and are there to help. I have many friends who went through their program there. Also there is a group there called Vets Over The Horizon , they are one hell of a support group and are always there to help fellow vets any way they can. I know because I am a card carrying member of that group.
bob
bob
Vernon - Vets with PTS can/do benefit from 'exposure therapy' at VA. Suggest it to anyone who may need it. IT CAN HELP !!!
One slight correction re VA: the therapists are fantastic out of this world. Caring, considerate, anxious to listen and help. The VA adminstrators: not so much. Cutting programs to make budget. That stinks. Happened in Seattle VA where, again, the docs & therapists are marvelous, but not administration.
Yes, PTSD is a real thing. My former wife said, when we parted after my being home for 14 years, "I don't know who you are anymore". I realized that I didn't know who I was anymore either. Sad.
VietNam '68-'69
Vernon: your son's injury is very REAL. It can be demonstrated with a SPECT scan, developed at the University of ? South Dakota...( I'm a little unsure now which of the Dakotas, sorry). You get a 3 dimensional view of brain activity. Curiously, these injuries that bring on the symptoms are quite the same as football players suffer. The symptoms can occur after short term blasts over a long period.
Please take a look at your son's meds too. Check for a F D A "black box label" which means the possibility of the patient committing suicide are high. There is a Doctor at Louisiana State University who has developed a therapy using Hyperbaric Oxygen. I've know guys in the worst possible condition go for therapy and I've heard every one of them say: I've got my life back"! The repair of the brain can be demonstrated by follow up scans, very real !!! Check out the specifics , google H B O T. Help your son get his life back.
VERNON and KHANKUBLA,
Please visit this site "PROJECT WELCOME HOME TROOPS"
A powerful breathing technique is taught that helps calm the mind - works wonders; here's a testimony from the FOUNDER of the National Veterans Foundation, who has also done the course:
"As a dedicated trauma specialist, working personally with veterans for over 30 years, I have found these unique breathing techniques can help relieve the stress and anxieties that combat Veterans contend with upon returning from being deployed."
"This valuable tool is easily learned and tremendously helpful to me and my staff when dealing with the pressures and stress of what we experience each day. I would recommendVeterans of all eras to take part in this program."
- Shad Meshad,
Vietnam Veteran,
Founder & Director,
National Veteran's Foundation
As combat veteran of the Vietnam war, I have struggled with the dark hell of PTSD ever since I returned home. I was in denial for many years, but the depression and anxiety attacks got to be moe than I could deal with, so I finally sought help. Now forty years later, and with the help of medications, I am finally living a normal life, happy, and somewhat serene. I still have an ocassional anxiety attack, but I have learned how to deal with them, so life is much better for me at present. It's a long hellish way back, and I no longer comteplate suicide and such, but I have a strong support group, my wife, and twenty-seven rescued dogs, who live with me on my farm, far away from the stresses of today's crazy world. I had two year-long tours in Vietnam, it's hard for me to imagine the many deployments our young soldiers of today have to endure. There is nothing worse than having to take another human being's life, then having to live with that the remainder of one's lifetime. Not to mention all the horror when you see your friends die at your side. We need to bring our boys home, from that forsaken land. Let them kill one another off. Let's get out of the middle east...they hate us anyway.
Right on goldwing. Couldn't have said it better myself. We need to bring our boys back from that $hithole. What started out as a good mission has more than run it's course. Not worth one more drop blood from our boys or any others for that matter.
I'm happy for you that things have gotten better for you. Semper Fi!
First, Thank You For Your Service, it's an honor to hear from you. My son is receintly retired after 13 years of service. He spent time in Iraq and Afganistan, dealt every day with ied's and lost numerous friends. Mack came back home, a man I didn't know, had no idea how to respond to, how to approach. I didn't know what was wrong, until I started reading everything I could get my hands on about PTSD. I went with him to the VA appointments...I didn't go in to the appointments but I got to see the difference between going to and coming from appts. He started talking to me and even though I'll never know exactly what he went thru I have a sense of what causes episodes of anger and depression and uselessness that he goes thru. I would encourage everyone to find out more about PTSD before judging someone who you can never understand what they've been thru. And PLEASE always respect the fact that these HEROS have put their lives on the line for you, so you don't have to watch where you step or wonder if someones going to kill you because of your beliefs. You don't have to carry a weapon to walk outside or to the grocery store. Our Miltary personel protect the freedoms that most of us take for granted every day, with their lives. Let's all remember that. Thank You, A Soldiers Mom.
I just wanted to say welcome home and thank you. My husband is an Iraq veteran with PTSD and physical wounds. I appreciate you.
Goldwing... my husband is going through the same He11. He also did 2 tours in Nam to keep his brother out. The nights are the hardest... and we, also, have a house full of pups... they are the best therapy we have ever found...
Thank you for your service... and welcome home...
That sad part is that many will never come forward for help due to the stigma some feel is placed on them for asking.
Rich, so true. I suffer from it and have finally started to look for help. Even back in the day when we served with each other.
If Romney gets in office, it's only going to get worse. He cut VA funding when he was governor of Massachusetts and he and Ryan's budget is slated to cut more. Obama hired more people to process PTSD and other disability claims, but Romney wants smaller government. Romney and Ryan will increase military funding (defense spending), but cut VA funding (which will be some of the government jobs he'll cut).
The military and military veterans are a part of those smooching 47%!!! Those lazy bastards!!! At least according to Romney who was born into wealth and never worked a hard day in his life!!!
Oh Horse$hit! Keep your liberal crap to yourselves. Hate somewhere else dingleberries.
They say the truth will set you free, or something like that, you need to check into the truth so you'll see "Romney's 47% of American's who doesn't pay any taxes" does include the very Military he, nor any of his sons have never served in.
As far as increase Military spending, that's in response to the Military help he will offer Israel.
Jon-998022, Romney had 5 deferments from Vietnam War (4 college, 1 Mormon missionary in Paris). Yes, Clinton had them too.
Mamby Pamby land. Bunch of Wussies.
So says the person who did not suffer a traumatic brain injury in an incident which blew up and killed a half dozen of his best friends.
Even Audie Murphy had PTSD. It ruined his life, and he died in a sad way. Many people who did heroic things in battle--go watch The Last Battalion--never recover from the mental battle scars and many commit suicide.
The "armchair quarterback" is pathetic; we don't have a term to describe someone who wants to be an "armchair warrior." Pity, as I could use such a term right now.
heartless ahole
obvious troll is obvious.
My God. You have got to be joking.
May you suffer anxiety, depression, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, dizzyness, vertigo, etc and most of all crap a soft stool for yourself.
Your handle should be "Wanker"... more appropriate me thinks.
Don't feed the trolls.
I have been through 20 years of PTSD, and while the symptoms improve some over time. The nightmares ease up and the rage abates to some degree. I still to this day cannot be in a room with alot of people, without suffering the anxiety. And the sudden urges of anger still pop up from time to time. The only thing that has kept me sane, and proabably out of prison, is the understanding of when the feelings I am having are irrational, and when the emotions that I am feeling are the PTSD and not me.
I feel for the young people who are going to go through what I have been.
These are the "trickle down" effects of a decade of these senseless wars. It's not just the trillions of $$$ spent on fighting the wars, but the cost for lost family members and serious injuries. Yet, this country has almost pretended that the wars were nothing more than border skirmishes when we've lost about 7,000 troops. Multiple tours of duty don't make someone into the tough John Wayne type character.
It's time to heal our country, leave the Middle East behind to fight among themselves as they have done for centuries, and bring our country a decent way of life again.
We are not the great land we once were. We are a bunch of arrogant and lazy sheep. We seem to want something for nothing. Or should I say we want everything for nothing.
O&Joe 12
unrelated comment. What is your problem?
He is trying to provoke people into a negative response so he can say he is proving how arrogant we are.
Ha! How arrogant!
While I don't agree with the way he makes his point, there is an issue here that needs to be dealt with. We are now 10 years into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since there is no draft in place, everyone that is fighting there has chosen to be in the military for reasons that are relevant to them. Unlike draftees of other wars that had no choice, these military have enlisted voluntarily, knowing full well what dangers may await their choice. If you don't want to possibly die in a cave in, don't be a miner. If you don't want to possibly die in an explosion, don't be a driller. Likewise, if you can't handle the horrors of war, don't enlist. At what point do the military today bear the responsibility for the choices they have made concerning their own health and safety? After 10 years of reporting the horrors of war, how can anyone say they didn't know or aren't perpared for what they could possibly face?
Sparky,
They don't know and aren't prepared, because the military recruits children, with no life experience.
Speak for yourself Wakani...like the TP/Republicans who cry voter fraud and the commit it themselves, thinking we won't notice.
Sparty- I would confidently say that you have never been in combat . You probably as well haven't experienced any real type of real life threatening stress's. As for the people that volunteer for the service?: No they do not understand what they are getting into. If you were to say something like that around me or any of the men that I served with I would most definitely wipe the floor with your insensitive ass .
I do feel for soldiers, because they are someone's son. I don't understand how SOME civilians demand retaliation after international incidents...maybe it's because they don't have to send their own sons or maybe because they don't have to hurry and wait to hear from their deployed husbands and fathers. Maybe because while they're loved one is away they have never seen a car pull into their drive way and two officers step out...It's easy for war-mongrels to demand blood when they're not doing the killing. -I do feel for soldiers...but I don't agree with the whole "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS" propaganda. I can't buy into it because it's not Patriotic at all, it's not anything but "SUPPORT THE BASTARDS THAT SENT OUR MEN TO KILL AND BE KILLED>" that's really what that is. But people don't choose to acknowledge that, they would rather scream, "Shut-the- Uck you self-serving Pacifist! You hate our boys, you must love you some Taliban. Those boys are fighting for your freedom" But none of that is true. My freedon, American's freedom doesn't depend on what happens in the Middle East. Terrorist will always be, and every time there's a terrorist attack we can't condemn a whole region for the acts of a few. That's not the American way. I hate the CIA, but they could have dealt with Bin Laden on their own without having to lose 2,000 more American lives and 5,000 civilian casualties aka dead Afghan/Iraq children and dead women.
For help with PTSD go to; www.azptsd.org
Thur 10/4/12
WELCOME HOME SGT LOFTUS WELCOME HOME !
Do NOT hesitate to seek help with PTSD. ONLY Fellow Veterans & Group Discussions with fellow Veterans will actually Help You. It's a long slow process that takes months or years to gain Control of PTSD instead of PTSD Controlling You.
& NO You will never be totally Free from PTSD. It's there for a LifeTime.
You have lots & lots of Fellow Veterans that endure same problem. You are NOT Alone.
But YOU & only YOU must have the Courage to Ask for Help. No One can do that for You. Now You know 1st hand that PTSD is For REAL & it is Brutal.
WELCOME HOME OUR AIRBORNE WARRIOR YOU MAKE US PROUD !
SPW Drafted July 1969 Arty F O/RTO "Airborne All the Way"
I personally feel that whatever "vaccines" theyve given these newer troops to help with WMD-are causing this increase of violence and mental changes. This generations Agent Orange. At least theyre not having to wait 30-40 years for hopefully some help.
So many soldiers will return home and realize what a crap Government rules this country. And I hope they won't get very angry ... because then we'll get a 2nd Civil War.
Hopefully they will get all involved in Politics and vote for the right people, who will be able to change the way things are run in D.C.
"VOTE for the right people"-???? Our elected officials are but blind puppets of the corporate lawyers.
Nice idea that I agree with, but the hard part is finding who those people are, and rarely (ever?) are they running for office. R & D both work for high paying special interests and not for the common good. Had hopes for a third party to balance the two with the "T-Baggers" till some nutjobs took it over and went off the deep end exreme right. This country is just about ripe for another civil war and the only loser would be the city of Washington... and Wall Street. Just mho...
But now that the West L.A. Veterans Administration is selling off VA land to private companies for profit the Vets will not have those medical facilities to help them. This is what has occurred at the North Hills VA facility illegally! Check it out, it's true!
Its your area that sucks. Look at this. The facitlities are there. This thing is brand spanking new. And it is huge
www.lasvegas.va.gov/new_hospital/new_las_vegas_hospital_nursing_home.asp
And Clinton allowed his donors to expand an elite PRIVATE school onto the LA vet center property.
I have had PTSD since 1969 and there is no real help for it other than drugs that make matter much worse. And you fools that vote for red neck republicns are just sending more children of to be mentally and physicaly destroyed to protect an oil well or a country that has no real threat anywhere. The only threat for this country is the stupid people living in it.
I agree with you, except for the fact that there is help that works besides drugs. There is a therapy called EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Restructuring. I suffered from PTSD for years as well. I tried this treatment and had significant relief in a few months. I've been virtually symptom free (of course, there are still some triggers, but my brain's responses is far less severe) for about 8 years now. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. I also researched and wrote a 50 page paper on this treatment in grad school. It's tremendously powerful, and requires no medication whatsoever. Good luck to you.
Do we really need troops on foot when we have the B-52 and B-1
Or drones.
One doesn't have to be a Vet to have PTSD. Yet, as a direct result of the trauma inflicted during the recent wars, it has only recently become a concern. It's real, alright.
I grew up between wars, so I can't put myself in a Vets shoes. However, I was 'safely' here at home when I was attacked by a gang banger fulfilling his initiation by shooting 'whitey'. I took one to the head. It tore through my mouth, ripping teeth and flesh as it bounced around in there. I spent months/years healing. The system just blew it off. The guy only was charged with a misdemeanor for illegal discharge of a weapon in the city limits.
I spent the next several years suffering. I never went out. And when I did, I sat with my back to a wall, facing the door. I was shot 100 times over in my dreams. I would wake up in a cold sweat, practically jumping out of bed upon waking. My relationships suffered. I'm not the happy go lucky guy I started out as.
There was no one to help me. I was on my own. It's good to know the Vets out there are getting help today. Let's hope it doesn't fall into obscurity. PTSD is real.
It'll get better with time. Lots of time.
Sorry you had to go through that. I also have PTSD....it is a long story, but a doctor cut several organs in my body during surgery and then refused to listen to me in recovery when I told him I was dying. After two hours I ended up dying in recovery. They brought me back, did six hours of additional surgery (the first of many) but I needed fifteen blood transfusions (all the blood in your body). I couldn't work for almost two years due to all the follow up operations.
You re-live it over and over and over!!! The insomnia and the nightmares with night sweats. It is difficult to get help and it never leaves you. Depression and Anxiety....even suicidal thoughts which I NEVER had previously. Almost four years later I still have those moments and I think about it at least once every day.
I pray that our soldiers get the help they will need and that Washington doesn't "budget cut" all their assistance away.
I can't believe people would actually think this is a fake disease!
I agree, but I am not surprised. People don't understand it because they can't see it, it is not contagious, it doesn't impact everyone. People have problems understanding something that is so hard to explain. It isn't like a big zit on a face that is easy to see, it is something that can be hidden and can even hide from the person who is afflicted by it.
Redvs.Blue12,
Most of the "trolls" are just using the babble people have used for other disabilities like ADD/ADHD.
Its like a CEO who calls the Unemployed lazy losers after he fires them all and moves his Corp overseas. Lots of it is self Justification. We allow this forever war and we are all guilty for the returning, PTSD,Jin-filled,limbless souls who are able to return.
and the war profiteers just keep making millions while the young people get screwed. Bring them all home from every single corner of the earth. It's supposed to be the Dept. of Defence not the Dept. of Offence and Agression.
what would the Generals do, how would Boeing make any money, and there are not any jobs for the young men anyway
Yes, isolationism worked so well for us and the world.
It helped give us two really cool World Wars.
Lets back off everywhere in the world and go for a third eh? What do you say?
Back off and help our own country. I pay taxes. I want Americans to work for they money I pay in with jobs made by me. Teachers,firefighters,emergency re-building, forstry service,maintenance of my country (and now assistance for & homes for VETS returned). I don't want to depend on Multinationals and private Corps who work Outside. Maybe later, but right now I want my taxes to pay for jobs at home and keep my money in my country, keeping Unemployment and foodstamps down-with jobs. This is called Emergency measures.
I am a combat wounded Viet Nam vet with PTSD. Yes, it was all too real for me; fired from job after job, no friends, road rage, etc. I would say my PTSD came more from what happened after I came home than from the war. There was tremendous hatred of us by the left, people of our own generation. Even WW2 vets called us losers and drug addicts. You had two choices when you got home, drop out and join the hippie generation drug culture or keep it all in. You never ever dare talk about it. It was like a pot of boiling water on the stove with the lid on tight.
What happened to you was a travesty.
A little late I'm sure but, Thank you for your Service.
It's never too late to say thank you. Bless you for your graciousness and caring.
I was home from VN for 34 years before anyone ever said "Thank you for your service, sir". It was a young Washington State Trooper. All I could do was sit in my car and cry, I was so touched & had felt so alone and lonesome all those years, even with loved ones all around me. Combat is an awful thing. Simply awful.
It's never too late and thank you for your kindness. You just never know when you're going to touch someone's heart.
I know what this guy is going through. I deployed three times to Iraq. I have been home from my last deployment since 2008.
By the end of it all I lost everything due to PTSD. Car repossessed, House was foreclosed on, wife left me. She came back about a year ago after I got on some meds and started acting somewhat human again.
I now live in a travel trailer on my step dads property with four kids. While trying to get my life back in order and get electric and sewer and such to the used two bedroom trailer I am buying.
I'm on several meds and fight every day for the will to keep going. VA told me I was only 30% for PTSD. Crazy world. I hate to see what you have to be like for 100%
Luckily, I am self employed and can make my own hours, which aren't much. There is no way I could hold down a regular job. I have to fight myself just to do the little bit of work I take on.
Thank you for your service, sir. Sorry for your losses. Glad you have family to support you. Hang in there, and hang on. Your family needs you and loves you.
Good luck to all with PTSD, and to all of you who have served - thank you! I suffered from PTSD for many years. Meds didn't help, talk therapy didn't help, support groups didn't help. I then tried an alternative therapy/treatment called EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Restructuring. I suffered from PTSD for years as well. I tried this treatment and had significant relief in a few months. I've been virtually symptom free (of course, there are still some triggers, but my brain's responses is far less severe) for about 8 years now. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. I also researched and wrote a 50 page paper on this treatment in grad school. It's tremendously powerful, and requires no medication whatsoever.
Interesting. Post the link? Please?
I was given propranolol for PTSD. It's a beta blocker? I think, whatever that is. You can still recall events as clearly as ever but without emotion. It's good. Worked for me. Had to elevate my blood pressure artifically though, so I could take it, as it is a blood pressure lowering medication, with this one very interesting and useful side effect. It's often given to victims of violent crime to help them get past the trauma and on with their lives.
Have a great rest of your day, all.
It's unfortunate that these kids have no idea what they are signing up for. They have been playing video games and watching movies that have programmed them to glorify war. It is also unfortunate that many are there for income reasons as oppsed to working in the private sector at home. To any vets that are struggling with PTSD, it is real. You are more of a man to admit it and seek help then to have your life destroyed by not seeking treatment. Do it for your family. Do it for America. Do it for yourself.
Isnt this actually an old video????
FFWD to 1:38.
This should be called Post Military Cry Baby Cant Find a Job give me free money syndrome! Strange how so many of them get this horrible disease just when their unemployment runs out!!!! You know world war 2 was like animalistic warfare horrors beyond belief, guys wouldnt even talk about, and that entire generation made it just fine without crying and leaching money, What a change from real men of the greatest generation to generation welfare!
That entire generation were raging alcoholics when they came back. They died horribly and early. Not to mention WWII actually had a reason to be fought. These wars from Korea on have had no real reason to occur.
Also, battle boy, in WWII they knew who the enemy were. They wore uniforms. Today they strap bombs to children and walk them right up to the convoy. You think that won't get to you?
You are wrong. Many studies have shown that those exposed to combat in WWII were much more likely to have a substantial decline in health and a higher death rate within 15 years afterward. So no, the "entire generation" did not make it just fine. You just are only looking at the ones who did.
The reason that vets often don't talk about their experiences is because it brings terrible trauma back to the surface for them and it makes it hard to function.
You are only showing that you have a complete lack of both knowledge and compassion. Maybe you should go join the military and experience it for yourself before you talk so much trash.
Ok fine...whos gonna work then??? anybody?? anyone?? I was in the military! And as im typing this im starting to feel like i got a little ptsd myself, yep im going to doctor tommorow... skrew going to work, i cant work no more, i need free stuff and i guess a mexican can have my job! So you see my problem, i was there i have panic attacks, i have some f**cked up things in my head, but someones gotta work and i guess its me.
What jobs are the Mexicans going to take other than the jobs Americans don't want to do? I have yet to see a day laborer in front of CPA's office stealing work.
battleboy - In your case better to be silent & thought a fool (and ignorant), than speak and leave no doubt. Appx 15% of military ever see combat - you can be SURE many of those 15% from any war have symptoms, treated or not. Go get help macho man, before your panic attacks, etc. do more harm.
I'm sorry "battleboy" has such a lack of compassion for his brothers in arms. When I got out in 1969 PTSD wasn't even recognized by the VA, but I can attest that it's very real. We all have different ways of coping. From what you've written, battleboy, you DO need help. There's a lot of anger in there!
Battleboy, you may been in the military but it sounds from your comments you sent your deployment in the rear with the gear as opposed to being in a line Co. or a grunt. I walked around for 40 years with PTSD but had no idea what it was also experienced exposure to Agent Orange which the VA ignored. As for WWII vets, well my dad & two uncles served & all had problems with booze. My dad was 48 when he passed alway. My two uncles a few years later, as you said, they never talked about there experiences but neither do I, I carried like a badge of dishonor for may years because I was dishonored but the people who sent us to Vietnam, by the students who protested & the country in general. I arrived at Marine Airbase at 4am with no one to say welcome home. I left the US by ship with 1500 Marines & believe we came home with a lot less either in body bags or seriously wounded. One other item, I worked for over 40 years many of those without knowing what was wrong with me, I don't remember alot about the late 60s or much of the 70s because I self medicated but go ahead & quit your job, apply for disabilty, I hope you have a lot of cash put away because I fought them for over two years to get a disabilty & I am still on appeal over two years later. Semper Fi, Rocket Man, 1st Marines,64-66 Welcome Brothers & thank you all for your service.