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We have to do more to stop post-traumatic stress among our soldiers
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About two weeks ago a Soldier in Iraq seeking help for stress related problems visited a stress clinic on base and was turned away by the clinic personnel for an unknown reason further more he was asked to turn his weapon over at the clinic. The Soldier left and returned bringing another weapon with him, which he used to kill five of the Soldiers who were there upon his return. He must have felt horrible, feeling like he was going to loose control, he very obviously needed immediate attention but the personnel at the clinic did not realize how badly.
PTSD is overwhelming because once it takes over the Veterans mind it is twenty four hours a day seven days a week. From my own experience when the bad feeling comes on it makes you feel like wanting to jump out of your skin. How bad could this man have felt to commit such an act? This is what happens when you finally do loose control either homicide or the act of suicide.
Many families will feel the repercussions from this act of a man reaching out for help and not getting it soon enough. I heard someone refer to the shooter as an animal and I wanted to say “you do not know what he was going through”. I suffered from PTSD for many years and after a life time I have learned to cope with the illness. In the beginning I would find a Vet Center and make it my home base, I learned that if I felt bad enough I went there and I would calm down.
This man killed five humans, soldiers, his own brothers in arms.
Yet there are still Veterans and civilians who think that PTSD is a sham, that it is lazy soldiers’ way to get a hand out; nothing could be further from the truth. As these acts of violence continue either at the war site or back home the, Pentagon and the Veterans Administration need to find a way to help these men when they start to complain.
In an earlier VA study this year according to Jack Epstein and Johnny Miller of the San Francisco Chronicle almost 12,500 of nearly 245,000 veterans visited VA counseling centers for readjustment problems and symptoms of PTSD.
I know there is a program which helped me and can help at least some of these Veterans before they go too far. According to Miller and Epstein a Defense Department study of combat troops returning from Iraq found 1 in 6 soldiers and Marines acknowledged symptoms of severe depression and PTSD, and 6 in 10 of these same veterans were unlikely to seek help out of fear their commanders and fellow troops would treat them differently.
I went through a program which helped me learn to cope and if it worked on me maybe it can work on other Veterans. Trying different approaches to combat this illness is better than doing nothing. What if the program only works on four out of ten Veterans so what? At least we are doing something for the troops. If they are willing to lay down their lives for us why can’t we try different programs for them so that they can return home physically, as well as mentally, healthy and ready to join the home and family they left behind.
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