Grim over at Black Five has a must read on the subject of PTSD. PTSD is not about weakness or strength and this write up is excellent in discussing it.
“What you need to know, first and last, is that so-called PTSD is not an illness. It is a normal condition for people who have been through what you have been through. The instinct to kill and war is native to humanity. It is very deeply rooted in me, as it is in you. We have rules and customs to restrain it, so that sometimes we may have peace. What you are experiencing is not an illness, but the awareness of what human nature is like deep down. It is the awareness of what life is like without the walls that protect civilization.
Those who have never been outside those walls don’t know: they can’t see. The walls form their horizon. You know what lays beyond them, and can’t forget it.”………………..
We have a family member with PTSD and he finally received his VA DAV rating after six decades had past him by! He’s been to hell and back…
I will just make one statement about PTSD. A hell of a lot of the claims are phony. There is money and sympathy to be had and that is like a light to moths. I acknowledge that PTSD is real for some people, but if there was no monetary compensation, a lot of PTSD would suddenly be miraculously cured.
Thanks WT, we’ve talked about this and you know my sentiments. Your providing a platform for vets to vent goes a long way towards establishing a healthy forum to share experiences. Darth and Tom have outlined the extremes of both human behavior and the VA responses and I have seen both. Why a veteran with a serious problem would have to wait a lifetime for help, getting that help nearly posthumously isn’t the answer. I can’t help but think that the public has a greater role than we percieve. All soldiers lose their innocence in the battle zone, then come home to either a heroes welcome or condemnation as the world’s worst monsters. We can’t in good taste discuss our feelings about it, even amongst family, nor can we deny them so we bottle them up. Whether that man saw the horrors of Beleau Wood, Normandy, Tarawa, Inchon, Hue or Khe Sanh, Mogadishu, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan or that man or woman spent their tour in triage and surgery, they all endured things beyond the normal comprehension, the scars on the mind never fully heal.
Listen up public, they have taken your place and have done the dirty work for you.
Innocence is forever gone, acceptance is like forgiveness, the least we can do is accept them back into the fold.
Welcome home brothers and sisters.
I think the public condemnation was the worst and from family and friends. But everyone handles it differently, some of us stayed drunk for 10 years and that helped not deal with it. And it isn’t until you reach the bottom can you even start to come to terms with the past.
Some were/are not as fortunate to reach that part and don’t come back at all.
Darth, there are so many ways it could all be made easier for our Veterans and our troops returning. I pray this will one day be something of priority to really respect and take care of those that gave us our precious freedom.
Tom, it is so wrong when some use this like you said.
Jack, thank you so much, some that I know that are getting help with this and they are doing so much better now.
Mark oh that is so true. Thank you Mark so much.
Many have witnessed that WAR IS HELL so move over and let the US Air Power into the game…mass quantities of lethal force…end of story!
-Operation Arc Light B-52’s over Hanoi in 1972!
Ballgame … OVER!!