|
Yes, PTSD is Scary Stuff
Part 1 by James Glaser
No veteran wants Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In fact most will fight it for years, and when things really get out of hand, you have to go through the embarrassment of asking the Veterans Administration for help. If you Google up a definition for PTSD, you find there are 677,000 pages on the subject. Here is one of the first ones I found, just so you know what I am talking about. a debilitating condition that often follows a terrifying physical or emotional event causing the person who survived the event to have persistent, frightening thoughts and memories, or flashbacks, of the ordeal. Persons with PTSD often feel chronically, emotionally numb. Once referred to as "shell shock" or "battle fatigue."
I can remember when I first thought about getting some help with the problems I was having after returning from Vietnam. I was going to Arizona State under the Vocational Rehabilitation for Disabled Veterans Program, after a tour in the Republic of South Vietnam with the Marines. Basically, I was OK as far as I was concerned, but I was having nightmares, and almost constant thoughts about the Nam. So, I sought help at the Student Health Center, and I wasn't the first vet they had seen with these problems. They had the answer all ready for me. That would be a big bottle of 10mg valium. They were nice, and true they did the trick as far as taking Vietnam out of my mind, but then they took everything else out of it too, and I was trying to learn something at school, so after a really crazy week, I flushed the rest of the bottle, and decided to just stuff everything into the back of my mind. Like so many other vets, I stuffed that stuff, and every time it would pop back out, I would stuff it in again. Some World War vets have been doing that for over 50 years. The problem is that you can't keep everything hidden. They might not know what is wrong with you, but your loved ones know that something is terribly wrong, and usually they are the ones who tell you that you need help. There are lots of places to get help. Many vets used alcohol and others smoked lots of pot, or snorted their problems away. In the end though, the only real help is though the VA, and that is where "scary" comes into play. First off it is pretty unanimous that vets with PTSD, don't trust the Veterans Administration. I still remember my first time At the Minneapolis VA looking for some help. Well the Nam vets at that time distrusted the VA so much that the building for PTSD was down the road about a mile. You couldn't even see the VA Hospital from there. That first day was very scary. First off I was totally embarrassed, because real Marines wouldn't need help, at least that is what I thought. Then to set the tone of the day, the first two vets I saw there were waiting for their "tune up." Their tune up as they called it turned out to be Electric Shock. After hearing that I was ready to bolt. Vets waiting to see a shrink are either totally silent or real motor mouths. Going in, I learned that I could pick a doctor who liked to give out drugs, or I could pick Doctor Harry Russell, who didn't believe in them. I picked Harry. |
BACK to the 2007 Politics Columns.