PTSD Project

[Team Sergeant]

Great Youtube video, watch it to the end.

PTSD Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66FHqweHz5A

[Badger52]

Thank you for sharing that.

[JimP]

Sent it to the wife with instructions that she make the kids watch it and HEAR what this guy is saying.

If it wasn't so danged dusty and allergy-prone in here I could see better to type this....danged weepy eyes.....

[LarryW]

Thank you, sir, for posting the link.

I have been reluctant to say anything re: this post as I always seem to kill a thread rather than help the discussion along. Probably because I'm not a QP, and my combat experience doesn't merit the slightest comment to this august body. But, I have a point of view and hope it will help.

If you or someone you know suffers from the symptoms (see va.gov link below) associated with PTSD (or PTS as President Bush prefers to call it), then please reach out to someone. Find someone you can talk to. Call a former comrade in arms, talk to a doctor (more than one, and it doesn't have to be a shrink, either). Maybe PM someone on this site whom you believe knows what they're talking about. Get help, because you can't push a stalled truck uphill by yourself. The introduction of this malady in your life most likely stems from your *involvement* with your world, be it military, LEO, firefighting, etc (you *care*, and not just a little bit), and that is a blessing to all the rest of us. You are a critically valuable resource and we need you. Please, get the help you need to deal with this thing. You're not nuts. You're hurt. PTSD has been around for years, probably as long as human kind. It's a human condition.

Anyway, end of comment. Thanks, and God bless.

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-o...at-is-ptsd.asp

[Joker]

LarryW, you are correct. Two good friends of mine saved thief lives by reaching out.

I was good until the Marine's ill son walked to him.

[PSM]

As to PTSD, not having been in combat, I only have an observation.

Family members of WW2 soldiers often said that the vets never spoke about the war. That is utterly false. Perhaps they didn’t speak to the family but there were many other outlets once they came home. My first job, age 12 (1962), was as a shoeshine boy in a barbershop. I can tell that they told war stories all the time. The barbershop was one place, but not the only place, where they could talk openly with others who were also there. There were also the American Legion, VFW, Elks and Moose Lodges, etc. They joined fraternal organizations where they could open up about their experiences.

In my HS class, there were four of us who served in the Army. Three of us were Infantry and one was in aircraft maintenance. One was in Basic with me and was shot up pretty badly shortly after joining his company in country. The other was an officer in the 1st ID toward the end of the war and I was sent to Okinawa. At our 20th anniversary the class had a BBQ at the local VFW and I asked the other guys if they were members. They were not. The former officer said that he went a few times when he got home but the WW2 guys kind of put down the Vietnam guys because of things like the 1 year tours, flying Pan Am to and from the war zone, being more airmobile than footmobile, etc.

So, over the years, I've wondered if it was the slowness of the return trip and the wide availability of fraternal organizations that helped the WW2, and perhaps Korean, vets decompress. The Vietnam War age group were not really the “joiners” that preceded us. Perhaps the urge to get back to the “real world” was not healthy.

Just an observation.

Pat