The beast PTSD can rise up years later

Columnist’s potpourri: Tying up some loose ends
By Tom Sager
Published: Monday, February 18, 2008 10:35 PM CST


War is coming home: A Vietnam veteran posted the following online comment. We should all be aware of what he is saying:

“The beast, ‘PTSD’ can lay dormant for years before it rears its ugly and sometimes deadly head. I know. I live with it 24 hours a day. There are those who will tell you it can be cured; but it can’t. It can be treated; but the longer it takes to recognize the symptoms, the more difficult it becomes to treat.

“I had a friend who was with me in Nam. His first night back to ‘the world’ he killed his wife and then blew his own brains out. Nobody knew he had a problem.


“The VA is a joke when it comes to helping the vet. A lot of the time the nearest VA hospital is 80-100 miles from the vet that needs help; and then they pump you full of pills that just keep you going. I survive on medication that leaves me like a zombie; and believe me; that is not living.

“As long as we have politicians who start these ‘wars for profit,’ we will continue to have the walking wounded (both in body and mind); and they will continue to be cast aside like so much trash.”

Regardless of our opinions about current and past wars, I hope we can all agree that this is a national disgrace. Congress has spent close to $500 billion (and counting) on the Iraq War, but can’t allocate funds to care for the casualties of past wars.

To quote the late Dr. Martin Luther King: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
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