PTSD: When will people ever get it and understand it?

When will people ever get it? There was a thread started in Bill Maher's message board about McCain having, or not having, PTSD. While some of the posters thought the thread was more of a Swift Boat style attack, jumping to his defense, others reverted to how he is stable and successful. It's almost as if they think if someone has PTSD, he/she, becomes eligible for a mental institution for the rest of their lives. This is just one of the kinds of stereotypes they have to fight against.




Take a look at this thread and know how wrong people still get PTSD.

McCain- Is he sane? PTSD
Years of torture and prison? Can you say PTSD? Last thing I want is a guy with post tramatic stress disorder running the country with the most.

There have been many successful people with PTSD contributing to the greater good. These are just two of them. Lewis B. Puller Jr. won a Pulitzer Prize after a lengthy, successful career, he ended his own life. Max Cleland, again very successful, had been treated for depression, misdiagnosed and treated while it turned out to be PTSD. He came to the realization it was much deeper than depression following the Iraq invasion.


Again these are just to examples of people living with PTSD. They don't all become homeless, nor do they suddenly become people who should be hiding in a cave somewhere.


Lewis B. Puller Jr.

Lewis Burwell Puller Jr. was the son of General Lewis "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated Marine in the history of the Marine Corps. His son followed in his father's footsteps and became a Marine officer. Upon graduation from the College of William and Mary in 1967, Puller was shipped to Vietnam, where he was badly wounded by a landmine on October 11, 1968, losing both legs and most of his hands in the explosion.
The mine riddled his body with shrapnel, and he lingered near death for days with his weight dropping to 55 pounds, but Puller survived. Those who knew him say that it was primarily because of his iron will and his stubborn refusal to die. Because of his wounds, Puller was medically discharged from the Marine Corps. During his short active-duty military career, Puller earned the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts, the Navy Commendation Medal and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry.

For years after he returned to a reasonably sound physical condition, the emotional ground underneath him remained shaky, though he got a law degree, married, and raised a family. He even mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 1978, representing eastern Virginia. Throughout the years, he battled black periods of despondency and drank heavily until 1981, when he underwent treatment for alcoholism. Despite a return to normality, Puller continued to suffer from severe depression and occasional bouts of alcoholism.

In 1991, Puller told the story of his horrible ordeal and its agonizing aftermath in an inspiring book titled Fortunate Son, an account that ended with Puller triumphing over his physical disabilities, and becoming emotionally at peace with himself. It won the Pulitzer Prize.

According to friends and associates, Puller spent the last months of his life in turmoil. In the days leading up to his death, Puller fought a losing battle with the alcoholism that he had kept at bay for 13 years, and struggled with a more recent addiction, to painkillers initially prescribed to dull continuing pain from his wounds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Burwell_Puller%2C_Jr.

Fortunate Son
Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Son of the famous World War II Marine commander "Chesty" Puller, Lewis Puller proudly followed in his father's footsteps. It was his misfortune, though, to serve in Vietnam in a war that brought not honor but contempt, and exacted a brutal personal price: Puller lost both legs, one hand, and most of his buttocks and stomach. Years later he was functional enough to run for Congress, bitterly denouncing the war. He lost, became an alcoholic, and almost died again. Then he climbed out of that circle of Hell to write this searingly graphic autobiography, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. One last poignant postscript: three years after the enormous success of this book, the author killed himself. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
The author is the son of WW II hero "Chesty" Puller, arguably the most colorful and admired Marine of them all. Seeking to emulate his father, the author joined the Corps after college and entered officers' training with the intention of becoming a combat leader. In 1968, while commanding an infantry platoon in Vietnam, Lieutenant Puller tripped a booby trap and lost both legs and one hand in the explosion. He describes his protracted hospitalization, which included a series of operations and an unsuccessful attempt to learn how to walk with the use of artificial limbs. Puller eventually became a lawyer, served on President Ford's Clemency Board, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Virginia and joined the Pentagon's legal department. His well-written autobiography is an inspiring account by a man who fought hard to win major battles over physical helplessness, severe depressions and alcoholism. Readers will treasure the author's recollections of "Chesty" (clearly a wonderful father) but may find the description of the old general's decline and death as painful as the account of the son's ordeal. 50,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Max Cleland

Early life and military service
Cleland was born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 24, 1942. He grew up in Lithonia and later attended Stetson University. He went on to receive a Master's degree from Emory University.

Cleland then served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, attaining the rank of Captain. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valorous action in combat, including during the Battle of Khe Sanh on April 4th, 1968.

On April 8, 1968, Captain Cleland was the Battalion Signal Officer for the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division during the Battle of Khe Sanh.[3]

On April 8, with a month left in his tour, Cleland was ordered to set up a radio relay station on a nearby hill. A helicopter flew him and two soldiers to the treeless top of Hill 471, east of Khe Sanh. Cleland knew some of the soldiers camped there from Operation Pegasus. He told the pilot he was going to stay a while. Maybe have a few beers with friends.

When the helicopter landed, Cleland jumped out, followed by the two soldiers. They ducked beneath the rotors and turned to watch the liftoff. Cleland reached down to pick up the grenade he believed had popped off his flak jacket. The blast slammed him backward, shredding both his legs and one arm. He was 25 years old...
David Lloyd was a gung-ho, 19-year-old enlisted Marine, son of a Baltimore ship worker, who went to Vietnam because he "wanted to kill Communists."

On April 8, 1968, he was in a mortar pit on a hill near Khe Sanh when he heard an explosion. Shrapnel bounced off his flak jacket. He ran to the injured officer, a man named Max Cleland. 'Hold on there, captain,' Lloyd told Cleland. 'The chopper will be here in a minute.'

Lloyd took off his web belt and tied it around one of Cleland's shredded legs. When the medics arrived, he left to help another injured soldier — one of the two who had gotten off a helicopter with Cleland.

That soldier was crying. 'It was mine,' he said, 'it was my grenade.'
According to Lloyd, the private had failed to take the extra precaution that experienced soldiers did when they grabbed M-26 grenades from the ammo box: bend the pins, or tape them in place, so they couldn't accidentally dislodge. This soldier had a flak jacket full of grenades with treacherously straight pins, Lloyd says. "He was a walking death trap."[4]

Due to the severity of his injuries, doctors amputated both his legs above the knee and his right forearm.[5]


Georgia State Government
Cleland served from 1971 to 1975 in the Georgia Senate, and became an advocate for affairs relating to veterans. He was the administrator of the United States Veterans Administration under President Jimmy Carter, a fellow Georgian, from 1977 to 1981. He then served 14 years as Secretary of State of Georgia from 1982 to 1996, working closely with his future Senate colleague, Zell Miller.

According to an interview featurette with Jon Voight on the DVD of Coming Home (1978), Cleland also served during this time as a consultant on the Academy Award-winning drama set in a VA hospital in 1968.


U.S. Senate
Cleland ran for and was elected to the United States Senate in 1996. The Democratic nomination became available because of the retirement of Sam Nunn.

In 2002, Cleland was defeated in his bid for a second Senate term by Representative Saxby Chambliss. Voters were perhaps influenced by Chambliss ads that featured Cleland's likeness on the same screen as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, ads that Cleland's supporters claim questioned his commitment to homeland security.[6] (The ads were removed after protest from some prominent politicians including John McCain.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Cleland

As with all other illnesses, there are different levels of PTSD. They do not all have the same fate even though they all suffer. If you look at a group of people with diabetes, you will find some who have had to have amputations, some on heavy duty medicine and others keeping it under control with diet and exercise. There are different levels of it just as there are different levels of PTSD. It is not a one size fits all wound.

If McCain has PTSD, which is very possible given his reported tendency to have mood swings and anger problems, it does in no way suddenly reduce him to someone who is not able to function. I would be the last person on the planet to suggest that a veteran with a high score of PTSD would be a good person to have in charge of the nukes, especially if he has a flashback, but we don't know if McCain has PTSD or what level it is.

Some will have a string of jobs and serial marriages. Some will have marriages that last, like our's, which is 23 years and still going. Some will be successful and some will end up homeless. Some will serve society and some will serve prison time. We can't lump them all into one category or another. It depends on their lives, the people in those lives and the depth of the wound. My husband's level is high. While some families break apart with this severity, others stay together. We need to understand all of this to understand them and stop judging them.


Veterans with PTSD are no different than the general population with PTSD as far as their levels of ability and quality of life. Some just need more help than others depending on the depth of the wound. While a lot of veterans with PTSD cannot function and their quality of life suffers, some can live a fairly good life with it. Of course this also depends on their treatment, how soon it begins after trauma hits them and the support they receive from their family and friends.

There have been many reports of successful careers, as well as reports of how therapeutic it is when they work, but this all depends on the people they work with. For some they will be supported when co-workers and associates understand what PTSD is and watch out for them. Others however become targets by obnoxious idiots without a clue what PTSD is. The above thread is just one more reminder of how far we have to do on educating the general public what PTSD is and what it is not.


Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington