Mr and Mrs Smith of PTSD

Ex-Marine and Family Detail Struggles of Living with PTSD
La Tonya Frelix


Hattiesburg American

June 3, 2008 - When Marine Marty Smith, 27, was medically discharged in 2006, military officials said it was because of damage to his hearing. But after returning home, his hearing wasn't the only dramatic change his wife, Heather Smith, noticed.

"That's when I started seeing the anger, temper and him wanting to be alone and never around us," said Heather Smith, 33, who had only been married to Marty Smith for only three weeks before his deployment.

Military doctors also saw the early warning signs.

A medical physical after serving in Iraq in 2003 diagnosed the Hattiesburg resident with post-traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. Military personnel advised him to check in with the local Veterans Affairs office for treatment, but he put it off until this year.

"I did what most do," said Smith, who spent eight years in the military and served six months in Iraq. "I was too worried about getting a job and settling down with the family."

The U.S. Army last week released data showing a rise in the number of troops who have been diagnosed with PTSD after tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.The data collected from U.S. military facilities from January 2003 to Dec. 31, 2007, has the total number of cases at nearly 40,000 for all four branches of the U.S. Armed Services.
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http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10283