'PTSD: Our moms were first to know
By CYNTHIA AUKERMAN
News-Gazette reporter
Speaking to H Troop Vietnam veterans about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Jim Linton said, "Our mothers were the first to know we had it, even when there was no name for it. They were the first to realize we weren't the same as we were before we went to Vietnam."
Looking out over his audience of aging veterans, Linton said, "Every one of you has PTSD, and over time it will get you down."
The divorce and suicide rate is "off the scale" for Vietnam veterans, Linton said. Some move from job to job, some from wife to wife, some from place-to-place.
"How many of us have the same issues?" Linton asked. Then he declared, "It's not a coincidence."
Most combat veterans are still in a form of denial, because denial feels safer than facing issues.
Linton, a service representative for Disabled Veterans of America, spoke about his personal battle with PTSD. He worked in a General Motors plant for 30 years, missing work often due to problems later traced to his Vietnam experience.
According to Linton, PTSD comes not just from what the veterans experienced in Vietnam, but what they experienced when they came home.
"When you went over there, you were normal. By the time you left there, you're afraid to go home, because at home the normal was still there. But we were carrying the abnormal with us, and we didn't know how to turn it back to the normal."
By CYNTHIA AUKERMAN
News-Gazette reporter
Speaking to H Troop Vietnam veterans about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Jim Linton said, "Our mothers were the first to know we had it, even when there was no name for it. They were the first to realize we weren't the same as we were before we went to Vietnam."
Looking out over his audience of aging veterans, Linton said, "Every one of you has PTSD, and over time it will get you down."
The divorce and suicide rate is "off the scale" for Vietnam veterans, Linton said. Some move from job to job, some from wife to wife, some from place-to-place.
"How many of us have the same issues?" Linton asked. Then he declared, "It's not a coincidence."
Most combat veterans are still in a form of denial, because denial feels safer than facing issues.
Linton, a service representative for Disabled Veterans of America, spoke about his personal battle with PTSD. He worked in a General Motors plant for 30 years, missing work often due to problems later traced to his Vietnam experience.
According to Linton, PTSD comes not just from what the veterans experienced in Vietnam, but what they experienced when they came home.
"When you went over there, you were normal. By the time you left there, you're afraid to go home, because at home the normal was still there. But we were carrying the abnormal with us, and we didn't know how to turn it back to the normal."
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