PTSD Personal to President Obama's family

When I tell people that President Obama has been paying attention to PTSD since he was a Senator, they don't believe me. They don't believe me when I tell them that he's so informed on the problems associated with this wound, that he picked the best program to address it. He went to the Montana National Guard to find out about their program. I track all of this everyday, usually with 70 hours a week invested in it, so for me to know this program was one of the best, what I've invested in learning about it brought me to it. For Obama, able to pick any program across the nation including the failure programs the government came out with, he picked one that works. That proved something to me right there. He has to care to even know about it. Well, now maybe the rest of the people in this country I've been trying to get thru to will finally understand why it is that they now have more hope of healing than at any other time. To President Obama, PTSD is personal, familiar and family.

Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

By Maggie Vespa

Story Published: Jun 5, 2009 at 9:55 PM CDT



It was somewhat unexpected. In the middle of his highly publicized trip to Germany this morning, President Obama got personal.


"Because my great uncle, my grandmother's brother, was part of the unit that first liberated Buchenwahl," said the president this morning.

But for some, what may be an unexpected anecdote, for others may be much needed recognition. Because while it's a disease that's plagued many for generations, it's only recently been brought out into the open.

"He suffered what we now know, what we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

Over twelve-hundred veterans in Illinois alone suffer from P.T.S.D.,
and while treatment for it is at an all time high, experts say, for many returned from duty, it's still vastly under diagnosed.

"Oftentimes, they're in denial and don't want to seek help. They feel like if they ask for help, that they're weak," said Kathy Thomas, clinical social worker for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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