The Many Faces of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Vietnam veterans didn't know who the enemy was. Young kids would be sent to pretend to be looking for candy and then toss a grenade. They would go into villages and not know who would then try to kill them. They lost the ability to trust anyone. This was added to the issue of the solitary DEROS. Each soldier was sent into Vietnam on his own schedule. Date of Expected Return from Over Seas was 12 months and they knew if they survived that year, they would be able to go home but it also meant they would have to leave the brothers they served with behind. They spent that year watching others go, wishing they were going to, and seeing more come in, not knowing if they would be able to do their job instead of getting them killed. (FNG, f-ing new guys.) They watched friends die. They watched them get wounded just as in any other war, but the in process of the solitary soldier deployment, they returned alone back to family and neighborhoods where no one had a clue what they just went through.

We do not see the solitary soldier today. We see units of brothers going and coming home together. Yet just as with Vietnam, the enemy is not easy to recognize. They don't know if they can trust the locals or even the military and police they are trying to train. Yet amazingly they do whatever is asked of them. Again, they know how long they will be there risking their lives and when they will be able to come home. They mark off the days. They return knowing they can trust their brothers but not sure about everyone else.

For Fort Hood soldiers, it was supposed to be safe to walk around unarmed. It was supposed to be a safe place for their families. They were supposed to be able to relax at least there. We told them to seek help if they were having a hard time battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and sent them to psychiatrists for help. They trusted the doctors when they were given medication and they trusted what they were being told. The problem was, we didn't know what they were being told, who was telling them it or if the medications were going to make PTSD worse or not. Now, all that has been shattered.

One of their own they thought they could trust turned on them, opening fire when they were unarmed and this one was also supposed to be one of the doctors they were supposed to be able to trust.

This is not just an issue with soldiers at Fort Hood. Every soldier will be wondering who they can trust and who the enemy is. The last safe zone has now been removed. Major Hasan was trained on how the mind works but did anyone think he used what he did at Fort Hood to do more damage than any terrorist in Iraq or Afghanistan would ever dream of?

Our soldiers wonder who they can trust when there is no one to talk to back home. They worry about their careers even though the military commanders told them they will not hurt their careers by seeking help. Now they will be wondering if they need to worry about what their own doctors are doing. They are sent back to Afghanistan and Iraq with medications but no monitoring even though most medications warn that they need to be monitored. They are not able to see mental health workers in country where they are needed the most or when they come back because there are not enough of them and most are not even experts on PTSD in the first place.

We don't have enough to take care of them back here either. Not in the DOD on bases or for the National Guards and Reservists, or for the veterans in the VA.

What is saddest about all of this is the knowledge is there and they can heal but getting from here to there is seeming more and more impossible for more and more of them. Families still have no clue what to do or even what PTSD is. Where are they supposed to turn? Where is their safe zone? When will we ever get this right?

The Many Faces of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
The Fort Hood Shooting Puts Spotlight Back on Soldiers Suffering From PTSD
By MATT GUTMAN
Nov. 13, 2009

On Aug. 4, 2009, Master Sgt. Jason Swain says he dumped all his medications into his hand. Cupping the little pile of pills, he flashed back to his brother's attempted suicide, and the image of his mother's pain-distorted face.

Every day, on average, 18 American veterans commit suicide. Through the haze of guilt and pain, Swain realized he didn't want to be one of them.

Swain's voice quivers as he talks, as if sobs are just one random memory away. But the 38-year-old's first words betray the nearly clinical training of the Army intelligence analyst he is.

"I've been here since Aug. 5, suffering from some bad complications from my PTSD, severe depression and suicidal ideations."

In the Miami Veteran's Affairs Hospital's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ward, Swain is in the middle of a 14-week inpatient program.

In the wake of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, Nov. 5, that left 13 people dead, allegedly at the hands of a fellow soldier, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, soldiers who struggle with stress like Swain, have come back into the spotlight.

When he was posted in the 1st Cavalry in Fort Hood, Swain worked across the street from the site of the rampage.
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The Many Faces of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder