Vets with PTSD: When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again

Vets with PTSD: When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
Bryant Welch
Psychologist/Attorney Author State of Confusion (St. Martin's Press)
Posted: December 9, 2009
Vets with PTSD: When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again--Tell Him to 'Think Positively
Johnny was a Vietnam War vet and one of my first patients. He had had over four dozen surgeries in a heroic effort by the Veteran's Administration to transform him from a hideously disfigured victim of shrapnel to a somewhat less hideously disfigured victim of shrapnel. There was no question his life as a "normal young American," much less his life as a robust young Marine, was over.

Johnny had been with his platoon when they were attacked by enemy fire and pinned down for the better part of two days. Much of his face was blown off. His two closest buddies died gruesome and agonizing deaths while lying on top of him.

As a psychologist, my work with him was not medical. It was to address the psychological trauma, then newly labeled as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD], that haunted him and to help him "grieve" that much of his life had been blown away along with his face.

The pain of his surgeries was nothing compared to the night terrors that undercut his every attempt at sleep. The flashbacks that occurred daily put him back in the jungles of Viet Nam and the noises in the hallways became the sounds of advancing Viet Cong. Nurses and doctors could suddenly become menacing figures who he believed had captured him and were about to torture him. He was terrified to take his medications and unexpected noises could leave him shaken for hours.
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Vets with PTSD: When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again