Battle Veterans Cruel Deadly Plague

PTSD, PTSD, PTSD, Continued: Battle Veterans Cruel Deadly Plague: Alcoholism is the Result
Dr. Phil Leveque Salem-News.com
The VA is still not taking proper care of any PTSD Vets of all wars. Alcoholism is killing hundreds of thousands because VA drugs have bad side effects and are not tolerable.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Yes, I created the above title on purpose. I have written many stories about this; search this link salem-news.com. to read numerous articles about PTSD

I had heard of SHELL SHOCK and BATTLE FATIGUE which are “waste basket diagnoses” even before I went into the WWII Army. In 1943, I even read that there were about 15% “”Battle Neurosis” casualties in America’s invasion of N. Africa. The Army even sent a medical doctor Brigadier General to N. Africa to investigate what was wrong with those enlisted men SISSIES. Then they discovered well trained, experienced officers got it also (behind front lines?).

They began to more heavily sort out recruits at Draft Boards and up to 30% of possible recruits FAILED the mickey mouse evaluations. Furthermore a lot of Mommies Boys flunked out in Basic Training. They probably wouldn’t be suitable foxhole buddies anyhow. A lot of them got as far as the front lines. That’s where the 15% Battle Neurosis came from.

I knew that I had PTSD after 3 months as a Battalion Scout, pointman and forward observer. Those were frequently suicide missions but I was lucky.

PTSD was not named and diagnosed as such until about 1980 when Vietnam Vets started falling apart. They were perhaps the most widely studied group of Veterans ever studied. I am not saying they were any different than any other Veterans but it is a fact.
read more here
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/june122010/ptsd-alcohol-pl.php

Wrong and this needs to be corrected.

By 1978 there were veteran's centers opened around the country and according to a study funded by the DAV, there were already 500,000 Vietnam veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. While the VA itself did not use the term, it was already being used around the country.





The warnings were right here and they have not changed. They have only grown larger since most of the warnings, most of the evidence and studies on PTSD done have gone ignored. Today we see repeated studies funded and too few results.
"...the number of these veterans experiencing these symptoms will climb until 1985 based on his belief of Erickson's psycholosocial developmental stages and how far along in these stages combat veterans will be by 1985."

This is also our greatest fear when we read the numbers today. We know the numbers and the need will only go up. It will go up with the numbers being deployed and exposed to traumatic events during combat. It will go up with the repeated deployments, which according to the study done by the Army a few years ago, only increases the risk by 50% for each time they go back. There is also one more factor in all of this. The time they go from shock of combat and the time they finally get help. Mild PTSD can be healed a lot better when other events in life do not add to it. In other words, the longer PTSD goes untreated, the more it infects the rest of their lives and is fed by living.

Most veterans with PTSD are not addicted to drugs or alcohol as much as they are searching to kill off feelings and calm their nerves. It becomes a part of their daily lives. It also ends up harming them to the point where all the medication in the world will provide no relief and therapy is undone by substance abuse.

Then, just like the rest of the population, there are some real drug addicts and alcoholics addicted to the chemicals just as much as they are facing the symptoms of PTSD. As with the rest of this, as bad as we think the flood of veterans seeking help for PTSD is today, the numbers will only go up when the ones with Mild PTSD can no longer cover their symptoms or deny they need help. The worst thing about all of this is the suffering they go through waiting to seek help is making PTSD worse for them and will be harder to heal.

Please read the rest of the above article. The rest is very good.