Mental battle scars still haunt Vietnam vets

Mental battle scars still haunt Vietnam vets
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
By Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette

Vietnam vets John Knorr, left, and Ken Seybold discuss their lives with PTSD during a group therapy session.

"We were sent way back out in the jungle, and on the way out there all I could see were dead bodies along the road.

"It was then that mentally I died."

-- Andrew Williams, Apollo

Dennis Hughes has to sit with his back against the wall, so fearful is he of being attacked.

Jim Davis plans an "escape route" whenever he's driving.

Gary Vinka sometimes springs out of bed in the middle of the night, thinking he's being attacked.

They and four other men shared such stories during a recent group therapy session in Highland Park for combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The mutual support brings solace for the invisible wounds of war they bear.

Their mental battle scars aren't fresh like those suffered by veterans of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. Their feelings of anger, hyper-vigilance, emotional numbness and guilt have endured for 40 years -- since their service in Vietnam.

Largely from the advocacy efforts of soldiers returning from the Vietnam War, PTSD is now recognized in the mental health field as an anxiety disorder.



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