Returning Troops Facing New Battle: PTSD
Published : Tuesday, 25 Oct 2011
DAMALI KEITH
Reporter
HOUSTON - Forty thousand US troops are expected to return from Iraq by the end of the year.
Thousands have already returned home, but their struggle has not ended. The horrors of war may haunt many military veterans for years.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a very real monster plaguing the men and women in uniform.
"A soldier has to deal with the fact that he's taken somebody's life because somebody was trying to take his or somebody took your buddies life," Alvin Roy said.
The 54-year-old is a local artist now, but used to be an 18-year-old Marine fighting for his country and his life during the Vietnam War.
"It's a life and death struggle among people. I think at some point you can become cold,” Roy said. “It's not like a light switch where you can just turn it off. You never turn it off."
Nearly 40 years later, the war veteran says he still suffers from PTSD.
"There are people who experience agitation, anger, folks who internalize and suppress those experiences. (What did you experience?) All of the above. Depression, anger. I didn't get along with my family, my friends."
The returning troops from Iraq and Afghanistan are expected to suffer the same thing.
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