The great dilemma is do we talk about PTSD or go back to silence

The great dilemma is do we talk about PTSD or go back to silence
by
Chaplain Kathie

The great dilemma is do we talk about PTSD so that others can heal and know they are not alone or go back to not talking about it so that veterans go back to work? I wish it was a simple choice, but it isn't.

HIre Me! Veterans: Invisible wounds make it tougher to find and secure a job
One in five vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder or depression

BY PHYLLIS FURMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, March 1, 2012, 5:00 AM

Esteban Alfaro, an ex-Marine and Iraq war veteran who suffers from anxiety and depression, just started work as a delivery driver for Klenosky Paint in Williamsburg. JEFF BACHNER/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

You wouldn't know it from looking at him, but Esteban Alfaro came home wounded from Iraq.

The 26-year-old from Brooklyn, a former Marine corporal, spent seven months in Ramadi, Iraq. He was a half-mile away when a bomb went off in a forward operating base, taking the lives of two fellow Marines. Just one day before, Alfaro had been on that base.

“That messed me up mentally,” Alfaro said. Had the bombing happened “one day earlier, I would have really been hurt or I wouldn’t be here.”

Alfaro suffers from anxiety and depression — and he certainly is not alone.

Many veterans carry similar invisible wounds that affect their daily lives — and their ability to find and retain a job.

As many as one in five servicemembers who return from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan have symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression, according to a report from Rand Corp.

Symptoms of PTSD can include insomnia, irritability, being hyperalert to danger or feeling on edge. As a result, those who suffer might have trouble performing certain tasks. Some require treatment during work hours.

“Some have difficulty concentrating for long periods of time,” said Melissa Earle, a professor at Touro College Graduate School of Social Work who specializes in PTSD and veterans. “Many avoid assessment because they don’t want to be seen as sick.”
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When Vietnam veterans came home, no one wanted to hire them. The talk back then was that they were all "crazy Nam vets" because the news reports about them were all negative. If one of them got into trouble, you'd see a headline making sure everyone knew the story involved a Vietnam veteran. Stories about them in a positive readjustment situation were not considered "news worthy" so if there were any reporters bothering to do an article about them opening a business, doing things for their communities or anything else that was good, no one knew about it.

Remember, back then the Internet was a pipe dream so what happened in one community was not known unless a major newspaper picked up the story. The mood of the country toward Vietnam veterans was fed by the media reports against them.

Vietnam veterans fought like hell to have PTSD treated by the VA but they also fought like hell to get jobs and then fought even harder to keep them. Most of them became pretty successful because they worked harder than everyone else. Once employers understood how valuable they were, they hired more veterans.

Maybe it was because of the attitude of the country, they felt the need to suffer in silence. I know families thought it was better to keep our mouths shut just like our parents did when it came to war veterans suffering afterwards. It was a big secret to the rest of the world but when it came to families, everyone knew because back then more families had parent-veterans of WWII and Korea and grandparents of WWI. Even today, some Vietnam veterans are refusing to end their secret pain so they can heal.

Some think it is too late for them to get better. Some look back on their lives and figure they made it this long without help that they can finish their lives living the same way. They don't know it is never too late to begin to heal and live a better life.

The good news came when Vietnam veterans' kids grew up in an age when the Internet was able to connect all of them. The men and women serving today are less than 1% of the population of this country but they are able to connect across the whole world and find others just like them. They are able to talk to someone suffering the same way they are with PTSD. Families are able to find support and learn the ropes to know what to do and what they should not do. Talking about it opened the doors to more seeking help to heal simply because they knew they were not alone and that help was available for them.

Unfortunately, the media kept to the formula of putting bad stories in the headlines. Murder in a city is headline grabbing. As the expression goes, "if it bleeds, it leads" because everyone is more interested in that kind of story. Yet tie in an Iraq veteran or veteran of Afghanistan and it gives the story more punch for the buck.

Murderers are a small portion of the population but veterans committing murder are even more rare. Reporters often omit the part that there have been over 2 million men and women back from Iraq and Afghanistan but infinitesimal incidences are reported. The vast majority would be the last ones to commit a crime or harm someone else. There are more suicides and attempted suicides than there are arrests. While headlines read "Iraq veteran killed by Swat" grab attention there are 18 veterans committing suicide only found in the obituary sections of local papers, usually under "died suddenly" or occasionally using "lengthy" illness.

The majority of veterans do not cause any trouble at all. Most, as mentioned about the Vietnam veterans, come home, work harder to prove themselves and have it in their character to do for others. That fact is still fact even though reporters find no value in mentioning them.

PTSD is big news and we do have some reporters bothering to tell their stories and investigate the failings of the DOD and the VA. Their reporting on veterans seeking help has encouraged others to seek help for themselves. Many veterans have go so far as to dedicate their lives to saving the lives of other veterans. This is all great news but coupled with the negative reports employers read, the numbers scare them simply because they don't really understand what they are reading. The truth is, even experts get confused on the numbers being reported.

Over and over again Wounded Times has pointed out that while one report uses one set of figures, another report issued months before had a different set of numbers. It all goes back to the reporter and the person being interviewed at the time. If the reporter does not know the subject they are covering, they will never think to question what they are being told.

So what do we do? Do we spread the word about the numbers of veterans coming home with PTSD or avoid reporting on them so that the fear is removed? Neither is a good option unless there is clear reporting done on this topic. Local reporters are vital in bringing understanding and providing knowledge to their communities because the national news services have dropped the ball on covering the veterans coming home. All we end up seeing is news from other countries, politics and celebrities.

The clear choice in removing the stigma of PTSD and taking away the fear factor employers have is to tell the stories of average veterans coming home. There needs to be more stories like this one to clear up the misconception of veterans being anything but valuable to any business.