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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

PTSD veterans still "faking" after all these years?

This article is about a lot of things veterans face including being given dangerous drugs to "battle" PTSD. From getting "help" in the form of drugs to being told by a commander that he is "faking" it. We've been sold a bunch of lies that add up to dangerous conditions for our veterans trying to heal from where we sent them.

How is it that one soldier will get all the help and support they need to not only heal but return to the duty they love when others are accused of lying and drugged up to numb their pain instead of being helped to heal as well?

One woman's crusade on the dangers of PTSD treatment
Jul 10, 2012
By AJ Giardina
BILOXI, MS (WLOX)

According to military statistics, as many as 30 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Up until a few weeks ago, the military was treating the men and women with multiple drugs. It's a treatment that was deadly for one coast military man.

Alicia McElroy says her husband died from multiple drug toxicity as a result of medications to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Staff Sergeant James McElroy returned from his second tour in Afghanistan in 2010.

McElroy, a native of Vancleave, met her husband Mac on Valentine's Day 2005 in Mobile.

"We ended up getting married in 2007 and he was still in the military working at Camp Shelby. We bought a house in 2007. I just finished grad school and started my job. Everything was great. We had a baby that year. It was the perfect year."

McElroy said her husband served in the Marines from 1998 through 2002 and did one tour of duty in Afghanistan. He decided to move to Mississippi after he got out of the Marines and joined the Army National Guard in 2004.

McElroy said she, her husband, and their son, Dane, were so happy. That is until Mac was sent to Afghanistan in May of 2010. He returned to Hattiesburg on leave in October of that year.

"He was starting to adjust to living together and Dane was getting used to Daddy being home. Mac took a turn for the worse."

She said Mac was always depressed, agitated and wasn't sleeping.

"I went into the room to check on him, like I always did throughout the day. He was just balled up in the sheets crying. Like, okay, it's alright. What's wrong? He wouldn't talk, and I really couldn't comfort him. I sat there held his hand and rubbed his back and he looked up at me and said, 'I need help. Help me, please.'"

She said she took her husband to the emergency room at Keesler Medical Center and later checked in at the VA. McElroy said a doctor told her Mac needed to be treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

She said things were going well with his treatment until he was released from the military, because his commanders thought he was faking his illness.
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