Veterans deserve the truth about PTSD

Veterans deserve the truth about PTSD
Wounded Times Blog
Kathie Costos
June 6, 2013

A good place to start on this is attacking the news reports coming out insinuating there is anything new on PTSD. This is insulting to all veterans and advocates. They are angry because they have paid attention. They also earned the right to be treated properly. Given the fact that as reports come out, the truth has been covered up. They are dying needlessly because reporters ignore the history of efforts claiming to be addressing PTSD as well as suicides. Veterans deserve the truth.

This is PTSD Awareness Month but while it may sound like a new endeavor, it isn't. Wounded Times even has the link up on the sidebar. It is up there because far too many people still don't understand it. The veterans know what it is doing to them. Their families are starting to learn about it. But what if I told you raising awareness started for OEF and OIF veterans back in 2008?

Major General David Blackledge came out and talked about his own battle with PTSD.

"It's part of our profession ... nobody wants to admit that they've got a weakness in this area," Blackledge said of mental health problems among troops returning from America's two wars.

"I have dealt with it. I'm dealing with it now," said Blackledge, who came home with post-traumatic stress. "We need to be able to talk about it."

As the nation marks another Veterans Day, thousands of troops are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with anxiety, depression and other emotional problems.

Up to 20 percent of the more than 1.7 million who've served in the wars are estimated to have symptoms. In a sign of how tough it may be to change attitudes, roughly half of those who need help aren't seeking it, studies have found.

Blackledge was followed by General Cater Ham talking openly about his battle with PTSD.

Now the commander of U.S. Army Europe, Ham, along with his wife, discussed his post-combat difficulties in an interview just before Christmas. It was the second interview the pair have given to a newspaper. Their willingness to speak publicly about the issue is rare in traditional military culture, but they appeared entirely comfortable. “Frankly, it’s a little weird to me that people are making a big deal about it,” Ham said of the response to his openness. “Like lots of soldiers I needed a little help, and I got a little help.”

By the end of 2008 Army Times reported that more than two thirds of Americans had no clue what PTSD was.

A month later, January of 2009 the DOD suicide prevention conference started to focus on PTSD and the stigma.

An Army staff sergeant who had lost Soldiers in the war zone was called a coward, a wimp and a wuss from a leader when he mentioned he might need psychological help.

It is this type of stigma from toxic leadership that can kill, and that is being examined by scientists, clinicians and specialists in an attempt to eliminate it, said Army Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Loree K. Sutton, who is the Army's highest ranking psychiatrist.

Dr. Sutton described the staff sergeant's real experience during her opening remarks of the 2009 Department of Defense/Veterans Affairs Annual Suicide Prevention Conference being held Jan. 12 through 15 in San Antonio. More than 750 people -- specialists from the military, VA, and civilian social workers, chaplains, researchers, and family members effected by suicide -- gathered with a common goal of finding ways to reduce suicide.

"The secretary of Defense and chairman of the joint chiefs have both emphasized, 'seeking help is a sign of profound courage and strength.

In March of 2009, The Department of Defense testified before Congress on A hearing meant to give Defense Department officials a chance to explain their plans for spending $900 million allocated for mental health care quickly turned into a debate on how that money should be spent.

As yet, military experts on post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries are still working out which studies should be funded, which treatment methods should be adopted and which pilot programs should be put in place.

“We keep getting studies,” Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House defense appropriations panel, said at a hearing Tuesday. “That’s the problem with the Defense Department — they study it to death.”.

Studied to death was a proper choice of words considering that 2012 brought the highest number of attempted and successful suicides tied to military service after billions had been spent. Congress has been just as guilty of talking about it, funding bills and pushing programs that have not produced good results. What do they do? They fund more of the same and veterans, well, they get news reporters pretending that everything being done today is new.

Now that you have some idea, you need to know that efforts to raise awareness about PTSD had started many years before. FOR THE LOVE OF JACK, HIS WAR/MY BATTLE told the story of what was happening to Vietnam veterans and their families and was originally released in April of 2003.

Read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR so that you will know who did what and when it was done. Billions spent funding the same programs that have a history of failure. Reporters ignoring the voices of psychiatrists and psychologists and advocates screaming about how the programs have made it worse and in fact prevented far too many from seeking help. History has proven we were right all along. How families suffered without knowing what they could do to help. If you think there is no need to fear what is coming, consider this last thought. The Department of Defense still has not released their comprehensive report on military suicides for 2012. It is almost the end of June. The data should have been released months ago. The report on Army, National Guards and Reservists for May have not been released yet. This all points to a very bleak outcome for all the campaigns to raise awareness and prevent needless suffering.