Two Purple Hearts and a broken life: The cost of PTSD

Great story and worth the read however, the choice of using "victim" instead of survivor is part of the problem. They fought to live and survived combat. So why aren't we asking what they are not getting to fight to heal back home?

Two Purple Hearts and a broken life: The cost of PTSD
Community Digital News
by James Nathaniel Miller II -
Aug 14, 2015 0 22

PTSD can be debilitating and deadly.

WACO, Texas, Aug. 14, 2015 – My best friend in high school volunteered for the Army after graduation. He deployed to Vietnam. He returned with two Purple Hearts, but was never again the same carefree guy. He could not function around others. His wife left him and took their daughter. He went to live with relatives, but they couldn’t handle the stress of having him around.

Finally, he shared his stories with me. He talked about the first man he killed, the first time he was wounded, the second time he was wounded, the painful helicopter escape from the battlefield, thinking he was dying. It was the stuff from which movies are made.

He sometimes could not sleep indoors, so he would bed down on the concrete driveway. Fireworks petrified him. One day we played pool. A car backfired. I saw him freeze and grip the cue as if his life depended upon it.

I didn’t know what to do or say. I hoped he would get over it and get on with his life.

The next time I saw him, he was in a hospital after trying to take his own life. I was shocked. I spent some time with him, said a prayer and then flew back home to south Texas.

Several months ago, I met with a currently deployed Navy SEAL. He was to leave the next day for D.C. to pick up new orders and head overseas. During our meeting, he shared some thoughts he had about PTSD, which is a mental condition triggered by either experiencing or witnessing terrifying events.

He told me that, for the victim, just sharing his/her story is the most therapeutic thing to do. But for many victims, this is difficult.

Some soldiers are afraid that loved ones will be traumatized by their stories and do not want relatives or friends to know the details. Others try to simply bury the memories, unwilling to even vocalize them. For some, guilt is the issue.
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