PTSD (caution, strong language)

Lumberjack in a Desert ^ | November 7, 2009 | J.R. Salzman

[missycocopuffs]

So why haven't they gone crazy? Because you don't get PTSD from sitting on your ass around Walter Reed. Not only is it not possible to “catch” secondhand PTSD, but it is not that kind of a place. I would know, I was a patient there for nine months. The place is simply not that stressful or chaotic. When I was there my PTSD got better, not worse. And I would be willing to bet my dog tags that I saw far more wounded Soldiers than shit bag major did during our overlapping time there in 2007. I regularly visited Ward 57 to give advice to the new wounded. Other Soldiers and amputees did it for me when I was there so I considered my visits “paying it forward”. I had daily physical and occupational therapy. I regularly partook in activities in and out of Walter Reed with present and past wounded Soldiers. To say that this guy got PTSD from being stationed at Walter Reed is an absolute fucking farce. The people who are making this shit up have never set foot on Walter Reed, let alone met a soldier with PTSD.

In order to actually have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, you have to go through some sort of traumatic event(s) to have “post stress.” Can therapists be emotionally troubled by the things they hear from patients? Yes. But you cannot catch PTSD from someone. It's not the fucking swine flu.

[missycocopuffs]

I bumped into this blog today. Posting it because because I am outraged at the media for saying that Hasan is a possible victim of PTSD or pre-TSD or 'compassion fatigue' or whatever they are calling it today. To suggest such thing is an insult to the men and women who actually did survive traumatic events in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here's more about Salzman: ESPN Outdoors: The Recovery of J.R. Salzman

[MNJohnnie]

Thanks! This needed saying.

[hinckley buzzard]

JR Salzman is right on the money. I worked with veterans with PTSD for many years, and never ended up wanting to go kill people, or whatever crap the whorehouse media is selling these days. I actually did in depth counseling, I didn't just write scrips for tranks like this asshole Hasan did. And guess what...I became a wiser man for the experience, not a "victim" of anything.

[missycocopuffs]

His blog post at the link is very good, spot on.

[EggsAckley]

Very good post.

I suffer from PTSD myself, although not related to anything military. It is an agonizing life with PTSD, and it never really goes away. Once those brain chemicals get scrambled, another experience can easily trigger return of symptoms, sometimes even worse than the original event.

My last PTSD experience was a year ago when I went to check on a friend and found his maggot covered decomposing corpse in his apartment. What is seen cannot be un-seen. It put me over the edge of PTSD and into what is called stress illness. That’s when it gets really physical and really serious. (I will not define it here).

So glad you posted this blog. People need to know more about this hideous disorder.

[wearing my fire retardent pj’s so the FR non-believers can commence to flame away.]

[GovernmentShrinker]

I think soem sort of psych problems related to stress from dealing with serverly injured patients may have been *one* factor in Hasan’s actions. I knew a neurologist a few years back who worked at a VA hospital with a lot of traumatic brain injury patients. This guy was very clearly losing it, and several comments he made convinced me that the exposure to these patients was a significant factor. Not the only factor, to be sure, but a contributing factor. I don’t think he was really at risk of turning into a mass murderer, but then he wasn’t an adherent of a religion which has branches eagerly providing a framework for channeling anger/despair/fear into mass murder.

[PubliusMM]

Tough to argue with truth. This wounded warrior’s words should be required reading by EVERY elected official and everyone in the MSM.

Our prayers go out to all touched by the cowardly attack by a deranged islamofascist at Fort Hood, and to the heroes still coming back to us by way of the highly commendable staff at Walter Reed.

[SweetCaroline]

*

[CTOCS]

I blame the Army for this. Imagine yourself listening to people all day, every day that denigrate your brothers and sisters in the most impolite terms. Most soldiers coming home do not have a very high regard for their enemies (Muslims) and will vocalize it to their own family, friends, coworkers, and yes, therapist.

From the aritcles I’ve read, he even argrued with and proselitized his patients. These same patients who think every one of his brethren should be vaporized.

Army command should never have put this man in a position so obviously contraindicated, all in the name of political correctness. Sort of like Martin Luther King going to the therapist for racial harmony issues only to find out the Doctor is Lester Maddox.

It’s not completely the Army’s fault, but they should have kept a far closer eye on him.

Before you guys completely torch me, I am a combat-disabled Vietnam Vet who happens to think that Muslims don’t even remotely belong in our armed forces.