Posted on 04/29/2019 2:01:00 PM PDT by Chainmail
I was listening to the Larry O'Connor Show this afternoon on WMAL and while he was discussing the latest mass shooter atrocity at the synagogue in Poway, a caller named Todd called in and described being in shock that VA facilities had "no security checks" and after all, "veterans have PTSD" and "could bring a weapon in at any time".
I tried to call in to the show to talk to Larry but he very shortly segued into Redskins football and the bored-sounding lady screener let me know that I wouldn't be on.
First of all, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the completely normal human response to some period of time where the person is subjected to experiences that they would never ordinarily experience: strong, unrelenting fear, seeing people killed, including friends, and maybe suffering wounds and permanent damage. When we send our young men and lately women into combat, they are all in some way changed by that experience. During my war, the war in Vietnam, we had mines and booby traps that made you watch the ground very carefully, snipers that could pick you out of a group and kill you, mortar and rocket attacks to hit you in your positions, and ambushes, night attacks, infiltrators, and so on.
PTSD or the "Shakes" were a given. Everyone had some form of it and when we got back, it caused nightmares, the Fliches, maybe broken marriages, maybe drinking, and in some rare cases, suicide.
It has almost never caused violence against others. That was a Hollywood myth that sold a lot of tickets during the aftermath of our war - you know, the "Crazed Vietnam Vet" going bugeyed nuts at the smallest provocation and slaughtering everyone their paths. You know, Rambo and Billy Jack and scores of others on the big screen and TV.
The reality is that most or all of us came home, adjusted, healed and went forward with our lives. If anything veterans are the most stable and solid members of our nation and all that I have see of our latest veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq confirm this view.
I wish that Larry had immediately countered that caller and came to veteran's defense but he didn't.
“We know now that overwhelming trauma causes massive biochemical changes throughout the brain and body.”
Correct.
It’s a permanent rewire of the brain.
It can be managed, but not cured. And it eventually contributes to the early death of everyone who gets it.
Any sort of sustained mortal threat where flight is impossible can do it, though I suspect unnatural dangers are more intuitively disturbing than natural ones.
I’ve been through bad hurricanes, none gave me any lasting anxiety never mind full blown PTSD. I’ve been through other mortal threats (almost killed by a dog as a child) and although the damage lasted a while it didn’t stick over the long term, as the threat in that case lasted all of 30 seconds. By 10 years later all discomfort with dogs was gone.
In the WTC bombing, it took an hour and a half to get out, the stairwell was packed three people to a stair and was barely moving as new people entered from lower floors. The stairwell was already smoky to begin with and just got worse over time. Around the 15th floor the crowd thinned out and I must have covered those last 15 floors and got out the door in under a minute. I could not have hurled myself down those stairs any faster!
The whole thing has been compounded by the network of lies that surrounded it, and then again to the Nth degree by 9/11... which I had predicted at about 4pm on 2/26/93, after witnessing the emergency vehicles wall-to-wall everywhere and realizing that the response itself would make one hell of a target for a follow-up attack. As I had just survived an attack hours earlier, it wasn’t exactly out there to worry about another one.
That’s entirely false. Malingering occurs with great regularity, and the validity testing methods are far from airtight. Get a clue.
My Dad also served in the Pacific.
I actually read a thread on FR I the last three months or so that discussed a new way they are trying to treat PTSD, and it sounds like it has the effect of “unwiring” the brain with respect to those events.
It sounded like they had an outstanding response in people they have been doing it on, but...I can’t find the thread.
“Malingering occurs with great regularity”
About 1 in 8 that apply for a PTSD disability get one.
So there are LOTS of folks claiming it that are never awarded.
Those are the people you are referring to.
And the assessment process I went through was rigorous. I could not have faked it.
New PTSD treatment a life-changer for vets
I know the thread you're talking about but I didn't think it was posted as long ago as Jan. May be the same treatment though.
When I was a medical student in 1972-76, there were still whole hospitals full of psychiatric casualties of WW II.
I absolutely agree that most veterans made successful adjustments, one way or another, to civilian life. Those who were in sustained heavy combat less so.
Severe disability from PTSD is not common, but it’s not really rare, either. It certainly wasn’t common if you, to borrow Patton’s famous phrase, spent the war “shoveling shit in Louisiana”, and since 1945 we have not had many men in heavy combat for 50, 60, and 70 days without a break.
You’re right with the up close and personal. I don’t know what I call that. I never really considered that PTSD because to me when they talk about PTSD, it’s a long term thing.
I think about those that didn’t come home, as I’m sure anyone would, but I tend to not dwell so much on that as much as I dwell on not giving up the fight for our rights and freedoms.
You look at any vets, living or gone, and it does a major disservice to the sacrifices that were made volunteering or otherwise that would all be for naught if we don’t keep the fight up.
Essentially, though I’m retired from the infantry, my oath still stands and I feel I owe those who came before to keep carrying the torch in the name of freedom the way God made us to be. So I’m often too busy to dwell too long.
I will say I do get emotional when I see some things, and it reminds me of a certain person or place, but that’s something I think any combat vet will get. We serve together and build bonds stronger than most in life, so the emotions tied to that are stronger as well.
I know to a lot of people, I come across as ornery and a fire brand, it’s in my warrior blood, but it’s because I’m so passionate about freedom, and you can’t talk about freedom without talking about freedom in Christ. I did a lot of that in the army too. Men often wondered how I could do the things I do and believe, so I’d explain the difference of murder and killing. I always felt responsible for those around me too, which led me to take more risks, but that’s how God wired me.
I haven’t changed, just the scenery has. Men like you, me, and many vets on FR and elsewhere have a great responsibility to ensure freedom doesn’t on our watch.
I think I agree with you on that.
The brain is an interesting organ to put it mildly. I have heard that dreaming is a way the body uses to prepare a person on how to deal with a given situation, so that if it occurred in real life, at some level, your mind has seen it before and might give you a leg up in getting through it.
I wonder is PTSD is somehow wired into that same mechanism, for somewhat the same reasons, but it gets twisted in some way.
When I was in the USN, I was staying at a barracks where the hot water was heated by steam, and the hot water, if not tempered by some cold water mixed in, would literally scald you. You could be careful, and get the temperature right so you wouldn't get burned, but it turned into a cruel prank by some people, who would wait until someone was in the shower, and they would run in and flush a toilet.
The water pipe setup was poorly designed, and when that happened, it would drop the pressure of the cold water to the person taking a shower, and scalding water would come out of the shower head.
I was in there one day, and someone did that...I got what must have been a second degree burn on my scalp, because it hurt like hell for a week. From that point on, if the water pressure dropped even a tiny bit, I would immediately leap out of the shower. It became a conditioned response.
And it became so ingrained, that it took me about ten years after that before a drop in water temperature wouldn't initiate an immediate lunge or muscle twitch on my part, and even longer until my brain wouldn't THINK that it wanted me to to leap even if I didn't move.
Point is, that simple experience on my part, not life or death, could make me see how all this stuff gets hard wired inside your brain in in a survival situation. A loud noise could make you drop to the floor. Being woken the wrong way could get you immediately into a fight or flight right out of a sleep.
I can understand how hard it must be to undo that when it is having your ass on the line that wired it in.
That may have been the same therapy, but a different article on it.
My impression was that it would really help some people, but others, not so much.
I guess it is about finding the right approach for the right person.
Thank you for posting it to this thread.
“All of its notoriety is attributable to the VA’s connection to permanent, tax-free structured disability benefits. Now, everyone has “PTSD.” Just ask them.”
Exactly that. If you pay people to have some affliction, you will have no shortage of people who have that affliction.
There has been fraud in military disability for a long time, not just with PTSD.
Zap: How Electric Therapy Is Curing Navy SEALs of PTSD … And Could Remake Brain Science
Stop letting Hollywood shape your perception of reality.
I left out one other feature of our experience from combat: survivor's guilt. I spent years grieving for the friends who died and asking God why I was allowed to live. (That's a bit more personal than I intended - but it's real, nonetheless). It is what it is.
I have never even thought of applying for some sort of VA assistance because I don't look at it as a disability - just a feature of the experience. I actually prefer "hypervigilance". It keep me aware of my surroundings - and as we used to say "paranoia is just common sense when somebody really is after you".
That was an interesting article...thanks!
A lot, the bulk of the NM NG was sent to the Philippines. Our Interstate is Bataan Memorial highway, we have schools named Bataan....
Just by chance was the guy from CA named James Huxtable?
My husband’s uncle always walked down the middle of the street. He was also an alcoholic, he took a shot of gin every hour or so.
I hope this helps:
http://www.researchandrecognition.org/pdf/2017/RTMtreatmentShowsPromiseTheLeaderCorning.pdf
http://www.researchandrecognition.org/articles.html
https://jep.ro/images/pdf/cuprins_reviste/80_art_6.pdf
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