Veteran Issues

PTSD: The Scars of Combat

/ Christopher Moritt / Leave a comment

In 2007, I came home from Iraq just before Thanksgiving, it is often something I don’t really think about until my Mom reminds me. That Thanksgiving my family and a friend of mine from the Marines ate our meal at a hotel buffet in California, the food was great and it was great being around my family again. I was a little older than most guys in the Marines and had been away from my family before for long periods of time, but this of course was a little different. This time I had been in combat and no matter how much you think you’re the same, there is something about it that changes you, if only just a little. I thought this week I would talk about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I have mentioned it in passing in my posts about suicide and other issues but haven’t really discussed it detail.

 

On a personal note, I do not believe that I suffer from PTSD, and 90 percent of the time I consider myself a normal person who happens to have had a few unique and harrowing experiences. By most accounts my time in Iraq was not filled with gunfire and waves of enemies coming after us as you would see in a movie about Vietnam. Our unit was shot at, and we encountered IED’s and other problems, but others among the ranks have had far more violent experiences and carry the scars of combat wherever they go. What I can say is that I probably don’t sleep as well as I used to, and for a while I hated fireworks, but not to the point that I did not go see them every 4th of July. Most infantry guys become more aggressive and emotional, and those feelings come and go. For others, it is constant.

 

The National Institute of Mental Health has a great outline (found here) about the issue surrounding PTSD and the steps that are being taken to conduct further research to help those whose lives will never be the same. PTSD is characterized as a change in the body’s fight or flight response, the reaction that helps us survive when we believe we are in danger. PTSD changes this response to believe you are in fear even though the danger is gone. Not just infantrymen who have been in combat suffer from this affliction; rape victims, those who witness something violent like a train wreck, and other people who have suffered from abuse can also encounter problems with PTSD.

 

Additionally, not everyone who experiences a trauma has PTSD. As far as veterans are concerned there are many services available to work through some of the problems associated with PTSD. When units return from a combat zone, we have to undergo classes that discuss whether or not the trashcan will explode on the street corner in our home city and that not everyone who is middle eastern is trying to kill us. These statements seem silly to some and often when I tell people about theses classes it get a laugh; and quite frankly, while I was sitting in one of them, I also thought it was funny. But the reality is I have seen tough, strong Marines take cover when a car backfires or when fireworks go off, a reaction most normal people probably wouldn’t have. A guy I served with goes to the VA hospital once a week to talk to a shrink about his experiences. I am not sure if it helps him or not, but my guess is it is better than not talking about it. For the purpose of this post, I thought I would just get out some of the basics and my thoughts about PTSD and will do a follow up with a bit more detail in a future post.

 

For now, as Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself thankful that if I did feel as though I had problems I have a support element to talk about it. However, not every veteran has that going for him or her. Also, this Thanksgiving, remember there will be a future veteran somewhere in the world sleeping on the ground or not sleeping at all as bullets and explosions fill the air while we eat Turkey with our families.

Veterans and Suicide, an Unsolvable Problem ?

/ Christopher Moritt / Leave a comment

Well the shut down is over, meaning all the doom and gloom that would have affected the veteran community did not happen. As of a few days ago, the VA website announced it would be resuming normal operations.
While looking for something to write about this week, I stumbled upon a fairly old announcement on the VA website; September was Suicide Prevention Month. For those that are unaware suicide is a major problem for the veteran community particularly with large numbers of vets coming home after having sustained both physical and mental losses.

To combat this problem there are prevention coordinators at all 151 VA medical centers and a hotline people can call when they feel they need help. Typically when someone talks about veteran suicide, PTSD is inevitably mentioned. This of course is for good reason as depression can be a symptom in someone suffering from PTSD, but I have always believed there is more to it than that.
I got out of the Marine Corps in 2009, each year since then someone I served with has committed suicide. Some of them were pretty good friends; others I only knew in passing. In the military, and especially the infantry units, the bond between brothers-in-arms is close. One guy who committed suicide, I think I only spoke to once or twice, but it still stung. The reason it stings is because, I would argue, the hard part is over. These vets have made it through enemy fire, IED’s , and all the other stuff that can kill you in Iraq or Afghanistan and yet they come home can cannot cope.
I am not going to get into deep medical or psychological evidence as to why any of this happens because, quite frankly, I am not convinced the experts even know much about the problem. What I do know is that for those of us who have been in combat, life back home is often not the same. A young infantryman returning home often finds friends have either moved away or are not the same people they were when you left. Wives and girlfriends in some cases are also not there anymore, and it can be difficult if they are getting used to being around them again. A friend of mine got drunk and angry because his wife wouldn’t let him hold his child. He promptly killed himself with a pistol. Nobody that knows him really knows why. He just did. There is no policy that can be put in place to prevent that. Out of all the people I know who have committed suicide, not one of them asked for help from their loved ones. To my knowledge none of them called a help line at the VA. Each year I was in the Marines I sat through hours of mandatory depression and suicide prevention classes designed to make us aware of the emotional problems that befall so many.
War is difficult, being in the military is difficult, and life after can be even more difficult. These are just facts of life. The solution is not an easy one. For those of us where depression is not an issue, all we can do is wait for the call for help, look for the signs, and hope our friends come out OK.