BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq

11 Nov 04 - 02:52 PM (#1323571)
Subject: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: dianavan

From U.S. New -

"Proportionately, there are no more soldiers returning from Iraq with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder than there were from other wars, but Principi said the psychological harm to young people living daily with land mines, insurgent attacks and car bombings must not be discounted. He said mental illness in new veterans is as significant a detriment to their health as open heart surgery, but "doesn't get the attention it needs."

What good is it to 'make it out alive' if the quality of life you come home to is undermined by dysfunctional personal relationships?

What good is it to come home to emptiness and despair.

d

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11 Nov 04 - 08:57 PM (#1324070)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: GUEST

Our first casualty from the Iraq war locally--father just home from Iraq murdered his baby son.

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11 Nov 04 - 11:00 PM (#1324172)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: CarolC

I was watching a show on LinkTV about what the people serving in Iraq are experiencing recently. Somebody on the show said that if anyone serving over there reports problems that can fit into the category of post-traumatic stress, they are kept in Iraq so they won't come home and claim benefits. They said a lot of people are committing suicide over there because of that.

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12 Nov 04 - 09:30 AM (#1324506)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: artbrooks

Disability compensation is $2239 per month (12/1/03 rate) for a single, 100% disabled veteran. A 90% disabled vet gets $1334. A Spec-4 with more than 2 years service receives $1638 per month (1/1/04 rates), without and allowances added. Since PTSD is a acknowledged and treatable medical condition, it seems unlikely to me that a sick soldier would be kept in Iraq to save a maximum of $400 per month.

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12 Nov 04 - 10:17 AM (#1324560)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: NH Dave

Naaaah, our Department of Veteran's Affairs merely pospones any decision on granting him (or her) benefits until he offs the postman, or his entire family, at which point it becomes a matter for our local departments of correction, thus saving the rest of the country lots of money. A bit tough on the postman or family though.

Dave
A Viet Nam Vet

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12 Nov 04 - 10:27 AM (#1324571)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: artbrooks

Bullshit, Dave.

Art
A Viet Nam Vet

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12 Nov 04 - 10:39 AM (#1324588)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: GUEST

I got the story about the murder case above wrong--he wasn't an Iraq war vet, but a Gulf War vet. Also, the story has been corrected by the local media now--it wasn't his own flesh and blood (apparently this is supposed to matter?), the boy was adopted.

The newspaper report on it says even the prosecutor was moved to tears by the story of how remorseful the guy was and how he "didn't mean to harm him" when he not once but TWICE threw the 7 month infant down--first time into an empty bathtub, second time onto the bathroom floor for soiling his diaper. He claimed his THROWING a 7 month infant to the floor TWICE was unintentional.

The defense strategy invoked PTSD, replete with the soldier's sob story from the Gulf War, and they had even the prosecutor eating out of their hands.

Plea bargained it down to murder 2, and he'll be out in 8 years.

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12 Nov 04 - 10:44 AM (#1324590)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: Janie

The VA Medical Center in Durham, NC, is woefully unprepared to meet the demand of veterans with PTSD, largely (I think) because of cuts in their budget, which have also decreased the medical services they provide to eligible vets in general. We end up trying to treat them, or at least provide psychiatric and case management services, at our public mental health clinic, because of the long waiting lists at the VA. As well, the VA is showing real reluctance to diagnose PTSD in many cases where there really is no question about the diagnosis. We do not have combat veterans on our staff to run the effective support groups that are an important part of treatment, so many Vets are very reluctant to participate in non-VA treatment.

Having said that, I also don't find the report from LinkTV to be very plausible.

Janie

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12 Nov 04 - 10:55 AM (#1324602)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: GUEST

"Having said that, I also don't find the report from LinkTV to be very plausible."

I agree. Sounds like urban legend.

It is clear that there is a lot of manipulation surrounding the use and application of PTSD. The defense in the above case invoked it, but didn't claim the defendant had an actual diagnosis of PTSD, as I understand it. What the defense lawyer did (quite craftily of course) was say that the reason why the man murdered his son MIGHT be because he was a Gulf War vet suffering from undiagnosed PTSD, but he was going to "accept responsibility for his actions".

Because of the current cycle of hero worship of war vets in the post 9/11 era, he was able to play to jury's sympathies for vets, but by pleading guilty to a lesser charge, the defendent got off with a 2nd degree murder conviction instead.

This flies in the face of other recent murders of infants by women in our area, who both were convicted of 1st degree murder, even though both were certified as mentally incompetent to stand trial.

So apparently, if you are a vet who invokes PTSD, you can get away with murdering babies on a lesser charge than women charged with the same crimes, and certified mentally incompetent.

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12 Nov 04 - 12:57 PM (#1324737)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: CarolC

The comment came from someone who has served in Iraq, and who is slated to go back.

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12 Nov 04 - 01:01 PM (#1324745)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: GUEST

That may very well be CarolC, but it doesn't make their story any more plausible. It is hearsay and rumor-mongering at best, urban legendry at worst.

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12 Nov 04 - 01:27 PM (#1324770)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: CarolC

We'll see.

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12 Nov 04 - 02:33 PM (#1324834)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: Bobert

First of all, just how much accurate information can we reasonably expect on the numbers or seriousness of PTS, given that the folks who are profiting from this immoral war are the folks who we be most harmed by its release? Media included...

Second, look how cleverly the DoD has kept the effects of deleated uranium under the carpet.

Thirdly, our troops in Iraq are stretched so thin that the DoD is won't let them leave, even when they have completed there enlistments.

Forthly, fighting in a country where most folks want you out and friend and foe both look the same is very difficult.

Lastly, given the collateral damage in the 100,000 deaths range has to take a toll on even the hardest of hard-asses.

I expect we have yet to see but the tip of the iceburg when it comes to mental problems these folks are or will be suffering as a result of this ill-thought out oil-grab invasion.

Bobert

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12 Nov 04 - 02:46 PM (#1324850)
Subject: RE: BS: post-traumatic stress in vets from Iraq
From: GUEST,the therqapist that plays autohar&&p

I can tell you from first hand experience that the armed forces are so overtaxed that every wack-job that can hold up an M-16 is being sent over there and they don't get to come back unless they are about to be slipped into a body bag. If the public knew what was going on over there Bush would have lost in a landslide.

The PTSD is horrendous: from constant mortar fire, rapes, assaults, sickening physical and mental abuse and I could go on and on but it's all confidential. The suicide attempts are continual and if you can sit up after you overdosed, you're going back.      

If my son gets drafted. I'll personally smuggle my son over the Ambassador Bridge. Bush is a crimignal psychtopath. (Typos so Google doesn't pick this up)

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