Hand Me Down Hurt

http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/ptsd/ptsdgen.html


Written by a physician, this article discusses second hand trauma and the mechanics of transmission of PTSD from parent to child. Some of the symptoms such as anxiety and hyperarousal are recognizable in the children of war veterans.

Soft Spots: A Marine's Memoir of Combat and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

An excerpt from a new book, out in March 2009, which is a poignant and shattering story of PTSD in our new generation of veterans.



From Soft Spots
Clint Van Winkle
March 2009

We’d been told it would be a good idea to write a “death letter” in case we didn’t make it home alive. The First Sergeant said we should write the letter to our loved ones: wife, children, parents, or whoever. It didn’t need to be long, just a memo that would give the family closure in case we died on the battlefield.

He was brief, just told us to write, address them, and then to hand the envelopes over to him. He’d make sure they made it to where they needed to go once you stepped on a mine, got shot by a friend, or were blown apart by a rocket propelled grenade. Eighteen-year-old Marines had to drop their superman acts and face the truth of war--people die. As if a letter was going to make anyone feel better. We were left to ponder our young lives, to sum it up on notebook paper, then seal it in an envelope. No stamp required. The government would pay for that.

Combat Related Stress Can Last a Lifetime

This USA Today article discussed the lifelong impact of war on World War II veterans who were not given any help for their war trauma. PTSD was not a recognized diagnosis until 1980 when therapists realized they were seeing more and more Vietnam veterans with the same constellation of symptoms. A daughter found her World War II father in a VA hospital after years of searching for him. Her mother had forbidden the children to mention his name after he was institutionalized. click on title for link

Saving Private Ryan and my father

This video is a portion of "Into the Breach" featured at the beginning of the Saving Private Ryan DVD.

The veteran with the oxygen tubing is my father.

PTSD in the 21st century

On December 6, on MTV at 6 PM, there is an episode of True Life which illustrates the pain of PTSD for the veterans returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 20 percent of these veterans have reported symptoms of PTSD, a disorder that can haunt them for years as illustrated by studies of World War II, Korean and Vietnam war veterans.
(click on title for You Tube link)

Lifetime of Post War Suffering

A sad article about a World War II veteran who landed on Omaha Beach and fought through to Germany. His younger sister said her brother came home physically, but not mentally. He spent his entire post war life in a VA hospital, barely speaking. After he returned home, prior to his hospitalization, he paced the floors silently and continually. He died at age 86, having been living with war trauma for 62 years. (click on title for link)

The More Things Stay The Same

A recent news story made me particularly sad and made me realize that even though there is lip service to treatment of PTSD, the reality does not match. An army medic whose photograph cradling an Iraqi child in 2003 made him a symbol died of a drug overdose. We must do more than just call someone a hero; there has to be recognition that war trauma is difficult to deal with at home alone. Click on title for link to article.