Lessons on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Forty some years of ignoring, what always has been as well as in the civilian populations, just more of the lessons Not Learned that the country said as one voice "We will never forget!" back then but quickly did. As to the wounds of wars just as they ignored the Desert Storm soldiers, thousands, who've been suffering from 'Gulf War Syndrome' since that short conflict after those parades were held of the 'patriotism' and 'supporting the troops' and sold as their 'Welcome Home' but they were and are only for the one day cheering of the crowds who haven't sacrificed certainly not for those who have, already ignoring many issues as to these two conflicts!

Vietnam veterans provide bitter lesson on post-traumatic stress disorder

DEAN J. KOEPFLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: Bob Dimond of Puyallup, a former Green Beret with post-traumatic stress disorder, said he experienced rages, nightmares and panic attacks.

The killings in Afghanistan attributed to Staff Sgt. Robert Bales have intensified public focus on post-traumatic stress disorder, already a hot political topic in the South Sound because of concerns about the reliability of diagnoses of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at Madigan Army Medical Center.

As far as anybody knows, Bales – charged with killing 17 Afghan civilians March 11 in Kandahar province – has never been diagnosed with PTSD. His attorneys say he reported having nightmares, while his wife said she had never seen any symptoms characteristic of the disorder.

Even without a diagnosis, the scale of the killings and their seemingly irrational nature have drawn many to the conclusion that combat stress must have been a factor. Bales was on his fourth combat deployment.

Could the stress of combat have caused the killings? How pervasive is PTSD among the thousands of military veterans back from Afghanistan and Iraq, and what are the long-term consequences, both to individuals and to society?

Those who’ve studied the disorder say the place to look for answers is not to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, but to their fathers and grandfathers: the veterans of Vietnam. read more>>>