Mental Injuries: Worse Than Some Thought, But Not Those Who Served
A new study released yesterday concluded that mental injuries suffered by those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are much worse than estimated, because those injuries don't manifest themselves, in many cases, for months down the road. It's somewhat entertaining to watch the media fall all over themselves to express "shock" at this story, when all they had to do was talk to those of us who served, who have known this for a while.
It's truly heartbreaking when you do actually listen to the troops. In the Washington Post coverage, they interview reservist Timothy Bredberg:
"Bredberg's family, which he describes as conservative and patriotic, disowned him after he returned. "Timmy, we don't know you anymore," his sisters told him, he recalled. "People talk about the sacrifices . . ." he said. "People don't realize it's more of an emotional and mental thing that we give up for going over there. I have lost family members because of it. I've lost best friends."
Thing here is, Bredberg returned in 2004. Three years ago!
Far too many troops return and are not properly screened when they return, and are not being brought into the system for constant evaluation and care. As I wrote earlier last week, even for those troops who do seek help, there are ridiculously high hurdles they must meet, to qualify for care and disability for their mental injury. Failure to bring these guys into the system, properly screen and monitor them, and give them full disability when it's due leads to a host of problems, whether it's homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, or fits of violence against family.
Increased funding for the VA and related veteran care programs would go a long way towards identifying and caring for those veterans with mental injuries, and ensuring that they get the disability payments they are due. And yet, the Administration is still fighting over every dime Congress proposes on spending for veterans.
Just because mental injuries cannot be seen, it doesn't mean they are less severe. And yet, as a nation, we treat mental injuries like that, when it comes to our veterans. Imagine if we had veterans in the streets with untreated third-degree burns, blown off limbs that weren't sewed up, and gaping open wounds with organs hanging out. This country would never forgive this Administration and those in Congress who voted against increased VA funding. And yet, we have a very similar situation, when it comes to untreated mental injuries, and a system that allows our veterans to deal with it on their own.
I ask, where is the outrage?
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I question that, I think that people from
other walks of life also endure psychological
stresses, traumatic events, and that frankly
people are too prone to attach 50-dollar
labels to the basic phenomenon of having
the living jesus scared out of you.
I think a lot of this VA stuff should be
reserved for people that actually got HURT,
and while all efforts should be made to provide
care to people that need it, they need to also
comb the ranks for people looking to ride a
spurious medical claim for the rest of their
lives.
Further, there was a HuffBlog a couple days
ago about 'homeless vets'. What is a home,
and what does it really mean to be 'homeless'?
I think there's one bum I'd like to see be
homeless, well two, but I think you already
know who they are, the two oil bums that
instigated this life-disrupting multi-billion-
dollar misadventure.
Wanna cure veterans' homelessness? Get em
employed, get em involved, but don't stand
around feeling sorry for em, either. A TRUE
soldier, or former soldier, is never 'homeless',
they just haven't found a spot to put up their
tents yet. Speaking OF that, how about the
old real estate racket? I'll bet there's a
lot of NONmilitary 'homeless' out there, too,
just waiting to become future UNICOR employees...
I am going to say something here I've been thinking about alot. Could the Iraq vets be suffering from some form of cognitive dissonance? Certainly the vet here is described as coming from a patriotic and conservative home. He goes into combat and serves his country and in the process sees unspeakable things - he is trained to kill and, in some instances, does kill. Then he comes home and is seemingly unrecognizable. Perhaps he no longer fits into those sterile soundbites - perhaps war, bloody and ugly, is more than the bumper sticker that his Sisters live. I am thinking Born on the Fourth of July here. Remember that?
Perhaps some of these vets come home with their eyes open for the first time? I don't mean to be condenscending here - but I also don't admire people who necessarily fight in wars. And perhaps they don't feel admirable. No one says this, but I know I am not alone in thinking about it this way. Why, just because you put on a uniform, are you considered brave and noble? Perhaps you know you are just you - 18 years old with not a lot of other prospects and wham you find yourself blowing up Baghdad. You do ugly shameful things that you aren't really proud of and then everyone at home calls you a hereo.
I know I am not supposed to voice these feelings/thoughts here. But there it is. Perhaps soliders just don't feel very good about what this government asks them to do. And perhaps their reaction is the best of their humanity. Perhaps their reaction - falling apart - is what we should applaud.
Sorry. Ouch.
It's awfully convenient for the Demican and Republicratic Wings of the Corporate Party that when people come back from Bush's Wars and are unexpectedly still physically alive, that they're so often psychologically or logistically capable of organizing, storming the White House and the Capitol, and making damn sure that nothing like this fat-cat phony-patriotism war ever happens again - and restoring the Republic in the process.
But then, weren't some of the primary authors of the war (e.g., Cheney and Wolfowitz) Players in the Nixon Administration? Under different circumstances, such loyalty to tradition might be admirable.
This is something I have gone round and round about with right wingers. Too many of them just can't seem to grasp that if your brain is damaged, others can't see it, and you just CAN'T function, through NO FAULT of the person that has been injured. They just want to judge, blame and punish those that don't "measure up" to their "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" criteria (as though those right wingers did actually did that themselves, which we all know is crap).
That is a leading cause of people not being able to function in our competitive society, so they end up in poverty. THEY CAN'T HELP IT! They shouldn't be penalized because they can't get their brains to work in a competent manner. They should be HELPED, not thrown away like trash!
Here's some outrage: "guys"? Are you including mentally disabled servicewomen in your "guys"? And before you dismiss my question, consider who I am: a mentally disabled veteran, service connected 100% p&t for PTSD. It took me an extra 19 years to get the help I needed because only the male "guys" were guaranteed VAMC care back in my day, and I was indeed turned away from a VAMC in 1983.
Servicewomen are receiving the same head injuries and experiencing the same post-traumatic stress as their male counterparts these days, and deserve to be included in all discussions of veteran health care, as, indeed, we have always deserved.
Once again the vets are being used and then tossed. So much of this is because the majority of the Administration does not have any real military experience and the "real" military doesnt connect with their soldiers. There are those in this country that see any kind of depression, PTSD and other mental issues as weakness instead of real medical complications of war and the horrors that are witnessed. The Pres can strap on a cod piece to accentuate his ensemble and jack up his testosterone. Id like to see how he and Dick would fair in comparison to what our real heroes have tried to deal with thru out history. All so Geo and Dick could have the freedom to do what they do now....steal from our treasury, restrict opportunity for the next generation and dismantle our nation while "nation building elsewhere". Im not a religious person but if there is a God...the God Speed to all those who serve...and thank you to Jon Soltz for his dedication and advocacy to his fellow vets and his country!!!
Mental anguish how would like to be in a war 80% of the country thinks is wrong,knowing if you get hurt a health system designed to make money by not giving good care. and then knowing that the person giving the care gets a bonus for saving money by not, giving care. to bad our congress/senators don't have the same health care plans. Wouldn't you have some anguish Too? if congress had social security to retire on i bet it would get fixed really fast....
Nothing changes. PTSD affects troops in all wars. The military denies it or says suck it up or we will punish you. There is no way you can go to war and not have it hurt you mentally. You see and do things that you have been taught all of your life not to do. These poor souls will pay for Bush's war all of their lives and so will their families and friends. Stop the war. We as citizens must make it clear to our members of congress to stop funding this war. If congress can declare war, congress can declare the war is over by cutting off the money and impeaching Bush and Cheny. This war is becoming just like the Soviet Unions (Russia) Afghanistan where they were bankrupted and their army's morale destroyed. Stop the war now.
VETS
He looked for enemies on the streets of Baghdad, searching into every nook and cranny hoping to last a time .
Now he searches for friends in every nook and cranny as he walks the streets and alleys of city, USA .
In a jungle, a rice paddy and mountainous terrain he left a buddy, a mind, a part physical and hoped for understanding and only what was deserved . Is that a crime ?
It was a budgetary consideration said politics as you are only 11% of the population and not enough of you vote to get what you should and at the least try to make you ok .
These are the faces of today, still, from a time of 40 plus or minus years ago to a desert campaign of months and an occupation of 5 years to today where depleted uranium will rule the day for years to come .
Of course all Vets count but this is for all the ones left without a home, a family, a Doctor or even the barest amenities not even a crumb .
A heart hurts that any soul should be among these yet even Jesus averred that some of these would always be with us.
Yet those who go to war for a people, whether warrior or citizen soldier should have all that a representative government can do for them, all without a fuss .
All of this is for the ladies and the guys .
With love to all, A Vet, Tony 11/11/07
The media is a joke. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention before, but for the last few years I've noticed that accuracy and tenacity always take last place behind punchy headlines, alliteration, and throwing in emotionally-loaded words that usually distort the facts. TV is the worst, but not by much.
How can anyone expect to enter a war zone and not have some issues? The people who show no signs of mental destress may be the most disturbed.
Jon, the tragedy is that the Bush Administration has cut funding for the VA to the point many returning vets will fall through the cracks.
As to the media being shocked, how quickly they forgot what happened in Vietnam! For a human being to see the carnage that is occuring in Iraq and not be affected would not be normal. Given the number of atrocities that has occurred in Iraq against civilians including children, and the fact that this is an unjustified, immoral war just adds fuel to the fire.
I would implore any returning vet to seek help. Yes society still has it's prejudice towards folks with mental health issues, but so what? It is not shameful to have a mental illness, the shame is not getting the help one needs!
Around 30,000 American troops have suffered debilitating physical injuries - missing arms and legs, paralysed and with severe brain injuries. Many will now lead impoverished lives and require assistance until they die. They are also a burden on their families.
If we differentiate batween Post Traumantic Stress Disorder and actual physical brain injury or a combination of the two the problem increases by an order of magnitude.
The cost of this unecessary war is astronomic and it will continue to bleed the US Treasury for at least a generation. And for all that where is the cheap oil we were supposed to get.
Texas oilmen are shedding crocodile tears.
Mr. Soltz: Well done on your posts and your advocacy.
If you serve and don't "fit in" again easily, friends and family will turn away from you, to say nothing of the dislocation of getting an old job back or finding new, rewarding work.
People at home tend to think you just have snap your fingers and click your heels, like Dorothy, and you're back in Kansas.
Clearly, to this day, from one case to another, it's not easy to measure how devastating military service can be, especially if you suffer severe injuries, including hidden injuries of the mind. People who serve the nation in uniform want and need to be accepted, and they deserve to be treated for their injuries. Promptly. Period.
Today, with swell MBA leaders and job coaches, you hear over and over the mantra about "being pro-active." It sounds soothing and it looks even better on the videos you can watch over and over while waiting for assistance. But as of today, the veterans disability process is adversarial, not pro-active.
It took me about six years to be "successful" with it, in order to establish an on-the- record baseline for future medical treatment of a specific "service-connected" condition. Fortunately, I showed some tenacity and respect while running the gauntlet (in other words, I didn't lose my focus or my temper). I also had advocacy assistance from AMVETS. Thanks, AMVETS.
But I kept asking questions to myself, like: "Why are they giving me such a hard time"?
I ask, as I have on HUUFPO over the last days since Veterans Day: will this president, our MBA "pro-active" leader, give this country and the nation's veterans a new reform package on veterans health, disability, and pensions before he leaves office, or will he not?
The key to a new plan to update obsolete sixty-year old policies - if it is intellectually honest - would hold that veterans are not required to deal with the system in an adversarial way.
Is this not this creaky system, as it stands now, a bit like torture?
The military is known for reinventing the wheel. The number of service members with mental illnesses will explode. The Army Surgeon General in World War II published a study showing the number of aggregate combat days a soldier could endure was between 200 and 240. Any more increased exponentially the likelihood of mental problems. Vietnam was the first war in which that number was routinely exceeded in a 13 month tour. Iraq now far exceeds the norm. Moreover, both Vietnam and Iraq, the former to a lesser degree, are 24/7 environments, unlike other wars. The mental stress is much greater. The military uses various tricks to eliminate these service members with no benefits. The most publicized is having a service member with mental problems diagnosed with a personality disorder and eliminating him or her administratively without any benefits. That highlights a much bigger problem, he way we as a nation deal with the issue of disability due to military service.
I know the military disability evaluation system (DES), specifically the Army's, well. Much has been written about it lately. Unfortunately, the articles focus on sensational individual cases instead of systemic problems such as the culture of those administering the DES and the methods used to deny service members benefits to which they are entitled by law.
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Posted November 14, 2007 | 12:03 PM (EST)