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Contributing Member
Kicking the Black Dog.
It looks like my old Regimental Association has found a new role for me.
Attended the Funeral of one of the ex CO's, and found myself baby sitting a young lad recently returned from over there.
He was in a bit of a bad way, Alchohol certainly wasn't helping.......gave him the same talk that my old boss gave to me when they carted me home and put me back together again.
Trouble is they seem to overlook the mind, they can fix the body and forget about the rest.
Having been there myself, booze, bad behaviour and broken relationships.........took 40+ years to get my head straight..........still have bad nights and all my mates have chopped themselves, they reckon I was fairly placed to give this lad the chat.
I can't live his life, but I did impart what I could about mine.......hope it helps(bloody black dog, should kill it) and I will follow up, got him interested in some of the activeties we used to use to dull the brain..........time will tell.
But there are so many of the new breed coming home, having seen and done things that young ones that age should not be exposed to, suicide is at an all time high in the services.....stupid politicians keep sending them and just throw them on the scrap heap when they are brought home.
We need to send the pollies first....if they survive, maybe we might follow.
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04-16-2015 06:45 AM
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Advisory Panel
After I took my release in '08, the office for operational stress injuries wanted me to become a counselor for the returning injured. Although like Muffet says, the old hand chatting with the new man can help because you can give them first hand comfort...I don't think I could do it all my life and every day. I think it would wear on me. Also, living in the past is the greatest part of what keeps one in that mess. We don't seem to be helping our veterans much here either. But I'll say this for sure, because I've been around long enough to watch it...there's WAY more done now than there used to be. If we hadn't started with Yugo
in the '90s and all that came after our vets would still be ignored. For us, that was the big change. I was the first one to go through the hoops because I'd released regular force and re-upped reserve to get the benefits. They didn't even know what to do with me so that took some doing. At least it paved the way for those that followed me. The problem is they have to stay the course to get help, many won't and don't have the patience. All part of the symptoms...no patience, anger, inability to deal with stress, crowds...self medicating with drugs and alcohol...
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Moderator
(M1 Garand/M14/M1A Rifles)
Interestingly enough a friend of mine, a U.S. Navy doctor, told me that they had discovered that Patton's prescription was basically right. These days if a guy shows up at the field hospital saying he's unable to take it they give him a warm meal, a clean bunk for the night, and send him back to the line. Why? According to my doctor friend, because a man who can't take it, fails, and is sent home is often permanently broken by the experience and can't live with himself for the rest of his life. Now, when they get back they go into PTS counseling.
Bob
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' "
Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring
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That's a brave opinion to put up Bob.......... We're in the midle of a political election here and several weeks ago a VERY eminent medical Psychologist/Psychiatrist put forwards in a newspaper article a notion to this effect, adding that the statistics seem to show that combat or other PTSD stress seems to be to blame only after things have actually GONE wrong in the persons life whereas in the real psychological world of his profession, sufferers/families etc seek help BEFORE things go wrong or certainly reach crisis point. It's as if some of the supposed stress is cited/quoted by the defenders of the accused person as an excuse for criminal wrongdoing. The expert was shouted down........, by the charities supporting the stressed!
Much more to it than that of course including pertinent questions and the like
Our newspaper bin has gone now but will see if it's still on-line. But thought provoking..........
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Moderator
(M1 Garand/M14/M1A Rifles)
Well I wouldn't go as far as to say that those who experience PTS do so because they have failed before they experience stress. My friend, a psychologist, simply noted the cause and effect thing: if a soldier is unable to fulfill his duty and is sent home, he usually becomes a humpty-dumpty: all the kings soldiers and all the kings men (psychologists) can't put him back together again and he never regains his self-esteem. However, according to my friend, if they hold his nose to the grindstone and make him face it, his chances of emerging with his self-esteem intact are overwhelmingly improved. He may be killed, but if he isn't, facing his fears is much better for him. Of course, Patton used the same psychological method on himself: He was scared of seeing a bullet coming right towards his face so he forced himself into front-line battle in order to face that fear.
Bob
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' "
Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring
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Advisory Panel
I find most of the opinions about PTSD are given by people that don't have it. It's like an unskilled laborer telling you how to do your job. I did my full time and only got diagnosed at the very end. Then they said to me "But you've been operating for 30 years like this"...like that was an excuse or a pass. Having a man rattle along isn't the best thing for the situation. By pressing him back into battle, he will likely get killed and then you don't have a problem any more. If he makes it out, things will be much worse.
Anywayzzz, I'm done here. This is one where I feel if you aren't affected and you aren't a Psychiatrist, you don't know. You're just opinionated. And I've heard enough public clap trap about this one.
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I realise that yoiu comment ain't against anyone in particular BAR and I waited until there was a sort-of other side view before I mentioned the newspaper article view. But he did accept that it DOES affect plenty of people to a lesser or greater extent (we now have ambulance men here claiming it for the gruesome scenes at accidents.....) but the greater proportion of sufferers quietly take the treatment. While those he rails about don't take the treatment and use it as an excuse when things in their lives go pear shaped.
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Legacy Member
Looking back on my experiences, Vietnam, etc., I'll say this: the human mind is a very complex, very unique thing. They are, at least so we are told, the product of biology, nurture, experience, education, and heaven only knows what else. That said, no two of us is going to react the same way to the same experiences. My reaction to what I did and saw during my time in combat and how I dealt with it mentally, emotionally and intellectually, was mine and mine alone.
What I'm trying to say here is I don't think there is one solution to shell shock, battle fatigue or PTSD - all the same thing really.
Some of us, like me, who had a family history WWI WWII Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, of experience understood what war is and were able to use that to at least understand to some degree that what we went through was a common human event and we were not alone in what we felt, how we felt, what we thought and how we thought.
Faith in God, or perhaps faith in the righteousness of the cause gave - or gives, some comfort. But that - faith, I believe, has to be there and be strongly held long before the events to offer real benefit.
All I can say now, looking back, is that we who have been through the mill need to be there for our 'younger brothers'. We need to be there offering an ear, sharing our experience, letting them know they are not alone in all this.
Last edited by Paul S.; 04-17-2015 at 01:50 PM.
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Legacy Member
I need to add that I think the worst thing we and they can do is live or keep trying to relive the past. Living in the past, living on memories is stagnation. Focusing on the future gives us a way forward, it creates motion physically and emotionally, and leads us to a new life.
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