PTSD - a collection of stories

Here are some interesting stories about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:

Veterans tell Durbin of the toll post-traumatic stress

Seated at a table with emotional and angry veterans Monday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced he will introduce new legislation requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to expand its treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Veterans hospitals are not equipped to do the job," said Durbin at an American Legion in Bucktown. "They don't have enough counselors and doctors to help these returning veterans and their families."

An estimated 15 percent to 30 percent of all returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from the disabling disorder characterized by violent flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety. Nationwide, the VA is treating 244,000 veterans from previous wars who have PTSD, but some experts fear the VA is not staffed to handle the influx of new soldiers.

Veterans from the Vietnam War and World War II, including one man who survived the Bataan Death March, explained to Durbin how their lives have been crippled by PTSD, which wasn't recognized by the VA until the early 1980s.
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S. Florida VA hospitals brace for a wave of post-traumatic stress cases

They may be home from the war in Iraq, yet they are not home free.

Replaying gory scenes of death and destruction, some combat veterans are unable to sleep for more than minutes at a time. Some fight anger and anxiety with alcohol and drugs. Depression is common. Almost all bear invisible scars.

Michael Culmer, 25, who manned a 120 mm mortar for the U.S. Army outside Ramadi, survived his tour of duty by becoming numb, feeling no emotion even when his commanding officer took a fatal shrapnel wound to the head. Now back in his hometown of Miami, "I just want to get off meds and feel like the person I was," he said.

As more soldiers return from the war zone, some from second tours of duty, mental-health counselors with the Veterans Affairs Department in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties are bracing for a growing tide of men and women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Returning home from Iraq

Michael Torok didn't die while serving in Afghanistan, but his family believes the war still killed him.

The 23-year-old Kingston man spent 10 months in Afghanistan as a communications specialist for the U.S. Army. He returned to Kingston on Sept. 2.

On Sept. 5, he disappeared while on his way to visit a friend in Shabbona.

A deputy found his body Sept. 24 in his truck parked in an Ogle County cornfield. He had died from a single, self-inflicted stab-wound to the heart.

His family later learned the Army had given him Lariam, an anti-malaria drug that, in some people, causes depression, bad dreams and hallucinations. The family also learned he had been suffering from depression and possibly post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
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VA's ongoing post-traumatic stress study focuses on women

Department of Veterans Affairs researchers plan on completing their first-ever study focused solely on female post traumatic stress disorder by the end of the year.

But researchers hope the findings will help develop better treatment options for both men and women veterans.

The study, which began looking at patients in 2002, has monitored various PTSD treatments administered to 283 female veterans. Paula Schnurr, one of the lead researchers on the $5 million project, said the focus on women was largely driven by the fact that no such effort had been done before.

“A number of studies have shown this is more prevalent [percentage-wise] in women than it is in men,” she said. “And we’ve seen that women in the military world often have suffered some traumas before joining the military, and that can create additional problems later.”
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Coming home: Readjustment can be difficult for some returning soldiers

As he and his troops entered Baghdad in 2003, detachment commander Staff Sgt. Kirk Reese couldn't help but notice the body parts lining the streets.

<>Reese, a Mt. Pleasant native, is a member of the 1st and 2nd Platoon Truck Co., Headquarters Battalion, 4th Marine Division. In charge of hauling troops during combat operations, his battalion was the first soft vehicle company to go through An Nasiriyah.

About 65 percent of the 13 trucks and 10 trailers under his command were hit by indirect or direct fire <>. Day and night the soldiers were objects of mortar and rocket attacks; that was just during Reese's first deployment.<>