Generations of PTSD: Veterans Cope in Different Ways

RP Members and Connections that are close to PTSD this is a very good article on coping. Please pass it on to others that you know are suffering from PTSD and their famility members.

(Here is a portion of the article)

Deep in the mountains of Afghanistan, Jamie Locastro heard the sharp patter of bullets raining above him in the Korengal Valley.

A month earlier, Jamie trained with his 120-man brigade, getting used to the humidity and 120-degree weather. He joined the infantry to be like his father, Tommy.

His brother, Gabriel, enlisted with the infantry six months before him and had been deployed to Iraq near the same time.

He and his comrades were excited after finishing a mission, called Mountain Lion, but once they reached the Korengal Valley — which had only one way in, one way out — the exhilaration turned to terror.

Jamie ducked and fell to the ground as the bullets whizzed past him, kicking up sand.

Blinded by shock, Jamie disregarded that he had been shot five times, three times in the arm, twice in the leg. He didn't notice the blood dripping down his arm as his comrades began dropping around him.

He jumped up, ran over to the medic to get his hand wrapped and began firing blindly at the mountains, cursing and screaming.

"I went crazy," he said. "I lost control."

Once he got back to a hospital in New York, Jamie was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder immediately. The doctors told him he had a "severe case," while he babbled about "off the wall stuff."

His father had been diagnosed with PTSD after being shot three times in back-to-back tours in Vietnam. While Gabriel was in Iraq, he was wounded, and would later be diagnosed with PTSD as well.

According to ptsdusa.org, one in three returning troops are diagnosed with serious post-traumatic stress symptoms. A study from the National Comorbidity Survey showed that PTSD was significantly associated with suicidal ideation or attempt.

Between 1999 and 2010, roughly 22 veterans were committing suicide per day, one every 65 minutes — a statistic important not to forget during National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. (Check out the rest through the link above)


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Mikel J. Burroughs
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