Hidden Wounds: Military, community not ready for wave of damaged soldiers

[unhappycamper]

Hidden Wounds: Military, community not ready for wave of damaged soldiers
By Jennifer Calhoun
Staff writer
Published: 12:00 AM, Thu Sep 30, 2010

Fort Bragg Spc. John Brack is broken.

He's a backwoods Georgia boy who joined the Army and became a combat medic to save people.

Now, he's so swallowed up by post-traumatic stress disorder that he has only one real emotion left for the world: anger. The rest, he says, he fakes.

Brack is 30 years old and his third marriage is over. He's in a custody fight over his children. A few weeks ago, he was in a Cumberland County courtroom awaiting trial on an assault charge when the case was dismissed because the alleged victim decided not to testify.

For more than a year, Brack has taken a cocktail of medications to relieve PTSD, the anger and other problems that began after his time in a region of Iraq known as the Triangle of Death.



unhappycamper comment: After being stationed near the 'Iron Triangle' in Vietnam, I can fully understand what John Brack is going thru.

[mediaman007]

1. Its like this all over the country. Who could have imagined that our soldiers would break like this?

(sarcasm) And we were the winners, so to speak. How about those left behind (ours and theirs)?

[AC_Mem]

2. We need to help them with

EFT - like NOW. Psychologists have gone to Capital Hill to discuss this technique and brought with them soldiers who have healed from PTSD, Vietnam Vets who are benefiting. It is FREE to learn and is having amazing results.

What I'm afraid of is that it is *too* free - if it doesn't cost millions to find a cure for our soldiers who are trauma wounded, they can't imagine it will work. EFT can work on the battlefield so that our vets don't have to bring home the level of trauma that they are currently dealing with.

Congress and the military is interested, they have had the doctors and practitioners back several times. Pray that this moves forward because it is easy and can be extremely effective for neutralizing trauma.

http://www.stressproject.org/congressional_testimony.html - for info
http://veterans.house.gov/Media/file/111/7-21-10/Churchsubmission.pdf


For info on EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique http://www.eftuniverse.com/

It is free to learn, if you are interested in seeing it work there are hundreds of videos on youtube.

Sometimes the answers lie in areas that we cannot see. The sooner we realize that we are energetic beings and tap into that energy, we may see a whole new medical frontier open up. I pray for that day.

I use EFT every day of my life on myself and my family members and friends. I could write a book on its benefits.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

3. K&R

[Solly Mack]

4. k&r

[w8liftinglady]

5. dear god.this shit kills me.

I have seen it firsthand.
that's what happens when you keep sending the same guys to kill and kill again.Any semblance of "bringing Democracy' has disappeared.

warning-violent video-not real,but realistic.

Here's insight on the mindf*ck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOY-0Ag7GIc

repeat three or four times.

[pinboy3niner]

6. Combat medics are especially at risk...

...because of the extra burden of guilt they carry for the ones they COULDN 'T save. The fact that it's undeserved guilt does nothing to lighten that load.

After I was medevac'd out of VN, as soon as I was able, I wrote a letter to my medic to let him--and my platoon--know I'd survived. I could have written that letter to the men I knew best, my plt. sgt. or top squad leader, but something possessed me to be wise enough to address it instead to my medic, who was one of the newest guys in the platoon. It turned out to be wise, indeed, as the platoon had been told that I'd died.

Twenty years later, my medic found me. And he still had my letter (which I'd closed with, "P.S.--Your bedside manner sucks.") He told me that my letter literally had saved his life. And I understood exactly what he meant. If he'd gone on believing I'd died, he would have taken the responsibility for my death upon himself. And he would have punished himself with self-destructive behaviors even more than he wound up doing after the war.

My medic got help for his PTSD, and today he's doing great. He works in prosthetics at a V.A. hospital, helping other vets adapt to the challenges they face as a result of their injuries. And I am so glad I wrote him that letter all those years ago...

Here's to you, Doc. Thanks for being there. :patriot: