Right wing spin about PTSD ,Vets and diagnosis

[dbeach]

Ironic how the men who avoided VN war are all so eager to cut Vets beneifts and they have the controls...

http://www.opednews.com

"When the Washington Post prints a front page story1 about the politics and money surrounding veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), it attracts lots of attention. And, when that story spells out plans by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) to redefine PTSD and restructure veterans’ compensation, it forces the conservative “spin machine” into action to try to minimize any information that indicates PTSD is a problem in the veteran community.

The trouble with trying to minimize accurate information about the PTSD issue is that misinformation, disinformation and outright lies are the only tools available to make the disorder seem like a minor problem instead of the colossal mental health crisis that it is.

Just a few hours after the Post published their well-balanced article about PTSD, the arch-conservative Washington Times and their UPI news service had “borrowed” it and published a severely-edited rewrite2. The Times/UPI story referred only to the high cost of PTSD compensation and concerns over veterans making fraudulent claims. The timing is more than coincidence.

I received an email from a public affairs officer at a large veterans’ service organization who doesn’t believe in coincidence, either. His view of the situation was that the VA bosses read the Post article and got angry, ordered the VA public affairs people to rewrite it to fit the current right-wing anti-PTSD sentiment and then told politically-likeminded media people to run it.

A day later, the conservative military web site Strategy Page dot com published an unsigned “news” piece3 about PTSD which dealt mainly with the high costs of compensation, the issue of fraud and the argument that the disorder “could always be faked.” Again, hardly a coincidence.

Why is so much energy being expended to minimize the issue of PTSD? Money! Currently the VA pays disability compensation to 215,871 veterans with PTSD. That comes to over $4.3 billion a year and that is just for compensation. When medical care and other benefits are added in, the cost could approach $7 billion, or nearly ten per cent of the VA’s total budget.

By minimizing the PTSD crisis in the veteran community and characterizing veterans’ claims as fraudulent, conservatives are trying to create a public climate of acceptance that will allow the VA to go forward with their redefinition of the disorder. That could then lead to a new diagnosis, new treatment protocols and restructured (lower) compensation for veterans.

The VA’s effort to seek a new definition for PTSD was outlined in an article I wrote for OpEdNews dot com in December4. That article was also published on a popular, commercial military/veteran web site. Within a few hours, the VA had called the parent company of the web site and demanded that the article be pulled. It was. The editor of the site told me they had to “consider the business model” in making the decision. He indicated that the site could lose valuable advertising contracts with government agencies, such as the armed services, if the article was not pulled.


Veterans who suffer from PTSD have much to fear from the Bush administration. They do not trust the VA system. Why? VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has publicly stated that PTSD can be cured9 although there is no medical evidence to indicate that is the case. The VA’s former Inspector General espoused the concept that compensation was an incentive for veterans to exaggerate their symptoms.10 VA disability compensation has been likened to welfare11 by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

The majority of the 215,871 veterans who receive compensation for PTSD are from the Vietnam-era. It has taken them this long to seek and get treatment from the VA and to qualify for disability compensation. With a few hundred thousand more troops coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, one mental health expert has predicted a “tsunami” of woe.

Caring for the broken bodies and broken minds of our veterans is just another cost of war. But, the Bush administration will do anything to keep that cost to a minimum; from gagging the media to spreading misinformation and disinformation to asking one medical organization to second-guess another and redefine PTSD in such a way that disability compensation can be reduced to an absolute minimum"

[China_cat]

1. Yep, they support the troops

as long as they come home in the dead of night in a box marked freight. Maimed, physically or emotionally, and they were never REAL, TRUE (TM) soldiers.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Dora]

2. God forbid people realize one of the consequences of war.

That consequence? Guilt, remorse, nightmares, sleeplessness, violent impulses and actions, rage, aggression...

We send our boys to war, and if they survive, they come home broken.

Just as it has been with everything else this farce of a government has destroyed, it will be up to us to fix, patch, repair, or tragically discard what remains.

[NI4NI]

3. The VA hospitals, and cemetaries

are filled up with what the corporate war merhants and defense contractors consider dispenable men and women.
And it's no surprise that Republican politicians want to cut benefits for the rapidly climbing costs of our veterans medical attention, physically, mentally, past, present and future, from which their corporate constituents, including Cheney, are profitting from. These low life inhumane scum sucking bastards consider veterans benefits to be some kind of fraudulent entitlement program.

[Kurovski]

4. The way many disabled vets in this country are treated by

the government they protect is a national disgrace. It infuriates me. I'm tempted to unleash a chain of profanities here, but shall refrain.

So many disorders are defined by the corporate model. Like a sleazy insurance company, or an industry avoiding responsibility for the damage to health they cause.

President Dwight Eisenhower was right for a variety of reasons when he warned us against the "Military-Industrial Complex. We never, ever took him quite seriously enough on that count.

[Touchdown]

5. Let's see. $7 Billion out of a $450 Billion military budget.

Oh' GAWD! The GOP is right. It would break the bank. Lord knows we can't get rid of the $55Billion Star Wars program. That would be disaster! :eyes

I'm not suprised at this at all, which is why I have no real response to this. Every time I get my hopes up, with Plame, Downing Street, DeLay, fixing intel, spying on Americans, and Today with Abramoff and his tell all about Bush-funding, the fucker gets away with everything smelling like a rose, and things like this get worse as each day passes agonizingly slow.

[dbeach]

7. "War is a racket.

Always has been".

Quote from Maj Gen Smedley Darlinton Butler

More Vets and more Citizens need to realize that EVRY war is for corporat profit and has little to do with protecting the average US Citizen..

WW II was the last so-called honorable war and many of that generation who built the middle class are now watching as the bushies destory it.

War is indeed a racket..

[UTUSN]

6. But "help-is-on-the-way"

It was sickening to see veterans dressed in their uniforms and medals, during the Florida theft, standing on the Repuke stage shouting their support for Shrub. Five or six medal of honor holders doing that, using their military symbols as political props. Sickening.

Disinformation

[dbeach]

8. expendable soldiers Vets as political props

the rethugs know the game so well
particulary when most of them avoided the war of their generation .

scuza me .
"police action" of their generation.

Mr. Ho Chi Mien U R are under arrest by Uncle Sam!

[RazzleDazzle]

9. You need to post a real link

the link you've provided is like posting this :

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php

to direct people to this thread you started. IOW: just a little bit better than useless.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Here it is

You know it took me as much energy to find the link and post it as it did for YOU to critize the OP.
Who's side are ya on?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_larry_sc_060102_veterans_with_ptsd_f.htm

Jah Bless dbeach

The state of union

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should
And I know all the things you hide
Even though it's a good disguise
And we see all the things you do
And what you do will comeback on you
You think we can't fight what the eyes can't see
Because we are blinded by poverty

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

It's like the people you want them to rebel
And fire gunshots and burn buildings to hell
And after that you a go want treat me well
It's like you have the people under a spell
Talking to the people in a congress
A we vote you in, so you must put out your best
After all we no in a contest
It's the state of the union address

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

Broadcasting lies on the television sreen
Trying to get us hooked on your american dream
We up on your games if you know wha me mean
When you cheated on your wife with your money and your schemes
People rule and a that you fi follow
We and nuh no call me no nigga
Do a good term and you deserve another
Signed musically yours, the general sleepywonder

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

[CoffeeCat]

11. As a victim/survivor of PTSD, I am sickened and outraged by this...

I got through my PTSD due to three years of intensive therapy with a renowned trauma expert who was one of the first trauma experts sent to the Oklahoma bombing site--to help survivors and their families.

I'm damn lucky. Not a day goes by when I don't thank my lucky stars for the quality care I was fortunate enough to receive.

These soldiers deserve the same--and more. They deserve to be surrounded by trauma specialists who will help them heal and live whole lives.

What's interesting about PTSD is that it is a very creative set of coping skills used to endure extreme trauma and stress. You stuff your emotions and you "numb out" to get through the trauma--until you are free to un-bury your humanity and feel once again.

Shutting down is what these soldiers did to fight for their country. They were traumatized. Instead of falling apart and dealing with the horrors and paralyzing fear--they stuffed it all down---to serve us. To serve this administration. To protect their comrades.

PTSD allows a person to continue functioning--fighting a war. However, the price the mind pays is high. It takes an incredible amount of mental energy to suppress so much horror, rage, sadness, helplessness, sorrow, terror and gut-wrenching fear. However, the mind adapts and continues to suppress so the person can function and fight a war. These adaptations have a price: Endless nightmares, sleeplessness, panic attacks, depression, night terrors and worst of all---mind-blowing flashbacks.

Stuffing your memories of horrific events works for a while. However, the mind leaks out this tremendous energy in the form of flashbacks. It's as if your mind needs to leak a bit out--just to get some relief. I experienced flashbacks and they are absolutely terrifying. You feel as if you are losing your mind. Flashbacks engulf your mind with what you saw and also what you felt. It's like a concentrated lightning bolt of horror coming at your mind. You see the trauma. You feel the trauma. Everything you buried, comes back for you.

PTSD made me feel as if I was emotionally dying. My therapist kept reminding me, "Flashbacks are not only visual. They are emotional. When you feel the terror, try and grip onto something--or hold your own hand--to symbolize that you are grounded, and that what you are feeling is past emotion moving through you. It's ok and it will pass." That helped a great deal. I used to clutch my own hand and a stuffed teddy bear.

I've read studies on PTSD. PET scans of PTSD victims show extreme activity in the right side of the brain--the side from which most emotion originates. The left side--which analytical thought and reasoning originate--show very low activity. A PTSD victims' brain is biologically impaired; altered. You are so strung out on emotion, that you can't think straight. You feel so terrified, so full of hopelessness and sorrow--and all you can do is feel it, to get through it. It's absolute hell for most people.

PTSD survivors deserve intense treatment. They deserve quality care with trained professionals. Soldiers with PTSD deserve the utmost respect and dignity. After all, they were afflicted with this disorder because they were trying to do their jobs and be proud Americans--fighting Bush's war.

Now Bush wants to cut funding for PTSD? He wants to leave these soldiers out in the cold with no therapy? The ONLY way through PTSD is by working through those emotions. Sometimes it takes years before the mind realizes that the trauma is over---and quits forcing you to re-live it on a daily basis.

Now Bush wants to "redefine" what PTSD is. Fuck, you Junior--you miserable bag of trash. PTSD has been studied, researched and written about for decades now. You can't re-write the definition of PTSD to save a few dollars. It is what it is.

I am so sickened by what I have read here. I cannot believe the horrendous evil and psychopathology that this administration exudes.

They trick these young soldiers into fighting their lie-based sick war. These soldiers do their jobs so well and they sacrifice their mental health to do a remarkable job and to keep their comrades safe. When these soldiers return, the same thugs who sent them into this meaningless war--turn their backs on them and would allow them to psychologically wither on the vine.

This is absolutely criminal.

[Ladyhawk]

13. Wow. Thanks for your post.

You stated the case for the soldiers very eloquently and I, too, am appalled by this misadministration's lack of support for the troops. It's unbelievable that Republicans are seen as the ones who truly support the troops.

I have suffered from PTSD, also, because of childhood physical and sexual abuse. I still don't function very well I'm sorry to say. I'll probably never have a normal sexual relationship.

With Republicans in charge we're going to see some very broken youngsters return from this war and they're going to stay broken. My Republican mother says the army has made a "man" out of my brother's soon-to-be stepson. I don't see it that way. The army will either make him a corpse or a broken man. My guess is that he will deal with the trauma by becoming violent. When--if--he comes home, I think I'll be afraid of him. :( It's just the feeling I get. He was already emotionally messed-up. Iraq may complete the process. He's in for at least two tours. Poor kid. Poor, poor kid.

[Kurovski]

16. Thanks for that, TwoSparkles.

PTSD does real damage.

[seemslikeadream]

12. 'Marlboro Man' in Iraq War Photo Suffers from PTSD

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001773206

By E&P Staff

Published: January 03, 2006 5:40 PM ET

NEW YORK So whatever happened to Lance Cpl. Blake Miller -- the U.S. Marine pictured as a kind of war-weary "Marlboro Man" in one of the most widely published iconic images of the Iraq war?

The 2004 photograph by Luis Sinco of the Los Angeles Times showing Miller, face dirty under a helmet, a cigarette dangling from his lips, went around the world and back again, hitting front pages everywhere. Now Miller, of Jonancy, Ky., is a civilian "and is having trouble adjusting to civilian life," CBS News reports.

Back home, he got married in June, but on duty during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, Miller suffered from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and was granted an honorable discharge from the Marines in November.

Miller told CBS this morning, "For the most part, I mean, it was a big adjustment just trying to get in that mindset of being able to just roam, run around without fear of being shot at or where to look for danger. ... It's unexplainable. I mean, just to go from that mindset to being able to walk around freely and just enjoy it."

He said during his Katrina duties, while on the USS Iwo Jima, a sailor mimicked the whistle of a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).

"For anybody to duplicate that sound," Miller said, "they've had to hear it. Without even knowing what I'd done until after it was over, I snatched him up, I slammed him against the bulkhead, the wall, and took him to the floor, and I was on top of him."

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. ***HERE IS THE PERMALINK OF THE ARTICLE IN THE OPENING POST***

The link in the opening post is to the home page of a news web site, not to the article itself. Here's a link directly to the article:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_larry_sc_060102_veterans_with_ptsd_f.htm
January 2, 2006

Veterans with PTSD Face Campaign of Misinformation, Disinformation and Outright Lies

(subtitle:) PTSD vets are fighting an increasingly ugly battle with VA officials and doctors, politicians, politically-controlled media outlets and the conservative "spin machine"
by Larry Scott

Thanks for posting on this important article. How anyone could believe that the warmongering Bushies actually support the troops in any way is beyond me.

[earth mom]

15. How our vets are treated by the g'ment & rethugs is a TOTAL DISGRACE!

:cry: :grr: