Download our podcasts on iTunes.Articles and First-Person Accounts of PTSD
Why do some suffer PTSD, others don't? By Gretel C. Kovach, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
As many as one in five veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffers from PTSD, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD. High suicide rates among service members also are causing deep concern among Pentagon leaders and commanders at bases nationwide. The number of suicides among combat-experienced Marines doubled from 2006 to 2007, the Navy reported, and a record number of Marines and soldiers took their lives in 2008.
Scientists have developed some treatments for PTSD, which was once called shell shock or battle fatigue. FULL ARTICLE
A Personal Request from Jamie Keyes
Currently we have no idea how many veterans we have in our jails and prisons all over this country. The last study was done in 2004 and it did not include data on those who are being held in county jails awaiting trial. In most of the cases that I know of right now:
- The families cannot afford attorneys
- The veteran has tried to get help (or the family member tried,) to no avail, or they were not given the timely aggressive treatment that they needed and ended up in prison.
- The veterans PTSD and service record was not taken into consideration in the courtroom.
- Many have attempted suicide
Read David's story and help support him
David was looking at 15yrs in prison. He was released to Camp Jama and was diagnosed with PtSD. When David got back from Japan he was arrested in Minneapolis for firing his pistol in an alley. They took him straight to the VA, where he was in the locked psychiatric unit as he was suicidal.
The army then took him to FT. Knox for inpatient treatment. He hated it as there were no combat vets there and he just wanted to be home. When he got back he got his own apt and started back in college at the U of M. He continued drinking, huffing and was very suicidal.
