By Brandon Carter and Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal staff
Victor Perez
BRUNSWICK - Eighty-six percent of all Iraq vets have known someone who was either killed or seriously wounded in the war. Eighty-nine percent of all Iraq vets have experienced being ambushed. Ninety-three percent have been shot at. Ninety-five percent have seen bodies that have died of violence.
And 18 percent come home exhibiting symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. These figures are according to the military's own handbook for families of returning vets - Returning from the War Zone: A Guide for Families of Military Personnel.
Last week, Victor Perez, a BNAS vet whose deployment to Iraq ended in August, was arrested for assaulting his wife, Melissa, and trying to murder her with a butcher knife. The Brunswick Police arrived in time to save the woman and, possibly, her two small children, maybe even Perez himself. The officer used a taser to stop Perez, just before deadly force would have been used, undoubtedly saving his life. Perez has been charged with several counts of assault and attempted murder.
The Coastal Journal must make it clear that nothing is known about Perez' medical treatment after his deployment; however, his behaviors since his return are some that are often correlated with a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Since his deployment ended in August, the Brunswick Police had been summoned to the family's home nine times because of disturbances. No visit, with the exception of the last visit, ended in an arrest.
Melissa Perez had already separated from her husband, citing his abuse toward her and the children, but she believed that she could help him be a better father, and was trying to work it out.
She is now left with the sense that she has not done the right thing by her children, because she was trying to do the right thing by her returning veteran husband.
In 2005, Senator Barbara Boxer of California introduced legislation to increase the amount of money set aside for diagnosis and treatment of PTSD among returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. It was killed by the then-Republican Senate. In the summer of 2007, legislation was passed that suspended the Pentagon's indiscriminate use of “personality disorder” as a rationale for discharging service members who might have been suffering from PTSD, sometimes before the patient was even diagnosed. During the last six years, including the period covering the whole of the Iraq War, over 22,000 service personnel had been discharged for “personality disorder” - about ten troops per day over that period. This policy often had the effect of keeping vets from visiting psychiatrists because the discharge efffectively kept them from receiving VA benefits, including mental health care treatment.
Finally, in December, funding and direction was included in the Defense Authorization Bill providing funds and increased scrutiny so that returning vets who needed mental health services would have access to them in fiscal year 2008.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has had many names over the years … shell shock, battle fatigue, combat stress. People other than soldiers also can suffer from it … victims of violence, for instance. Most cases of PTSD resolve on their own, without intervention, once the sufferer has been away from the stressor for a long enough period of time. But not always, and when PTSD does not go away by itself, and is not effectively treated, the effects can be devastating.
In 2005 alone, there were 6256 suicides of Iraq War veterans - 120 per week. There are no good statistics yet on the total percentage of vets who commit suicide, but it appears to be above the civilian average of 19 per 100,000.
Too often, the vet is left to cope - or not - on his own. There have been many cases of vets committing suicide while waiting for one of too-few inpatient beds for the treatment of PTSD.
Suicide isn't the only issue. There have been numerous cases of Iraq War veterans killing loved ones as well. In one case, a vet was prevented from committing suicide by the police, told to “get counseling”, and several days later, murdered his wife, the mother of his two children. He is now facing a murder charge. In another, a vet killed himself and his wife, leaving their three small children orphans.
Whatever the cause, PTSD has several common reactions:
1. Re-experiencing. Sometimes, service members experience “flashbacks”, often triggered by sensory input … sights, smells, sounds… of the battle experience. A child crying, for instance, may take a soldier right back to the scene of a Baghdad bombing.
2. Avoidance and numbing emotions. Individuals with PTSD often go to great lengths to prevent recalling memories or discussing past experiences. They may use alcohol, drugs, or prescription medications to avoid thinking or feeling.
3. Arousal. The service member may have difficulty letting his “guard down.” Sometimes service members describe feeling jumpy or easily startled. They might closely examine people or places to look for signs of danger or attack. They may be overly protective of children and fear for a child's safety. Feeling keyed up can also make it harder for them to sleep and concentrate, and can cause irritability and aggression.
Other reactions include depression, suicidal thoughts, anger or aggressive behavior, alcohol and drug abuse, and self-blame, sometimes called “survivor's guilt”.
Although the family's handbook encourages family members to get help for their loved one returning from the war, it acknowledges, “Getting your loved one to seek help is not always as easy as you may hope. A study of soldiers returning from Iraq found that only 40% of those that were having mental health problems said they were interested in receiving help. Many returnees hesitate to receive mental health treatment for fear that it will hurt their image or even ruin their military careers.”
In other words, 60% of vets whose nearest and dearest know they are in trouble refuse to go in for treatment, and are not seeking help from a system which is already known to be inadequate to help them in any case.
During a news conference at Fort Carson last May, one soldier said he had been diagnosed with chronic PTSD, but had been offered a quick way out of the military with a personality disorder discharge, reported the Army Times. If he were to take it, he would lose his VA benefits and may never receive treatment for his disease.
The soldier said he only received half an hour of one-on-one counseling a month, and usually received group therapy.
“Group therapy is not the most effective way to treat PTSD,” said Suzanne Best, a research psychologist in the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Research Program at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco. “It would be difficult to treat anyone in half an hour or less. If someone says they can, they are not clinicians who treat PTSD.”
Next week: Effective treatment for PTSD.
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