It's a crying shame

Trooper,
I wasn't sure where to post this.  
This is an excellent look at PTSD from a spousal's point of view and more.
Not soldier related but PTSD doesn't pick and choose, unfortunately.

RINGS TRUE

What has helped me (spouse)
Walking away, taking breaks
Getting support
Returning to work
Being with people who love me
Friends, phone rants

A pair of very special therapists who saved my husband’s life

What has helped him (sufferer)
Exercise
Therapy
Guitar
Family pets
MDMA
Ketamine treatment
Hugs
Time
Me, when he can let me in
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2017/02/04/ptsd-turned-my-husband-into-a-stranger.html[/b]

It's a crying shame

The Scene

THU, FEB 02, 2017
Brampton Guardian
By Terry Miller

Last month, Lionel Desmond, a survivor of the Canadian Army’s Afghan tour of duty, not only took his own life but, it is alleged, murdered three of his family. Lionel served in Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Canada in 2007. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder that continued long after he finished his military career.

His section, according to close buddies, was in combat every day. Afghanistan, they say, was no picnic. Trev Bungay, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, reported that (it) “was a very heavy-combat high-casualty tour … one of the most dangerous places in the world.” (Torstar 1/6/17)

After combat duty, Lionel underwent treatment by the Canadian military in 2008 prior to his release from the army. Several of his friends reported that Lionel looked like he was handling the stress. Things got tougher according to relatives and he sought help from medical authorities in Nova Scotia. There were no beds available to treat PTSD.

The Desmond tragedy is aggravated by the alleged murders of three innocent victims, but suicide among Canadian military personnel has happened 54 times since 2014, and in 2015 18 military personnel took their lives.

Of the 14,372 veterans on the disability rolls for PTSD, 3578 are Afghanistan veterans. Some suspect that there may be more men and women suffering from that syndrome who either haven’t come forward or are managing with much help from friends and family.

No one can really know how prevalent PTSD is unless veterans who are suffering from that ailment report it to Veterans Affairs and seek help. In Lionel’s case, his relatives report he had trouble dealing with his PTSD and when he did get help in Montreal it was short-term … ‘a Band-Aid’.

It is a crying shame that enough facilities and treatments are not there for veterans of the Afghan war. If 40,000 military personnel rotated through Afghanistan, the reported number of those suffering from PTSD looks suspiciously small.

This tragedy brings out the shortfalls that always plague us when we send our military … young men and women to foreign places to help restore peace, order and good government. We expect them to come back the way they left, even though they have been in and out of combat. We expect them to be able to settle back to the lives we lead and not have anxiety, stress, depression and other mental health issues. We forget they were in deadly combat in a war zone every day. We expect them to be normal and that’s not what happens to people we place in harm’s way.

We need to take stock of this Nova Scotia tragedy and all the other tragedies. We need to tell our federal politicians that not enough is being done to help treat PTSD.

It is one thing to provide disability benefits to PTSD injured but quite another to actually provide medical and counselling services on a continuous basis to help our military personnel survive PTSD.

http://www.bramptonguardian.com/opinion-story/7099447-it-s-a-crying-shame/