Vet Centers - help with PTSD

Jim,

I am a Vietnam veteran who upon returning to the states I never talked about having served. When asked in church to stand if you are a veteran I never did. I did not talk to family, wives, and even other veterans for over 40 years. I have gone through several marriages. I have no contact with my children. I have been fired several times becuase of relationship issues in the workplace. I have always had a very difficult time sleeping. I have had chronic migraine headaches since I got out of the service. I had an incident at work and the company doctors diagnosed me as having PTSD, severe short term memory problems, chronic migraine headaches, and severe hearing loss in both ears. This was in 2008.

The doctors advised that I go to the VA and make a claim. I did and was given 10% for hearing loss and 50% for PTSD in 2010. My company kept me on their disability plan for 2 1/2 years and then placed me on retirement because of a clause that any mental illness releases them from providing disability payments. This occured this year. During the 2 1/2 years I saw a pychiatrist once a week. Dr. Sekhon told me that I was 100% PTSD. The Doctor at the VA stated that I had chronic PTSD. My primary doctor at the VA states that I should be 100% and that I will never be able to work again.

My current wife has kept me from going to jail. The companies in the past kept me from going to jail. I was put in jail twice for assault and battery but, the charges were dropped by the plaintiff. Normally, I'm fine. If someone becomes agressive I immediately take the offense. My last employer will not give me any references and their doctors will not release me to be employed. The pychiastrist I worked with will not release me to go back to work.

I appealed for ringing in the ear about a year ago. I was denied because I didn't say anything about it when I was examined. I did say something about when I made the initial request. It is still pending.

I have appealed the 50% PTSD and have requested unemployability. This has been in the works for over a year.

I have a VA Administrator who helps me file the requests. He has told me both of the requests are pending. My VA primary doctor gave me a name of someone in the government who may be able to help me.

I didn't ask for this to happen to me. I didn't know that I suffered for over 40 years with these problems. I am never really happy I just exist.

What are your thoughts?

Reply:

My thoughts? I'm not going to focus on your claims. You and I can do that in the future if you would like to. I want to comment on your health.

I believe that you are very typical of tens of thousands of Vietnam combat veterans. I read your story every day from guys just like you. I have a buddy here in my town who refuses to deal with VA, he won't talk of his Vietnam experiences and he suffers in silence. He worked for me at one time and we became good friends. He was one of my best employees and worked hard.

He's been lucky. He has held a steady job for over 3 decades and his marriage has lasted that long. His daughters are delightful, normal ladies who have children of their own. He enjoys all that as long as it's within the confines of his own house.

However, he suffers. He can't ever go to any activities of normal life. He has never been shopping. He can't go into a theater and watch a movie. He doesn't get out and go fishing, he doesn't travel on vacation. He is always angry but bottles it in and rarely talks about it.

Every day when he gets home from work he smokes marijuana and he sits, mostly alone, and watches TV.

Most fellows I hear from aren't as lucky as he is. They drink heavily, have arrest and conviction records for all sorts of things, usually anger and alcohol related. They can't hold jobs and marriages fall apart all too often.

Sound familiar? You are not alone.

I can offer you a partial solution to the problem. What you do with this is up to you.

You may not realize it but VA has a thing called a "Vet Center" that is designed just for Vietnam combat veterans. These centers are scattered all across America and unless you live in the wilderness, it's very likely that a vet center is close enough for you to get to.

Yeah, these are VA controlled places. But they operate independently of the usual VA paperwork mess. The vet center has a team of professional mental health counselors to talk with you. Many vet centers are run by a Vietnam combat veteran.

I have a good friend here at home who is a Vietnam combat veteran of the USMC. He didn't have much of a problem until about 8 years ago when he was diagnosed with the agent orange cancer non-Hodgkins lymphoma (n-Hl). He was near death and rushed into cancer treatments at our VA Medical Center. He survived and the cancer returned. This has happened 7 times now. He's had chemo, radiation and even a bone marrow transplant.

The health care he's received has been above and beyond excellent. I estimate VA has spent a couple million dollars keeping him upright and VA never blinked at the expense.

As you can imagine, all of his Vietnam experiences came rushing back to him as he got sicker and sicker. The PTSD was so bad for a while that I personally removed his weapons from his house and talked him down a lot.

Then he started to go to the local Vet Center. He received really good counseling and he attends a group session without fail. There are about 8 guys in his group and all have similar experiences to his...not the cancer but of the Vietnam service.

I think the Vet Center saved his life as much as the cancer treatments did. He hasn't "recovered"...how could he? But he lives a much better life today because of the care he got through his Vet Center.

You will get out of it what you put into it. My buddy is active and wants to help others. He encourages fun meetings with the guys...he hosts fish fries and barbecues and birthday parties. Using my knowledge base he helps his buddies with benefits issues. He's invited me to come and visit with his friends.

So...it's now your call. You can figure out the closest vet center to you by clicking here http://www2.va.gov/directory/guide/vetcenter_flsh.asp

Good luck brother.