David Bonello, Vietnam veteran
Stanchfield, MN, USA
You want a story? Go to: http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/mental_health/ptsd.htm
where I've written an article about PTSD.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was called Shell Shock, during
World War II. It was considered a weakness by many, and misunderstood
by all. There were many cases of acute PTSD following a battle,
and many a returning veteran spent weeks in hospitals receiving
treatment.
In World War II, the average soldier fought in two, possible
three major battles a year. In Vietnam, there was a major battle
every two weeks. They discovered that by giving each soldier a
specific date for his return to the states, that the acute PTSD
cases were fewer in number, as each soldier kept counting off
his number of days left. However, this tactic has blown up in
the face of the experts, as Vietnam has produced an extremely
high number of chronic PTSD cases.
PTSD is normal. You cannot go to war, kill human beings, watch
your friends killed, and return to normal everyday life without
it affecting you. If it didn't affect you, you wouldn't be human.
