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This Stressor Thing Blows My Mind - *TRIGGERS*

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packrat

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Good for you. Keep the faith . I keep reading the deffinition of a stressor and even though it is in black and white, it really drives me batty. "Fear for your life or the life of others." I mean have a heart. How about a "reasonable person clause". " exposure to extreme war time sights,sounds or smells that would cause any reasonable person extreme emotional distress. I believe we are just touching the tip of the iceburg with the Vietnam vets when they come out of the woodwork in their mid 60's. I, myself will be able to provide the VA with a government document with statements like "heavily engaged with a hostile force and undaunted by the intensity of hostile fire and remained in his dangerously exposed position to ensure". I was shot at many times and we had rockets and mortors droped on us many a time. I lost close,close friends that were 50 yards away and poof, then they were gone. I have only been exposed this stressor requirement thing for a couple of weeks. Up until then if some one said "stressor" I wouldn't have known what they were talking about.

First hand experience folks. There are things far more unbearable to some then getting shot at or coming close to death. Now if the folks that wrote the requirements don't think so maybe they need to put in a year in a front line position. Now it may only be me but I don't think so. I would rather be shot at then have had to handle some of those poor souls that didn't make it. Those are the ghost that will haunt me until the day I die. I believe you can train a 20 year old to handle a confrontain that can result in their death. I am not sure you can train a 20 year old to handle the sights of what war can do to a human being.

Any war vet should be able to use as a stressor the sights and smells of death without fear for their own life or the life of others. How about the life that was already lost. The dessecration of what was once a human being. The unrecognizable remains of someone husband,son, father or brother. At least to me the origional stressor regulations should have always covered this without the provision of fear for your own life or the life of others.

The sights of the pure horrors of war it self is enough to drive some to the very edge. Even though I can sit with a shrink and prove "fear for my life" I know what I see, asleep and awake. They should not have made it this hard for some of those who sought help in the past.

I am new here and I am not sure venting like this is allowed. These are my thoughts and if it is not allowed or too extreme, I understand if you take it down. I have not seen my first shrink and the VA informs me of a problem. The shrink my be the least of my problems. Take care of each other people. You are vets 365 days of the year not just on Nov 11th.

Semper Fi

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Stressors don't have to be front line, you can have brushes with death in many ways in the military; it's kind of the nature of the training - and people die in training - been there, seen that

They can also be the result of the type of training: Special Operations trainings will change people, in ways they themselves do not realize.

The one MOS I can think of that was no muss, no fuss: In-flight missile repair ;)

Or (and I speak from expereince): Foward Artillery Observer (FAO)! (Depending, of course, on exactly HOW "forward" you were while doing your "observing" (which, also, kinda lent NEW meaning to the term "SHORT ROUND"!))!

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Carla - I believe the part that states "fear for their own life or the life of others" is directly from the VA.

The DSM IVTR states: The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

1.the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others.

2.the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

I believe the VA re-wrote the criteria in an effort to decrease or limit the number of claims. jmo

pr

pr,

The quote was I posted was from the original poster - not the VA or the DSMIV.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I don't know if this has anything to do with PTSD but as I write this I can smell the new cut grass and see and hear the sounds and even where I was when I had my first panic attack on June 9th at 1:20 PM standing next to the mess hall watching a soldier mowing the grass getting ready to fall into formation in front of our barracks across the street from the mess hall. I could see it like I was watching from a tower.

I was hit with an overpowering sense of fear and could not catch my breath, my heart was beating so fast and I was sure that I was dying. I crumpled and dropped like a wet sack onto the ground and started to thrash about trying to get back up. I lost control of any ability including speech. They sent for a medic and they brought the ambulance over and took me to the er. Within minutes I had passed out except I could hear what some were saying. They tried many things to revive me including shaking and even slapping me I just could not respond.

Ather 20 minutes of hell I came back but very tired and weak. I had not a clue what had caused this attack and neither did the Army. Today I know it was separation anxiety due to being away from home and my first son not yet born. He arrived on June 15th and I did not even know till June 18th.

Once I had the attack I was wired to have more and have to deal with it. With the meds I take now and some knowledge of what it is and how to deal with it most panic attacks I have now are not as bad as the first ones.

Whether you have PTSD or another anxiety disorder there are common symptoms that we all have to deal with. For me I drank to much till I quit in 1982 9 years before I learned that I have Panic Disorder and I still might not know if the Gulf War did not happen.

I was granted 100% for panic disorder in 1996. The fact is I should have been medically discharged in 1969.

Packrat don't get discouraged you can win your claim

Pete

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Few things in life are as bad as a severe panic attack. I had one and it shocked me so bad I was in a strange dream-like state for months after. The body and mind are screaming "danger", but the danger is coming from the inside not the outside. The shrink said I was suffering from dissociative disorder. It got to the point where I would get lost all the time. It was all a reaction to severe shock due to the panic attack. The main fear I had was that I was losing my mind. People who are really crazy don't fear losing their minds. They think everyone else is nuts. Sometimes if a person is forced to confront a severe phobia it will set off a panic attack. The mind sort of shuts down to protect itself. People can become blind because they have seen something so shocking they don't want to see anymore. That was called hysterical blindness and happended to soldiers in WWI. Severe stress and anxiety work on a person and almost always show up in symptoms of some sort.

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I am still reeling at this one:

http://www4.va.gov/vetapp10/files4/1035997.txt

The new regs caused this Vietnam vet to be screwed.In my opinion.Those regs were in place when BVA made this decision.

I guess he should have filed for depression and he himself did sort of refuse VA health care-

but I know vets who have PTSD who are terrified to deal with the VA.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Berta

It seems pretty obvious that vets who want to win and continue to get benefits from the VA had better get in treatment at the VA and stay in treatment. Yes, I also believe this vet got screwed and screwed himself.

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