Hello Everyone,

Let me first tell you about my situation. My husband just recently got back from a 15 month deployment, a very hard one might I add. He lossed his best friend and many other comrades as many of your spouses probably have as well. About 90 days after he got back things were very troublesome for him and he began to have nightmares and would see his friends face everywhere. Although he did not see his friend die or see what had happened he had heard the story over and over again that he had made a movie in his head and was playing it over and over again. Among many others things my husband and I seeked helped through army onesource to get counceling for him. She diagnosed him with PTSD and seviere Depression and advised him to seek army personell to discharge him from the army. Well this to my husband was not as easy as she thought. My husband could not see his life out of the military, not that he didnt happily want out but he was scared as was I. He also didnt think it could happen, he felt the army would find a way to keep him in and at that point everyone in his company would know what was going on and it would ruin his career or they would say he was lying to try to get out or that he was a wussy. Two months went by he refused to tell his chain of command because he did not feel that they would care. Meanwhile he was getting worse. Comes home crying everyday has anxiety attacks at work ect. Finally we had a break threw, we found a doctor that was willing to help us and gave my husband the option of getting a general discharge or changing his mos to infantry to something else perscribed him anti depressants and some sleeping medicine and to put him in a unit called warrior transition unit in the mean time. But that same day that this all happened I read an article that flored my mind and thought to myself if this happens to us I will fight it and I will change the system. Even though it looks we will be getting the help that we need from the army well from the doctor that works on post. I wanted to get some feed back on some of yalls situations on PTSD and if the military was able to help you the way you deserve. My goal is to start some kind of organization to help soldiers with PTSD and Mental disabilities get help. My hasband was ready and willing to fulfill his contract and his duty to his country just wanted help, but I was not going to let him get on that plane and go back to Iraq knowing he didnt get the help that he needed and the army owes that to him. So those wives out there that are struggling with this I know what your going through and I want to help, so please if you dont mind PM me with things that can help my research. Here is the article that made me wonder what is wrong with the system....

no outside links

there are too many soldiers doing there duty to this country and deserve the right to resieve help and shouldnt feel like thay cant ask for help or their careers will be ruined or that they are weak soldiers. Too many soldiers are dying be commiting suicide because they are not recieving help.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: theainjmtant,

There is an area on the boards specifically for PTSD and other vet health issues, you will likely find more information there.

Here's the problem: the Army sees PTSD as a liability (rightfully so). If something happens later to commarades, and the media finds out the member causing the problem even had treated PTSD....

my son is in that very same boat right now.

He just returned from his second tour in Iraq, and it was the first one that really messed him up. Six weeks before he returned to the states he witnessed his squad leader lose his life due to a roadside bomb, the very next day while out on patrol, the humvee that my son was operating was hit with an IED. He got banged up pretty good, mainly a bump on the noggin and scrapes and bruises. No one else in his vehicle was hurt.

A couple of months later he would have these blinding migranes and on occasion my ex daughter in law would find him on the living room floor. He had been diagnosed with PTSD and depression. The meds had him walking around like a zombie and the migranes only got worse. His unit was going through the work ups for the second deployment and he was being shipped between his base and another a few hours drive away, finally saw a neurologist to be told he has a cyst on his brain the size of a large matchbook. They wanted him to have a repeat MRI in 6 months. He was profiled as non-deployable but somehow though paperwork was pulled and he was shipped off to Iraq, he couldnt handle a weapon because of the meds he was on so he was a desk jockey there for a year. He wanted more than anything to be out on patrol with his squad. He got called all kinds of things because he could not do what the Army trained him to do, he was passed up for promotions left and right.

Now, his command does nothing but harass him and intimidate him since he is getting ready for his med-board. They have on numerous occasions made him miss medical appointments. It is 19 months since that MRI, he has yet to have a follow up one. He joined the Army to make it a career and do the full twenty, but because the Army wont fix what they broke, they just want to sweep him out the door.

I agree with Catherine about being a liability, but where lies the Army's responsibility?

exactly what I mean as well. The army says all the crap about taking care of their soldiers and all they really care about are their numbers. If yall want to read the article its channle ten in killeen and look up the email that was sent out from the VA hospital in temple about them trying to not diagnose soldiers with PTSD so as not to pay the benefits that they deserve. Look this may be a liability to the army but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. These soldiers are fighting for them there not doing this for themselves otherwise they wouldnt do it. If soldiers are not mentally stable they should not be going back to Iraq. The military talks alot of stuff about having all these great organizations but where the stick breaks is the soldiers feel like they cant ask for help because they will get treated like SH**. That is not fair for what they do for this country. No one else has to help me but I will do something to change this system and you guys can stand by and watch your sons or daughters or husbands and wives and families get mistreated or u can help just let me know. There is suck thing as freedom of speech and it can all be done confidentally.

I would suggest to the Mods to have this person pick ONE area to post this in---not all over the spouse forums.

On this Memorial Day, I am lifting up in prayer you family members who have to see your loved ones suffer and struggle with PTSD. How absolutely horrid, their battle. And then to have worries on top of the ailment, to boot...like a scab over an infection growing worse. I'll pray, too, that military powers-that-be will do the right, ethical thing. Oh, it is so sad. Really sad.

(BTW, I'm new here. Not in the military, directly, although my mother and dad were during wartime and many cousins, too. As well, we have generals in our family line back three centuries. Little background.)