$2,527.00 a month for severe post-traumatic stress disorder
compensation is not too bad, especially if such disability payments
are increased annually to offset cost-of-living increases.

But the scandal-plagued VA might have its hands full tamping down
public outrage with this latest caper.

-----------------------------
"Official Urged Fewer Diagnoses of PTSD"

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 16, 2008; A02

A psychologist who helps lead the post-traumatic stress disorder
program at a medical facility for veterans in Texas told staff members
to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking
government disability payments for the condition.

"Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans,
I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD
straight out," Norma Perez wrote in a March 20 e-mail to mental-health
specialists and social workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs'
Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center in Temple, Tex. Instead, she
recommended that they "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."

VA staff members "really don't . . . have time to do the extensive
testing that should be done to determine PTSD," Perez wrote.

Adjustment disorder is a less severe reaction to stress than PTSD and
has a shorter duration, usually no longer than six months, said
Anthony T. Ng, a psychiatrist and member of Mental Health America, a
nonprofit professional association.

Veterans diagnosed with PTSD can be eligible for disability
compensation of up to $2,527 a month, depending on the severity of the
condition, said Alison Aikele, a VA spokeswoman. Those found to have
adjustment disorder generally are not offered such payments, though
veterans can receive medical treatment for either condition.

Perez's e-mail was obtained and released publicly yesterday by
VoteVets.org, a veterans group that has been critical of the Bush
administration's policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit government
watchdog group.

"Many veterans believe that the government just doesn't want to pay
out the disability that comes along with a PTSD diagnosis, and this
revelation will not allay their concerns," John Soltz, chairman of
VoteVets.org and an Iraq war veteran, said in a statement.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said in a statement: "It is
outrageous that the VA is calling on its employees to deliberately
misdiagnose returning veterans in an effort to cut costs. Those who
have risked their lives serving our country deserve far better."

Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake said in a statement that
Perez's e-mail was "inappropriate" and does not reflect VA policy. It
has been "repudiated at the highest level of our health care
organization," he said.

"VA's leadership will strongly remind all medical staff that trust,
accuracy and transparency is paramount to maintaining our
relationships with our veteran patients," Peake said.

Peake said Perez has been "counseled" and is "extremely apologetic."
Aikele said Perez remains in her job.

A Rand Corp. report released in April found that repeated exposure to
combat stress in Iraq and Afghanistan is causing a disproportionately
high psychological toll compared with physical injuries. About 300,000
U.S. military personnel who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are
suffering from PTSD or major depression, the study found. The economic
cost to the United States -- including medical care, forgone
productivity and lost lives through suicide -- is expected to reach $4
billion to $6 billion over two years.

Ng said diagnosing PTSD often requires observing a patient for weeks
or months because the condition implies a long, lingering effect of
stress.

"Most people exposed to trauma, in general, can get better," Ng said.
"You don't want to over-diagnose people with PTSD. Whether it's
adjustment disorder is one thing. It's usually a temporary disorder
with severity that is not as bad as someone with full-blown PTSD."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR200...

I am a Vietnam Veteran and a combat veteran (Army Infantry).
I had some of the typical signs and symptoms of returning combat
veterans but I got over the same gradually.
These included sleeping on the floor with a civilian AR-15 for about a
month instead of on a bed.
I had a pretty severe startle reaction when I came back which
gradually disappeared over the years.
Both of the same were and are, in my mind, merely adaptive mechanisms
not PTSD.
Vietnam Veterans were abused emotionally when we returned from
Vietnam. This intensified and prolonged significantly
PTSD signs and symptoms of returning Vietnam veterans.
One of the men in my squad in Vietnam had severe PTSD when he returned
from Vietnam.
The emotional abuse that he received from Americans when he returned
home so severely exacerbated his PTSD
that he could not leave his home because of the severe depression and
anxiety that he experienced.
He asked me over to his house one day and stated to me: "Why do they
treat us this way? Don't they khow that
this type of behavior can only degenerate into hostility and combat?"
In any case, to my knowledge, he never received one cent for his PTSD
from the government although he had
a severe case of the same.
He did see heavy and prolonged combat in Vietnam. He was a great
person. A patriotic American. He was a patriot and a hero.
He died about 15 years ago an early death from PTSD.

in article 3f6ac57e-5b7b-45f1-a216-be26e7c6b...@27g2000hsf.googlegroups.com,
Marcus Aurelius at alexander...@hotmail.com wrote on 5/17/08 12:44 PM:

this is limited thinking I would respectfully propose for your
consideration.

WW2 Vets .... once their wife died ... then their PTSD issues would surface
once buried long time ago.

In 1962 ... some 20 years after 1942 ... people have some fun on the beach
and on to the Hurtengen Forest.

Well they were getting divorces at that time, seeing their family fall
apart, and well they fell apart ... lots of murder suicides in the papers
... go back and read them if you like from town to towm.

Merely ann adaptive mechanism ... not so my dear friend and fox hole buddy.
(Combat Law Enforcement, USAF, 81250, Class of 71).

Adaptive mechanism don't do this.

PTSD resides in the muscle memory, the frozen emotion of the Sympathetic
Nervous System Dominance.

With Children who were abused and returned from the hospital and cops to the
mom who healed them up overnight (90% of the PTSD healed this way ... more
work to do ... but this is the magic here).

The mom had a loving healthy dad in her childhood, and she would be
extremely patient going on the long hunt for life so as to give birth to her
family, healing, and magic.

The mom would wait until the child would go to fall asleep, when ever that
was.  The mom would spoon with pillows in between them, put a hand on the
shoulder, lightly and warmly ... breathing with the child.  The mom would
not sleep, but keep the hand in contact with the child all night.

The mom would wait maybe 14 hours for the child to awaken and still the mom
waited.  The mom waited until the child wanted to leave the contact of the
hand on their own wit ... when ever that was.

Then after a time, maybe after 100 hours of no sleep ... she would then
rest.  

The child loved their mom inside and their dad inside after this, making
them healthy with drugs and not an addict ... and making them healthy with
families, not getting a divorce, having a spouse fox around on them or
having their children die in front of their eyes.

The Defense Structure works this way with PTSD to heal up the broken wound.

It is paradoxical, ironic, and counterintutive genius in how it heals.

Keep your study up on this PTSD stuff ... you will start to get the enormity
of it ... how the frozen emotion keeps them locked into the toddler tantrum,
and how the love has to eventually burn through the hurt and pain.

Takes time, therapy, and an inner desire to be free of the disease for the
sake of the children, the family, the future.

It is a simple process to fix up PTSD, just hurts like bloody hell.

Have to go through your pain to find your happiness here in Purgatory.

sumbuddie wear blind sea

:)

in article 3f6ac57e-5b7b-45f1-a216-be26e7c6b...@27g2000hsf.googlegroups.com,
Marcus Aurelius at alexander...@hotmail.com wrote on 5/17/08 12:44 PM:

ya, that is what happens to untreated PTSD.

and a big thank you to Georgie Porgie up there in the White House for his
being FDR and winning WW3 with the new Hitler.

No GI bill for these troops ... have to give up golf you know.

He feels your pain ...  watch him cry all the way to the bank.

:(