I know it sounds weird, but I just needed to talk to someone.

Very weird!
I've already said it but there it goes again:
There's no drug that can deal with this kind of emotional problems.
Is it so hard to understand that vets have experienced the hell and will have memories for the rest of their lives?
Is there a drug to deal with killing others, seeing friends having dying blah blah blah?
I've seem a documentary on vets from the time they were not diagnosed PTSD and one of them said that he could forget what has happened in the morning but when he was among his combatant friends they talked as if they were on the battlefields.
I'm sorry, but I have to say that sometimes it's beyond comprehension psychiatry.
Can anybody explain to me, I'm not joking, how can an antidepressant or a mood stabiliser or an antipsychotic help vets?
It makes no sense to me.

Go to a local Vet Center where they specialize in treating PTSD which includes holding hands and a cup of coffee.

Drugs are NOT the answer. PLEASE take the time to watch a powerful video of PTSD treatments: http://www.emofree.com/splash/video_vets.asp

Go to StressProject.org or www.ommtech.com for access to a Project that is helping vets with six FREE sessions.

THIS PROCESS WORKS!!!!!

I'm of the opinion that much PTSD can't be dealt with in any way we know. You often can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.

But this traditional response of the VA: "take this and shut up, better yet take LOTS of this and go away and die" certainly makes things worse.

In the end, vets are on their own and have proven time and again they're their own best helpers. At least they friggin' listen to one another, which is more than the majority of mental "health" professionals seem able to do.

Sounds like the same kind of treatment I got, even though I wasn't in a war. At least not that kind of war.

While the VA is often a target (and sometimes rightly so) I am both a vet (Iraq) and a psychology intern at a VA. While some VAs may be struggling to keep up, where I work many many vets are seen for individual or group therapy. We often get referrals from both psychiatry and primary care. I get that the story of the homeless vet is sad, to characterize all VA employees as uncaring and just wanting to drug people is really quite inaccurate.

I have a lot of respect for the VA mental health rank and file, it's the policy-makers as usual who befoul the nest. Here in Austin our Mental Health Authority doesn't recognize PTSD as a bona fide mental illness (because the etiology is not biological) so the vets have nowhere to go but the underfunded, under-performing VA, and the hospital emergency rooms.
It all goes back to etiology, a word most people don't even know how to pronounce, much less how it shapes the mh system.

I’ve been receiving care from the Mental Health department at the Portland, OR VA Hospital since 2003. Things have changed drastically in their treatment policy and methodology in the last couple years. It used to be fairly easy to get in to see a psychologist; and once in, they would continue that care until the consensus (between you and the Psychologist) was that you no longer needed or would benefit from further sessions. NOW, however, you almost have to be in the throes of a psychotic episode or threatening suicide to actually get some talk therapy. And even then they insist on medicating you.

Most of the employees seem to be just as frustrated by this as the vets trying to get the appropriate care. I’m not convinced the treatment protocol would be the same if it were left up to the Psychiatrists and Psychologists. At least here at the Portland VA, that is the sense I have. I believe this is more of a policy and budget problem.

Also, despite whatever the news media is reporting about how the VA is on top of the increasing head trauma rates, they are improving at a snails pace. There are very few departments that are getting trained in the identification and treatment of head injuries. And unless ALL specialties are educated in at least the basics in recognizing this, a vet may never get the care they require thus resulting in misdiagnosis in many areas. Of course, along with misdiagnosis comes inappropriate care or treatment.

Vets have always had to be their own best advocate when it comes to the VA. Which is sometimes an impossible task when you’re screwed up and confused as to what’s happening to you.

Sadly, we're seeing more reports of vets on meds committing acts of violence which means more aot for vets which means more drugs which cause violence; violence which is blamed on the vet, not on the actual cause, drugs. It does get hairy though, with etiology. If ptsd is a sane, normal and decent response to war (which I believe it is), what duty do we owe our soldiers suffering from it? Every duty imaginable, I suggest.

Steve and Sally T.,
Thank you for speaking up. I worked for years in various health and rehab settings and am aware of how often the line staff's motivations and goals differ from the institutional stance. You are correct, there are many fine, capable and concerned professionals within the VA system. I was speaking of the overall institutional response to the Viet Nam vets with which I worked. Unfortunately, that was definitely a policy of drugging them into submission. This does not mean, of course, that all the many individual care givers supported this policy. I apologize for any insult to you by my posting.
Sherry

Sherry,

I was not insulted by your post.

Since I don't have any insurance coverage I'm grateful for the care I do receive from the VA but it very often feels substandard. I have had to pitch some serious hissy-fits at times to get proper care. The consequences are that I have been flagged as a "problem" patient. That's OK. That's not going to stop me from standing up for myself and reminding them just who they are there for.

Sally T.,
When I worked in rehab, lo those many years ago, the VA was absolutely the medical system of last resort. The civilian medical system is so broken at this point that you can no longer make that presumption. In fact, my neighbour and close friend is alive today, four years into kidney cancer, only because the VA did such a stellar job of managing his medical care. There's no "full service" VA hospital in my state so the VA contracted with civilian hospitals, in this case the best to be had. They were stellar. This kind of cancer is almost invariably fatal. Every day this man is in my life is a gift to all of us, thanks to the VA. While the care is available within the civilian system that cured him, it is not accessible to all. Without the advocacy of the VA there's no way he would have received this level and standard of care.

Who knew I'd be extolling the VA all these years later? Trust me, you'd be having to do at LEAST this much advocacy in the civilian system. I cannot go to our local hospital because I have been so thoroughly labeled and dismissed. God help me if I ever have a real emergency.