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V.A. "Discovers" Delayed Stress

By VVAW

Vietnam was a different kind of war. Instead of young French girls throwing roses, Vietnamese were throwing hand grenades. Instead of being received by the people as "liberators," we were met by peasants who treated us as invaders. Rather than fighting against a corrupt dictatorship, we were propping one up. The myth of Vietnam being an American fight for freedom and democracy exploded in the reality of My Lai-type massacres. Vietnam veterans faced the incredible contradiction of the government propaganda with the bloody reality.

Most vets were pretty quiet about their experiences in Vietnam. This wasn't wholly because the people back home were not supporting the war as some pundits are now saying, but because many people did not want to hear the reality of our experiences. How many of us wrote the letters home, while we were in Vietnam, even to our families which never talked about the reality of what we were doing. And more than a few of us were ashamed and embarrassed about what America had done to the Vietnamese and tried to put it out of our minds, tried to shove it deep into our memories and leave it. But not talking about our experiences did not make them go away—in fact more and more of those memories persist in coming back.

VVAW was one of the first groups to deal with what doctors and psychologists are not calling "delayed stress syndrome." As early as eleven years ago VVAW set up rap groups to deal with what we then called "Post-Vietnam Syndrome." At the time the V.A., older vets' groups and the government were denying its existence but VVAW knew it was real because we had to deal with it on a daily basis. Ten years later the reality of psychological problems has become so acute that even the V.A. is forced to deal with its existence.

As of October 1st, 1980, the V.A. has "discovered" the existence of what it calls "post traumatic stress neurosis (disorder)"—which is the same thing as PVS used to be or delayed stress syndrome is today. The V.A.'s definition of what will permit the award of disability is as follows:

"Post-traumatic stress neurosis (disorder) is a psychiatric disorder having its onset as an incident of armed conflict or enemy action, or following bombing, shipwreck, or internment under inhumane or severely deprived conditions or similar life threatening episodes...(There must be)

• A Recognizable stressor that would be expected to evoke significant symptoms in almost all individuals, that is, a life threatening episode...
• Re-experiencing the traumatic event either by a recurrent and intrusive recollection of the event, dream of the event, or suddenly acting or feeling as if the traumatic even were occurring because of an association with an environmental or ideational stimulus.
• Numbing of response to or involvement with the external world feeling of detachment or estrangement from others, or marked constriction of affective responses.
• At least two of the following symptoms that were not present prior to the traumatic event:

1. Hyperalertness or exaggerated startle response.
2. Sleep disturbance.
3. Guilt about surviving while others have not.
4. Memory impairment or trouble concentrating.
5. Avoidance of activities that arouse recollection of the traumatic event.
6. Intensification of symptoms by exposure to events that symbolize or resemble the traumatic event."

The V.A. circular from which this information is taken goes on to discuss acute and chronic problems, says that if the disorder doesn't fit all these standards it is not worthy of compensation and warns against assuming that vets who are just alienated or have "dropped out" are suffering any compensatable disorder. However, once the criteria have been satisfied, according to the V.A., a vet may by awarded anywhere from 0% to 100% disability.

Cutting through the jargon, the V.A. directive seems to say that vets must prove, through their military records, that they were involved in a life-threatening event ( and few of us who were in Vietnam didn't face at least a couple of them) and that their lives, since that time, have been affected by the event. Exactly how that will be proved remains to be seen.

Since the time the V.A. directive came out, there have been some cases of veterans who have won disability payments as a result of post-traumatic stress neurosis. Craig Williams, a 9th infantry vet in Minneapolis, won $133 a month and all the psychiatric care he needs after only a three-year battle with the V.A. After he had been out of 'Nam for 8 years he began having flashbacks and nightmares. He spent three months with a V.A. psychiatrist who diagnosed him as having war neurosis, but then had to stop because the problems were not "service connected"!!!

Williams comments, "I wasn't interested in monetary compensation, my objective was to get a service-related disability for the trauma I received in Nam so I could continue with therapy... The government was responsible for this and I think that it should take care of a great number of guys who are out there with the same thing."

A few independent psychologists have taken a great interest in the problem. Psychologist John Wilson of Michigan State says it's possible by 1985 that "40-50 percent of the combat veterans could have problems serious enough to impair normal functioning if strategic intervention is not forthcoming soon." And Dr Charles Figley of Purdue estimates that as many as 68% of combat vets still have recurring dreams and nightmares, indicating latent anxieties. "The symptoms might be delayed, "he says, "but the problems are always there."

It is a triumph, of sorts, that the V.A. was finally forced to recognize the existence of service-connected psychological disabilities resulting from service in Vietnam. The victory came because vets would not let the issue die—and could not let it die because it is something that thousands of us live with every day and every night. How much it is connected with exposure to Agent Orange is now under investigation, though for the veteran of his family living through the problems, their interest is less in the cause than in how to best deal with the situation.

When VVAW first tried to approach the problem of PVS back in the late 1960's, we built the "rap" groups knowing that vets would talk more easily with other vets. We did this without benefit of consultants or V.A. psychiatrists—but because we knew it needed to be done. The V. A. has yet to develop a better, more effective form of treatment, and $133 a month is not enough to pay for broken marriages, inability to hold a job, or any of the hundred and one other things that are the result of PVS. Vets finally made the V.A. do its job—or at least start to—on this issue: and we will do it again!