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Delayed Stress: Psychological Problems & Vietnam Vets

By VVAW

The concept that Vietnam was a different war than wars in the past and that the problems of Vietnam vets are different than those for other veterans has slowly seeped into the American consciousness. With the media backing off the "madman" syndrome that was so often the picture of the vet in the '70's, a new and more sympathetic image is coming forward—a song like Charlie Daniel's "Still in Saigon" portraying a sympathetic look at the real problems of post-traumatic stress disorder.

As a group within society we veterans know about the problems the war cause for vets—almost from the day we stepped off the plane. VVAW was one of the groups that et up rap groups for what we then called Post-Vietnam Syndrome; we weren't psychologists or anything else other than vets who suffered from the same problems of adjusting to life in the world only a few days after being in the middle of a Southeast Asian jungle. We learned quickly that while we probably couldn't solve the problems, giving vets the chance to talk out the problems with other vets was a big step in the right direction.

Ten years later the VA put out their first circular on how to deal with the same thing, now called post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). The VA set up an elaborate set of definitions and regulations which added up to the fact that a vet had to prove, through his military records, that he was in a life-threatening situation and that his life, since that time, has been effected by that event.

To date the VA record on ptsd has been questionable at best. When questioned about hard figures on the number of vets who have applied for ptsd disability, VA officials have been evasive. When asked about percentages who have had disabilities approved, the VA is even more unclear. For a program which was given a large amount of publicity, it seems strange that the VA can't even compile figures.

The mystery is easily solved, however. A smokescreen has been manufactured by the VA that makes the question more complex than it actually is. Post-traumatic stress has been acknowledged by the medical community for years, but the VA is unable to communicate the symptoms to its own administrators. Like the Agent Orange Registry program, Agent Orange medical problems, or many other modern medical procedures, introduction into the VA bureaucracy in damn near impossible. VA administrators and medical chiefs in many locations simply do not cotton to these new-fangled procedures. Moreover, they resent the pressure put upon them from Vietnam vets groups to implement procedures and programs in areas that they aren't even aware of since they either cannot are will not read the circulars and continuous wave of paper flooding their desks. Many of the "old guard" have never liked Vietnam vets anyhow and wish we would go away. They treat us like dirt and act like we're trying to steal something from them instead of getting the benefits we were guaranteed when we joined up.

When ptsd was introduced as a disability, the battle for vets' was just beginning to develop. It seems a relatively simple procedure has been turned into something highly complex that we are somehow expected to solve ourselves—and we may have to.

The VA does indeed work in mysterious ways. A Chicago vet with a history of flashbacks brought on by stress—and caused by inability to find a job to support himself and his family—is living a new nightmare at the hands of the VA. In and out of VA hospitals, diagnosed for a variety of mental problems, drugged to the max by a ton of different drugs—this vet finally hoped to reach a resolution of his ptsd disability. After seeing a VA doctor for months—one who correctly diagnosed his problems—he went before the VA board to get his disability. Unfortunately, as part of the official procedure, he had to see another psychiatrist who made the determination that the vet was not affected by ptsd—in fact, this quack hadn't the slightest idea was ptsd was!

At the vets' first hearing he was denied the ptsd disability since the doctor he had been seeing for treatment and counseling for months was not allowed to introduce his records. Unless the necessary pressure by bets groups and politicians can be exerted, the case will probably go down the drain, but even more important is the large number of similar cases being similarly mistreated by the VA bureaucracy.

After years of struggle to obtain this disability and have it recognized, Vietnam vets are now faced with the fight to insure that the VA will live up to its responsibility. The VA finally began this program for ptsd and should now release the figures. Once ptsd was recognized as a service-connected disability the VA must live up to its promises or face the charge that their whole program was nothing more than window-dressing to divert attention from the Agent Orange issue about which they are still doing not a damn thing.