Have you ever had "Dark Man" dreams? And what helped to make it better?

2017-08-18T08:12:39-04:00

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 18 at 2017 9:07 AM

2017-08-18T09:07:03-04:00

I used to have dreams like that. I think the last one I had was prior to my first deployment. They just stopped happening.

Response by SFC William Stephens A. Jr., 3 MSM, JSCM made Aug 18 at 2017 10:01 AM

2017-08-18T10:01:23-04:00

WHAT IS THE CURE TO THE PROBLEM?

As we enter into a world of darkness and pain, sorrow and disease, where is the cure to our never-ending problems we face every day? Being stuck in a combat zone with nowhere to go. Bullets flying everywhere and your fellow soldiers, friends, comrades dying all around you and you can’t do anything but fire back at the enemy, knowing the next bullet might be with your name on it. Then there’s a silence in the air as you look around seeing all the bodies and your mind is going completely bonkers. No medic for miles and it’s just you left all alone and everything is dead and red.
Many years later you sit on the couch just recently out of the VA Hospital after horrible nightmares and visions of what you saw on the battlefield years before. Suffering from one of our number one killers of culture shock, Battle-Fatigue or today as we call it; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Science and Medical research says there are ways we can heal the demons or cope with our inner problems that we deal with every day. I think if you have been through a traumatic event and it digs in enough, there’s no going back to reality. You’re telling me for example the bullets you witnessed fly by your face and you seemed to see your life flash in front of your eyes several times while you stood there and time stood still, you’re just going to forget about this after a bunch of medical therapy and a bunch of medication that they want you to take to forget your problems and move on to the next problem?
I think there are many cures to our demons but sometimes we have to just face them one-on-one to understand this is the only way that the demon is going to uncover itself and it will always be a black hole within us and there is nothing we can ever do to get rid of that pain and suffering of a lost one or that traumatic event in your life.
Life does not stop on the couch. Some make that choice to remain on the couch and spend their days trying to find the answers with in their minds as they daydream all day long. The answer is not on the couch, the answer is reaching out and trying to find help with people and friends around you, loved ones and family members or just a close someone. I see where the VA has a person so drugged up with medication that this’s the only answer in their world but sometimes even the doctors are wrong in cases. Now medication is distributed in vast quantities to so many veterans that just about anyone can get their hands on some kind of psychiatrist drugs these days. Now they are introducing medical marijuana into the system and do you really think this is going to help a PTSD penitent? Here you’re a veteran who has never smoked or drank alcoholic beverages and now you’re giving them Marijuana to smoke everyday instead of taking pills. Bad call on the part of the system. Most of time they would be high and could not operate a motor vehicle or work at a job, using the system.
Now again in my case the reason why I’m writing this is because for the last three years I been taking pain medication on top of my PTSD medication like a high, I want sometimes not to feel pain and I want something to stop the pain so why not have something to never to have pain. Well, the VA recommended I take this certain type of medication for so many years but then it started catching up to me. I noticed blood in my stool and I told the VA about it and I guess you could say it was under supervision for a while because this was an off thing and I had a Colonoscopy planned in the future. Well, days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and the medications took their toll and I started to bleed out, SO I went to the Emergency Room and the doctors at the Hospital told me “my kidneys were failing and the medication I was taking for pain was not helping them.” So I was admitted in to the hospital for a few days and tests were ran on me. I find out that this medication I’ve been on for three years for pain and my PTSD has not been helping me and my body had been reacting to it and I was not noticing it until it was too late.
What is the cure for being healthy this day? Really nothing, because I think eventually everything you put in your body will hurt you. Now I’m not saying go run out and grab a bag of medical marijuana and smoke it up but there are a lot of people out there with PTSD with ratings who should have higher ratings and they don’t have the support from their local VA’s. I hope you are not one of them guys and gals sitting on the couch reading this because if you are, it’s time to change your life and open up the door and find a cure to the terrible disease that has put you in a trap that has been holding you and your family down for years. Hey I don’t write to get my thrills’ out of this and try to make a buck or two. I suffer from the same shit you suffer from and stood on the same battlefield you did my friend. If I can do this and come from punching walls and not talking to people, to having a beautiful baby girl and being an Author of a book, you can get off that couch you’ve been sitting on for years because we can beat this you and I.

SAM007

Response by SGT Philip Roncari made Aug 18 at 2017 12:30 PM

2017-08-18T12:30:09-04:00

I don't know what "Dark Man" dreams are,I really haven't been diagnosed with PTSD but then again I never went to the VA until recently for an Agent Orange study whether or not my alcoholism was used as a crutch I don't know ,been in AA since 1977 and as an older Vietnam vet my demons are fading replaced with family memories not that I'll ever forget my time over there and the heroes I was privileged enough to serve with,that will never go away,never.

Response by SPC Ted Heath made Aug 18 at 2017 3:35 PM

2017-08-18T15:35:55-04:00

I've talked to a lot of WWII Vets over my lifetime. I had 5 great uncles who survived it,one was stranded by a Japanese Zero from angle to his head. I lived in the house with him until I joined the Army. I don't remember any of them displaying signs, although I'm sure they had PTSD. The things they saw and did. how could they not? I often wonder how the Greatest Generation dealt with PTSD, when it wasn't recognized, and practically all surviving WWII vets had it, and we are talking about millions of them. makes them an even Greater Generation, in my opionion. I grew up idolizing them, and still do.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 18 at 2017 4:14 PM

2017-08-18T16:14:21-04:00

Nothing makes it better.
Because nearly everything is a reminder of another place and time.
Even happy memories give you a sense of loss for what isn't there anymore.

Response by SPC Casey Ashfield made Aug 18 at 2017 8:11 PM

2017-08-18T20:11:33-04:00

Not really sure what "Dark Man" dreams are. I have recurring dreams where my old squad leader sits down with me at my kitchen table wearing and looking exactly like I saw him last: kit, rifle, and part of his skull missing. It used to freak me out for the first couple years. Then I figured out that it was just my subconscious way of sorting things. "Talking" with him in my dreams were about present and past events.

I have worse ones but can't remember most of them. And the ones I do remember I haven't figured out yet.