Posted on Dec 25, 2025
PO3 Phyllis Maynard
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It is a stunning experience to watch the people closest to a person with PTSD berate and aggravate the person constantly. Either the family and friends do not realize how they are hurting the person or they do not care what the education and science says about the condition.
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Lt Col Charlie Brown
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Find a trusted counselor and arrange an intervention for the family. Maybe a chaplain or someone else trained in trauma work.
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PO3 Phyllis Maynard
PO3 Phyllis Maynard
1 d
Lt Col Charlie Brown that is certainly a successful modality, I understand.
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Lt Col Charlie Brown
Lt Col Charlie Brown
18 h
PO3 Phyllis Maynard - we sometimes act like the only "broken" one is the veteran...sometimes it is the whole family.
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PO3 Phyllis Maynard
PO3 Phyllis Maynard
12 h
Lt Col Charlie Brown it would be so insightful if family members would be opened to self-examination.
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MAJ Byron Oyler
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The science does not often get it right for military members. Day one when we enter military service it is all about the team and mission, and this is very different from civilian life. We then try to fix the problems by making it all about the person. We need to fix it the same way we broke it, as a team member and focus on the hurt person being a member of a team like they were on AD. We need to show them their team needs them just as much as they did on day one of active duty.
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Lt Col Charlie Brown
Lt Col Charlie Brown
18 h
You are correct on this MAJ Byron Oyler . I find the best help vets get is helping other vets...and that is how it works in Israel and their level of PTS and alcohol/drug abuse following service is much lower than ours.
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PO3 Edward Riddle
PO3 Edward Riddle
2 h
When I first sobered up, Brother Byron, and Sister Charlie, all the shit I had been suppressing with the drugs and alcohol came rushing at me like a freight train. I started getting counseling at a free clinic with a very nice-looking Woman. I told that Woman things I had never told anyone else, about my growing up days. Knowing I was a Vet, she introduced me to the director of the clinic, who happened to have been a Navy Seal. It just so happened that he was at the same place I was in Nam, at the same time I was there, Hell, he could have rode on my River Boat for all I know. That was back in the days when there was only 2 teams, one from the East Coast and one from the West Coast Well, I started being counseled by him. We would go to his house and just talk about the shit that troubled me and after a while, a lot of that crap was just not bothering me anymore. This guy was my saving Grace, and I owe my continued sobriety, for the most part, and my sanity to this man. We remained good friends until he passed away earlier this year. So yes, Vets helping Vets.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
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Edited 2 d ago
I Haven't had that problem with family support, it's also only been recently things that didn't bother Me at the time I served in Vietnam in 1968-69 now Come up in nights as strange dreams. I seem to feel that there are plenty of people that went through more than I did. Also after 40 years of Police work both Military and civilian the number of call where Physiatrist were the problem themselves on far too many family disturbance calls. A lot of them had their own mental health problems in My opinion and i didn't trust them to solve My own. One Physiatrist friend of mine told Me about 85% of His own fellow shrinks entered the field to find out what was wrong with themselves. On some of those calls it was the so called Mental Health professionals were the problem and NOT the family member they called about. In some of those cases it was the Doctor I either arrested or determined they were the problem. it's not family support but lack of trust in these Physiatrist to go there with My problems. I seem to do better with My own fellow Veteran's than many of those Doctors. I have had college courses in Psychology but I'm NOT a Doctor or expert in that field but i know a nut when I see one and many of these Doctors qualify as just that !
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PO3 Phyllis Maynard
PO3 Phyllis Maynard
2 d
SMSgt Lawrence McCarter big chuckle, in my early quest to get mental health help, it was always the wack-a-doodles with the degree controlling how things would go with me. In my case, the colloquial understanding of trauma was, "blacks did not go to psychiatrists because we were confined in state hospitals". So, I pressed on without family support or mental health treatment.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
2 d
PO3 Phyllis Maynard - That a very sad, when in Vietnam the guys in My unit ALL were going through the same thing and race had nothing at all to do with it. We ALL did our jobs and the stress impact effected ALL of us. The common enemy was the NVA and the Viet Cong, NOT each other. That is so shameful that these Psychiatrists treated any Man or woman different and wrongly based on race after their wartime or other hazardous service to their country !
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SGT Whatever Needs Doing.
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1 d
"One Physiatrist friend of mine told Me about 85% of His own fellow shrinks entered the field to find out what was wrong with themselves."
I can attest the factuality of this claim. My older Sister is the only place i need to look.
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PO3 Phyllis Maynard
PO3 Phyllis Maynard
1 d
SMSgt Lawrence McCarter I am very glad the landscape has changed drastically over the years.
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