this is a time when the meds are a good thing. you can't do much about your sleep cycle problems when you're confined like you are.

listen, this is solid from the head of neuro-psych at texas tech med school here in el paso, who is my pdoc, and has proven 100% accurate for me: topomax simply wipes out the nightmares and flashbacks with zero side-effects with almost 100% reliability in patients w/ptsd. i take 1 small dose right before bed and it works. i sleep 6-7 hours uninterrupted...no nightmares. and i've had zero flashbacks since i started it. talk to your docs.

P'duck I am a Veteran as well as a Disabled Vet. I never served in Combat so I can not Honestly say I know how you feel. I have been on our Volunteer Fire Dept. for almost 16 years now and since we are a town of 1498 with less than 2000 in the whole County, most of the Deaths I have worked, I have known personally. I have found that it is hard to talk to my Wife about these things because she has never been thru anything like that. She didnt understand until I explained that it was like her talking about losing her Dad. I could sympathise with her but I could not Understand her because I have (and hope I wont for a long time) never lost a Father. I feel it is much easier to talk to the guys that have been thru these things. They understand and we can laugh and cry together. In MY opinion, a Phsychologist is the same as my Wife. Most can talk to you about your problems but MOST have never been thru that and have NO IDEA WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT.

father of 4,

the value of a psychologist/counselor is not that they empathize w/ur particular life experiences on that level. it is that they are OBJECTIVE and CLINICAL, but w/sympathy (sensitivity to emotional realities through training and temperament). they are trained and structured and detached from your maelstrom. they can give you the rationality, objectivity, and structure that you can't reach at the present and help you develop management skills for your condition. that's the good ones, of course. they're just like mechanics, musicians, or dentists...there are good and bad ones.

furthermore, some psychologists/social workers/counselors HAVE had similar experiences. my pdoc has ptsd from combat experience. my last team doc w/the va was a former special forces medic from vietnam who has ptsd.

i think you do a great disservice to anyone struggling with emotional or psychological stress when you make such broad disparaging generalizations.

Ken you have a very good point. But as I was saying it was only My opinion but I do understand what you are saying and again you have a great point.

trust me, i've seen the results of a lot of bad counseling. so i understand where you're coming from. and i believe in the value of mentoring and peer counseling/support groups, too. after all, those things are a huge part of what i do. but i like a box full of good tools. you don't use them all every day. but they all have their proper time and place.

i wasn't really keen on taking a run at you, either. but i felt i had to add a differnt perspective. glad you didn't take offense.

I sure didnt. I never claimed to know everything and its always good to have many views on a subject. Heck im the Mayor of Paducah, if I got offended every time someone disagreed with me I would be a mad son of a gun lol. Thanks Ken

Great info and thanks folks, I will be doing some thinking and trying to continue opening up when I get back to some counselling. Things are not easy to openly discuss as once in a while doing what I had to do was and is done. Time to let it go but for now we hold onto it.

I have zero issues talking about being blown up, shot at, stabbed or anything like that. Simply other things are not as easy, if it happened to me all is good, happened by me is another story as well as other things.

Appreciate the rambling space. You guys and gals are great.

Thank you.

Yeah that's the hard part. Trying to rationalize and reconsile what you did. You know you can't, but that doesn't stop you from trying.

Howdy all good news !
FINALY got my packet from VA in the mail Monday.
I was rated at 70 % for ptsd and got a nice little check yesterday, gonna pay off some bills.
Still fighting with them on stuff, but not giving up on this, thanks to all for the encouragement !

good to hear and that little check is a plus any day of the week

Hey bos checking in on ya and I see thigs are getting better, keep up the hard fight, it will payout in the long run for you for sure. Been getting out at all.

I haven't due to army work schedual and it never ends.

Great to hear about the 70% and the check, any little bit helps.

Glad to hear your rating came through, we have asked for a 30 day decision on my rating. My initial claim was for injuries to foot, leg, ankle, knee, back and shoulder. Once I submitted was just before PTSD diagnosis, so that has to wait until after first claim is complete, however they have the paperwork.

One thing I found out about is that if anyone is off work due to a military disability you are elegible to file for a 100% total temporary disability for the duration of the time off work. I am off work for 6 months and have filed even though mine is in the process still, backpay ultimately catches up with us.

Keep up with the paperwork and keep filing whatever they ask for, I know it is frustrating but it takes time. There are a lot of us in the system and more coming in everyday. Thank goodness for family and friends out there who are supporting us mentally!

Yeah the money is nice !
The papertrail is frustrating, but have been trained well in hurry up and wait !
Taking a Vet out for a chance at some hogs tonight, hopefully will get one and post some pics with FOF and huntingwithsoldiers.
Y'all take care.

BOS

You have to be able to weed through some of the great information folks readily give you. READ the Regulations and KNOW them BETTER than the VA people. The INTENT of the Code of Federal Regulations is to take care of the disabled Vet. When it comes to 100% IU, The intent overrides the small blurps. The blurps most often discourage and are not grounds for refusal of based on the intent.

Most of those Vetern Reps accept things at face value and don't help worth a flip. Your best bet in TEXAS is your COUNTY rep.

YOU MUST regurgitate verbatim the regulation when writing your attachments to the applications. Yes, attachments!

You CAN obtain IU with only a zero percent rating, not likely with less than sixty percent, but possible. I helped someone with thirty percent obtain IU and Soc-Sec because they could not obtain employment and the condition precluded it.

You do not have to be out of work for six months.

You can also meet soc-sec requirements as long as you CANNOT OBTAIN OR SUSTAIN (SUBSTANTIAL) EMPLOYMENT BECAUSE OF A MENTAL OR PHYSICAL PROBLEM.

You can do a lot in twenty years active service and shoving regs down officer throats was one of my specialties. I also wrote regs. One of my muntitions shipping regulations for maritime was 10.0000 pages, yes 10K!

If you wanna get paid, learn these regulations!! Its your new job and you should be the best at it.

Your money, second home, your tax free property, your children and spouses paid education, and peace of mind, depend upon your knowledge.

You should also know periodically an in-house memo is sent throughout the Veterans Affairs telling them not to help Veterans with information concerning ratings.

Did you know homeless disabled vets get a per diem for living under a bridge?

Goodluck Fellas!

Did you know homeless disabled vets get a per diem for living under a bridge?


I wonder if I could move into an RV and live on land in the Hill Country? Technically an RV is classified as being homeless, and some of the RV's are nice.

Do any of you know what constitutes a "multiplier"?

Theres a lot of info in those CFR's and the VA ain't gonna tell you a feather dustin thing to help you.

READ!

Bos, Give me a status report how ya doing buddy??

Doing good I guess !
Staying busy helping FOF run the hunting program and hunting with some old farts up the road...lol

Folks I will say right here that if it werent for mboswells help I wouldnt know what to do. He is one great Friend.

Well that is a great deal, you keep busy and help FOF out with the hunting, keep busy, I have been hunting Fort Hood and doing very miserable, way to many hunter and some trash your stuff, I just had it happen to me, but keep doing what you are doing sounds like a great support system to me.

SFC Kevin Wylie

The 2 old farts up the road are Viet Nam Vets, great to hang out with a nd listen to.
They also got me into reloading .
Have been looking for the hogs and not having any luck, just not there at the right time.
The program is great, had fun with the first bunch of guy's and looking forward to the next group.
FOF you got a good thing going, I'm glad to help !

would love to find me some place like this, a place to spend my time.
bos glad your doing ok,its a rough road back.
like i tell people we dont all wear our scars on the outside.

70% PTSD - Iraq 2004. Had to give up my lease this year with the down turn and kid on the way. I come by the site and take a look when I can.

As for PTSD: the big thing for me was not giving up and not being satisfied with my current life - too much booze, meds, not working, depressed, suicidal, etc...

I just started with something and tried to fix that - together all my problems were too much. But I first worked to cut the booze. Then worked on going to VA meetings, got my meds going, tried a bit of work... just slowly, slowly, one thing at a time you can put it back together. I was in the black hole for 18 months.

No you are not going to be the same old person you were before. But you can be better than you are now - and that is not doped up on drugs, that is only to get you through the really down parts.

There is another side to this journey - you are not stuck being down and depressed and feeling worthless forever. You have to work through it, but you can come out and be a normal productive, happy person again.

hummmm

Yea man, Im dealing with it too, have been for a while now. I was given Paxil, it works pretty good, but my nightmares of the warzone still get me from time to time. Just remember its a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. Talking about what bothers you will help a little.

Are you seeing anyone about it?