A guy that works for me just called me. His BIL shot himself. Iraqi Vet.

Suffered from PTSD.
Blew his brains out with a handgun.
He spent a fair amount of his time in Fallujah.

How do I respond to THAT?
What do I say to him?
Other then he has my support and whatever he needs, he's got it.
He is on his way to comfort his sister, and I am wondering tonight...

WAR!
WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING.

Makes the drama in DC over the debt ceiling seem rather insignificant, does it not?

MOTHERFUCKERS!
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

People still die....Cheney is just as responsible.

:grouphug:

:grouphug:

:-(

And no, there is nothing you can do but try to help them get through it.

Why we put our brave men and women through this shit for nothing I will never understand.

Did the worries over his VA benefits add to it?

and try to help in whatever ways, large or small, that you can find to help ease their pain, sorrow and guilt.

Hugs to you, and to them.

I'm so sorry to hear - but at least we know the name of his murderers. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al.

Hopefully one day we will have a nation that has the moral strength to try them for crimes against humanity.

another generation of soldiers fighting a war that has no meaning.

Another casualty of the wars that never end.

I don't know what to say but I feel for those left behind and hope they will be okay.

RIP soldier! :patriot:


:cry: and :hug:

I'm so very sorry...
It's never-ending ...

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and all who loved him





peace~

is not guilty for this.

Suicide is always hard, and those left behind are also victims.

If nothing else, offer a shoulder and an ear.

if they don't. It's the "take it out on themselves instead of others" approach to coping with uncontrollable rage.

My late husband was 100% disabled from PTSD, a Viet Nam vet. He had it as bad as it can get, and told me all about what he was going through, thousands of hours talking about it. Also numerous other vet friends of his had the same thing.

He was one of the very few who had it that bad and was not institutionalized. Mostly because we found our own ways to cope with it. It took changing our way of life quite a bit. For instance, I slept on the sofa for the last 15 years of his life. To this day even after he's gone, I still can't sleep in a bed. (maybe someday) One thing I feel good about is that he passed away peacefully in his sleep at home, of natural causes. I always almost assumed that the end would at best include flashing lights and sirens and EMTs and an ER. (Those things are stressful for PTSD vets, so I'm glad he was spared that.)

Give your friend your sympathy and support, that helps the most. There might be a support group for PTSD vets and/or families.

PTSD never goes away and it never gets better. But a vet CAN learn to LIVE WITH it, given enough support from others around him/her. It takes learning one's own customized ways of dealing with one's own specific symptoms and issues. It takes a lot of trial and error and a lot of thought, talk, and looking for answers. It isn't easy. It takes a long time, it's not a fast process. That's in a nutshell the best I can describe what to do, for anyone who may be coping with it.

WWII on December 7 after watching the news. My mother was at a meeting when he did it, but earlier that night they had been watching scenes of the war on the news (since it was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor). She and a neighbor found him in our back yard when she returned home.

Daddy never talked about the war, but everyone who knew him before said he wasn't the same person when he returned. My grandmother used to talk to me about him and how different he was. His brother, my uncle, was in the Navy on a ship and he didn't see the horrors that my father did.

Daddy fought in the Battle of Cape Gloucester, the Battle of Peleliu and the Battle of Okinawa. I never realized how awful those battles were until my husband and I watched the recently released color films which were shown on The History Channel.

Most of the WWII veterans just didn't talk about the war. One of Daddy's friends had been a POW, and he used to call Daddy and talk and weep, but my daddy just didn't express his own feelings.

He really was a good father, a great provider and I loved him so very much, but we all knew to avoid his "moods" as we were growing up.

His suicide devastated our entire family and we've never been the same.

I hate war.

:hug:

I saw graffiti in Berlin. Written on walls still pock marked from the bombings and shellings of 75 years ago, it said simply:

"All war is terror."

it was recent and written in english. But the bombed out buildings, never rebuilt were mostly on the east side of where the wall had been. There was a music club with a large outdoor beer garden in some of these buildings. They seemed occupied by artists and squatters. London has similar areas still and you can see many from the train which runs from Heathrow into London. The Brits use the phrase "bombed flat". The area around St Paul's was heavily bombed and is now a jumble of post modern office building filling in gaps in the otherwise consistent 1700-1900 architecture.

The older Germans pointedly warned me that they did not know their country has slipped into fascism until it was too late to stop it.

fighter pilot dad was almost killed when another fighter pilot decided to commit suicide in formation. They were in the Pacific, too. We can't even imagine what they did, saw and went through. May they all rest in peace. We owe them so very much.

:hug:

:hug:

are heroes to those of us who served in the post WWII era. Yes, Marines are still courageous and capable, but we've never been tested as they were.

Would you by chance know what unit he served in?

which was part of the 1st Marine Division.

He always took such pride in being a Marine, and when I was young he taught me to sing "From the Halls of Montezuma, To the shores of Tripoli..."

I still have his Blue Dress uniform.

It shows a lot of strength that you went through it with him. Many people aren't so strong.

:thumbsup:

have thoughts that are just as "crazy" or "violent" as theirs. And they need to feel like they can talk about it without being judged and without horrifying the hoer person. That can only happen with other PTSD vets.

I'm not sure it's universally helpful, but it sure has helped a bunch of people, and seems to me it's worth trying. It's certainly worth knowing about. AND it's something that people can use for themselves IF they can handle it. (I
http://www.eftuniverse.com/index.php?searchword=PTSD&ordering=&searchphrase=all&Itemid=485&option=com_search

And please note that there's a link to "Get Started Free" in the upper left menu.

I apologize for posting this as a response to your post. I am so sorry for the hell on earth you and all the other people of my generation who were so negatively affected by the Vietnam war must've lived through, as well as the loss of your beloved vet husband. No one who lived through that era was unaffected. It was a wound on our entire national psyche that persists to this day and my heart will ever go out to my brothers and sisters who bore the worst of that burden and wound through their military service.

Some people need to come back to work sooner rather than later. He needs to know that it's not strange if he needs to do that but that if he needs a week off then that's normal, too.

Hug him and let him know everyone supports him. Try your best to treat him like you always do when he comes back.

committed suicide upstairs in his parents home with his two young children downstairs playing. There are no words that bring comfort. Only letting my cousin know that I was there for her if she needed someone when she was ready. It is a terrible way to lose someone.

Just keep calling and seeing her like you did before. Even though it's hard since nobody knows what to say and do for the bereft.

Send a condolence card, find out if they need donations for burial expenses and donate, or donate in his name to the charity of choice. If there is nothing listed, donate in the BIL's name to a veteran's group or a local VA hospital. Overall, just let the coworker know that you're there for him if he needs anything.

Until we quit sending our troops on multiple deployments and ignoring them when they come home,this will continue to happen.


http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/web-resources/web-military-resources.asp

http://militaryfamily.about.com/od/woundedwarriors/a/Ptsd-Resources-Support-Groups-And-Tools-For-Veterans.htm

http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/

http://www.ivaw.org/resources/ptsd