Inside a PTSD support group

Craig Freilich of North Country This Week has a great article from inside a veterans’ support group meeting in Canton:

An Iraq veteran said, “My father is a Vietnam vet, and he was always jumpy around fireworks. Now I realize what was going on. I have a young son and I have a big problem. He had one of those snappers, and he set it off, and I wanted to kill him.”

“I got sober in 1984, then got drunk 18 years later. I was out of control,” said another. “It’s still a struggle, every day.”

Another, recalling nights in Vietnam, said “They expect you to come home and be able to sleep at night. I used to get to sleep, with a quart of whiskey.”

Recalling the brutality of war, one man said “I can’t eat barbecued chicken anymore.”

Vietnam veteran and PTSD specialist Nellie Coakley is the counselor at these meetings.  Listen to this interview with her from 2007.

Mental health issues from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will linger with us for decades.  Finding ways to help these veterans – including making the system work for them – remains a huge challenge for America.

Frank articles like this one keep an often invisible problem in the public mind.