Vets Center

[DMZmarine]

I have been going to the Vets Venter in Sacramento and va hospital at Mather for PTSD. I am a Nam vet 1967/1968 with 0351a with Echo co 2/26 and 0311 wuth CAC hotel 6 and 7 south of Phu Bi.I am currently IN a 13 week PTSD 101 at the VA.I am in the 5th week and have learned alot about PTSD.The one thing i have learned is the VA gives you drugs and The Vet center gives you great counselling.Which the Va doesnt supply unless your getting medications.Where as the Vet center makes you feel you hav finally found some one that gives a **** and valadates your stuff.
It has taken many years to finally seek help.I just want the vets out there to know there is a place you can get some help with out a quiz..like the VA does.
Semper FI
:flag:

[DocGreek]

DMZ...2/6?? Is that 2/6/2? I started at the Vet Center, when it was called "re-adjustment counseling", back in the 80's. NO COMPLAINTS!!....SEMPER FI....Doc Greek

[Riven37]

Everyone’s Vet Center experiences are different then other Vets may had experienced. I to started out in the Vet Center back in 83 another vet had to trick me to get me in the door for help.

During my time from 83 to 89 I learned a lot, got tight in the groups with other vets and where I started learning my counseling graft. It's also where I was directed to attend college. Those days are long gone for me our Vet Center is more of do you have an appointment. The Rap groups are more focused to PTSD then toward to feeling OK with other Nam Vet or to feel it was OK to talk.

Then I started working as a Vets counselor helping Nam vets with PTSD, and their families cover drug abuse, domestic violence etc...all connected to the VA system.

Then I graduated years later ignoring my own issues until it ended me into a combat stress program a couple of times. Today, because of my background, I no longer have a group setting, a therapist of my own or a pchsy doctor, or do I take any more anti depressant drugs .. The VA place me out in the pasture this means a pick and choose mind set ... In the VA's mind set I am able to help my self but I think of killing my self often, and I am not better. I am still very angry, I have issues and yet there is no more help for me either from the VA or a vet center.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind stepping aside making room for the new vets God knows they need the help but I look at it as I am back where I first started alone dealing with my own issues alone. The only difference is I am more educated today then I was back in 71 or 83, I am now retired, own my property, and I'm a 100 percent disabled but I am still fighting my war alone.


If any of you guys are still like me alone, find a few Nam vets, and buy a cabin and me once a month for your own group session. Use the cabin when you feel tense, and when issues get the best of you because one day I know, I will stop telling myself not having a weapon needs to change and buy one; I fear that day coming.

[DMZmarine]

Its 2/26th Marines Doc...I want to thank you and Riven37 for your ccomments..Wifth out them i am lost in the VA..So Thank you .I am just statinmg to deal with PTSD so i apreciate your words...I have seen alot of vets on meds numb .I am also on meds.I am just hoping for a few good days ..with out the anger and depression some day in the future..i just wanted to say for me i felt better at the vet center...then the Va hospital right now..I have seen 10 docs so far at the VA and each one gives me the same Quiz and run around..The PTSd 101 is good.Their is about 40 nam vets in there...
soon we will start A trama group...That shoud help i believe..

[Riven37]

The trouble the VA seems to have is alienation between veterans. When I went through our Combat Stress program the first time we had mostly all Marines but one Marine couldn't handle the program and he lost it. Just this one event placed the rest of us in such a state of mind we as a group locked up within ourselves, and the first time experience was a bad one.


My second time, seem better but hard because we had Army, Marines a few AF's. War is war but crossing military in a therapeutic group can work against vets. My roommate had a hard time when I had one of my night terrors, to my roommate it was a trigger for him, and he left the program early. Its hard therefore, no vet should have an expectations because they can hurt worse when guys are seeking some kind of balance in their lives.

[bucksgted]

Marines & Doc, give this site a look-see. It can't hurt and may help: pmim.org. If you feel you have VA issues, these folks are really tough on the VA: hadit.com. Couse, you know you have to put the www's in front.

Semper Fidelis, Brothers. May you get the help and assistance you deserve and have already paid for.

Ed

[Troutzilla]

Its 2/26th Marines Doc...I want to thank you and Riven37 for your ccomments..Wifth out them i am lost in the VA..So Thank you .I am just statinmg to deal with PTSD so i apreciate your words...I have seen alot of vets on meds numb .I am also on meds.I am just hoping for a few good days ..with out the anger and depression some day in the future..i just wanted to say for me i felt better at the vet center...then the Va hospital right now..I have seen 10 docs so far at the VA and each one gives me the same Quiz and run around..The PTSd 101 is good.Their is about 40 nam vets in there...
soon we will start A trama group...That shoud help i believe..

I'm just starting to deal with my PTSD problems as well and just as DMZ I found a Vet Center that I actually feel comfortable going to. I don't go many places, but that is one I make it a point to get to. Even though the guy I'm talking with is Army, it's still a comfort because he is a Nam Vet.I've got a 40 year old 800 pound gorilla on my back that has been kicking my ass ...I'm tired of it. The Vet Center has been a life saver for me.

Semper Fi

:flag:

[Riven37]

I hear ya, I felt the same way back in 83' but remember this....

"Some things will never leave your past, somethings just are."

[Troutzilla]

I hear ya, I felt the same way back in 83' but remember this....

"Some things will never leave your past, somethings just are."

I hear ya Brother...but this gorilla needs a slim fast diet. I understand that things is what they is. It's always been easy to just feel guilty ....it's quite difficult to admit something might be wrong. I feel I could have had a better life and given my family so much more if I only knew how to let go...it just ain't that easy for me Brother.

Semper Fi

:flag:

[Riven37]

Letting go, meaning the guilt. Acceptance releases guilt feeling, guilt is there for doing something wrong .... I done a lot wrong in Nam to keep the guilt burning inside my head .... letting go what is that any way.

It's not about letting go, its about accepting us more than letting go of things in our heads. You know, this is even harder then dealing with our guilt feelings much more harder.

This is who we are, this what we went through, this is what we did, and no one will ever give us absolution except the big guy whoever that may be if, there is a big guy; so don't look for absolution.


Semper Fi

:flag:



I hear ya Brother...but this gorilla needs a slim fast diet. I understand that things is what they is. It's always been easy to just feel guilty ....it's quite difficult to admit something might be wrong. I feel I could have had a better life and given my family so much more if I only knew how to let go...it just ain't that easy for me Brother.

Semper Fi

:flag:

[DMZmarine]

I'm just starting to deal with my PTSD problems as well and just as DMZ I found a Vet Center that I actually feel comfortable going to. I don't go many places, but that is one I make it a point to get to. Even though the guy I'm talking with is Army, it's still a comfort because he is a Nam Vet.I've got a 40 year old 800 pound gorilla on my back that has been kicking my ass ...I'm tired of it. The Vet Center has been a life saver for me.



:flag:

Hey troutzilla..

Glad to see you found the vet center a home for your PTSD.
They have really helped me validate my PTSD diagnoses.With VA its a damn quiz every time.They are even helping me with my social security disability happier work.
I also have a gorilla kicking my ass..i never talked about Nam till 3 years ago i was buying a house and the guy said he was in the marine corp.
I asked him if he was in nam...he was a officer in recon...we got talking and he said i was the first person he had spoked to about Nam since he rotated home.So for me its been the last couple years has kicked my But.looking back though i had all the signs when i came back and have just worked around them...from nightmares to hunkering done .. not participating any family get tog ethers my children's school to there base ball games..i would have stand out in right fiels...Also i had terrible fear of hights...i was in to choppers that were shot done...just hard landings and a c120 that was took 20 caliber rounds and the hydraulics got damaged.Plus when I was in crowds or loud noises ..like a movie or concert i would just get anxious and have to bail...after awhile i just wouldn't go...any way as you can see i lived with the effects of PT SD for a long time.Consequently my relations with my children and grand children are non existant...
ny way ya get the point PTSD kicked my ass for 40 years now its Pandoras box wide open...and i need some help...So like you the Vet center has helped.
:flag:

Semper Fi

[DocGreek]

:evilgrin:....NO B.S. HERE!! The Vet Center saved my life...gave up two pistols...got them back, years later.
"WE"...have to keep that "turtle shell" around ourselves or find some way to keep the demons OUT!
Sertraline (Zoloft), Trazadone, and Lisinopril...keep me on the rocky road...better than drowning in the river of guilt, and depression.
ALL OF YOU, HAVE MY PRAYERS AND SUPPORT. "ALWAYS FAITHFUL".....Doc Greek...:flag:

[Bulkyker]

I saw a counselor once a week for a year ... 1 on 1. We didn't talk about bombs, bullets, band-aids, and burials. No reason to relive it. We talked about fishing, and the best way to pick up chicks, and how to bb-q a steak. He slipped in a little counseling now and then. There was never a teary eyed pass me a kleenex session. It was just a chance to talk and feel that you are truely heard. Them group sessions everyone there is champing at the bit to tell you how bad they had it and it becomes a dick measuring contest.

The individual I was met with was a retired chaplain and he and I talked on his time no charge.

[DMZmarine]

I haven't got to that point...some day soon...They help me with things i dint realize i feel or am doing and where the come from...Not like the VA quiz..Its like night and day from the two...one wants to help the other wants to help uncle sam..Then screw you on your Va benefits.but its nice to some day i will be where you are in your recovery from PTSD..
Semper Fi

[ojibway]

Served with some hounds during the Nintendo War in 1991. By that I mean Desert Storm. The four days of combat were enough to make a believer out of me. The ghosts caught up to me when OIF broke out in 2003. I have attended some groups and have found them to be helpful. Most of the men I have met have been from Vietnam. The counseling has been helpful but the journey is lifelong. I hope to be on the mountaintops than going back into the valley again and again. The funny thing is that triggers come out of nowhere and can send a man back to the gates of h***. It is good to be around warriors who have seen the ugliness of war and not have to beat their chests.

[Riven37]

Not measuring contest, in some guys have bad house combat stress unit experiences, and some guys I met through the years felt some of their 1 on 1 or group sessions were bad because they start feeling feelings again they haven't felt in years.

I also did 1 on 1 once a month from 1983-2005 and he was a former religious person too however, he did touch on issues when I didn't see them otherwise, it was two peers talking about life.


I saw a counselor once a week for a year ... 1 on 1. We didn't talk about bombs, bullets, band-aids, and burials. No reason to relive it. We talked about fishing, and the best way to pick up chicks, and how to bb-q a steak. He slipped in a little counseling now and then. There was never a teary eyed pass me a kleenex session. It was just a chance to talk and feel that you are truely heard. Them group sessions everyone there is champing at the bit to tell you how bad they had it and it becomes a dick measuring contest.

The individual I was met with was a retired chaplain and he and I talked on his time no charge.