found a case where a us veterans affairs nurse wrote a letter to a newspaper about george bush and got arrested for subversion although interesting thats not what struck me, it was something else she mentioned, with the recent conflict in iraq the va saw an unprecedented surge of new cases of breakdowns and ptsd from ww2 veterans triggered by the imagery of the gulf on tv, it certainly got at me being on 24 hours a day for a year afghan -iraq etc,after 60+ years people were still being triggered off, so what role does mass media have in retraumatising people? apart from getting rid of the tv radio and trying to avoid contact with the rest of the world what can be done about it, could be relevant again as looks like us is in for a second round with iran so more tv coverage. get wound up easily enough so try to avoid too much news but what about when it is everywhere?

That is a really good point. Do you have the article at all? If so, please post it here, or link to it... that would be much appreciated.

Its funny really, as that I have said to the wife numerous times now, this is the reason I don't watch the news, or things that go on within the world, because it sets me off, it arouses me again, which puts me back on alert mode... and then things go to shit once again for me and everyone around me.

I can't sit and watch someone getting shot, ambushed or anything like that... all these things from the media nowadays is just killing me slowly, so I had to stop watching. My stress and anxiety goes through the roof, and I feel inside as though I am their again, in the situations and doing things that people just can't understand, or relate with unless they where also their. War sucks... and its impact on us is nothing but down right shocking.

The Australian military do the obvious, in that they provide counselling before redeployment home, and things like that, but its useless, and ineffective because nobody cares about it at that point, they just want to go home. They ask you a serious of standard questions, and you tell them what they want to here, just so you can go back to drinking and suppressing as much of the tour of duty as you can.

The solution is not at the end of the tour, the solution is constand ongoing, one on one counselling, and concentrating not only on traumatic situations, but just being their is traumatic enough, gun piquets, patrols, constant alertness, it never ends just day to day, let alone when the more gruesome parts occur.

People used to say to me, that the older vets had just gotten over it, you know, too old to care anymore. I saw another side of things, when watching and speaking with them, they still drunk to suppress, some still smoked to keep stress down, they still dreamt of things that you would normally be in jail for, and so on...

Trauma never leaves us... and that is a fact. The only thing we can ever do is try and live with what has happened, though we can never really put it behind us, because if we could, then it wouldn't be traumatic, it would off just been an event of whatever proportion... which is curable, trauma is not.

When I was working as an electrician, I worked with Vietnam vets, and they still struggled... knowing what I know now, I thought they where just crazy and nuts at the time, but I now know what was going on with them. None of them where seeking help... just dealing with it the best they could, and trying to get on with life. The problem was, some didn't make it far enough to get on with life, because it got the better off them.

I think the more exposure PTSD gets, the better it is for society, and those who suffer it, whether mild or severe, PTSD is PTSD, and we all suffer the same, do the same, and act the same, regardless of the specific trauma that caused it.

I would love to put that whole article here though madjon, if you have it somewhere.

will see if i can find it again, but it is an article on how a va nurse was charged with subversion she only briefly touched on her work, will see what i can find.

have been looking for material for a while and havent turned up much on the va, but have found some interesting stuff going on in america, the veterans returning from the gulf are being helped by the vietnam veterans association, so anyone in the us looking for help may want to ask them , there was a programme with an interview of the us army judge advocate who said that veterans were not in a position to say wether acts committed were legal or not and basically said veterans were not worth dealing with. he had been in vietnam and was sounding now like kissinger sounded 30 years ago, but for advice and support in the us the vietnam veterans are supporting those who need it, it isnt a blanket scheme but a voluntary one, but most of the guys i have met from the viet vets seem ok, so if anybody is in the us and returned from the gulf get in touch with them.