One Disabled Veteran's Experience with PTSD

Occasionally, I run across stories from disabled people on the internet that I share with the readers of this blog. The reason is simple: most of my disabled clients do not realize that there are thousands of other people just like them...experiencing the horrible effect of some illness or injury that keeps them from working too.

If you suffer from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), have a family member that does, or just want to understand how PTSD impacts someone, I encourage you to visit this blog post: Female Vet With PTSD. After 9 years in the regular Army, this soldier relates her experiences with symptoms and the reactions of others. She talks about how the VA does not believe everything she told them in her claim for service-connected compensation. Perhaps the most difficult thing that she relates - and it is something I hear from female veterans a lot - her husband (also in the Army) simply was not supportive and did not understand.

Sometimes, it is important just to understand that your symptoms are not strange. In fact, they are often common. You just don't know that because you are the only person you know with a particular condition.

If you or someone you know suffers from PTSD, I urge you to find a support group. Call you local VAMC or even ask at the local Legion or VFW post. I am sure you know someone who has PTSD too....they are just afraid to talk about it to others, because, like you, they feel that they are alone.

If your claim for service-connected VA Disability compensation was denied, call Veterans Disability Lawyer John Tucker at (866) 282-5260 for a free consultation. Copyright (c) 2011 by John V. Tucker and Tucker & Ludin, P.A. All rights reserved.

Navy researcher may have found key to Gulf War Syndrome

USA Today reported on May 12, 2011 that a Navy researcher studying the dust inhaled by veterans of Irag, Kuwait, and Afghanistan may have found the cause for the many symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome.

Kelly Kennedy, reported:

"From my research and that of others, I really think this may be the smoking gun," says Navy Capt. Mark Lyles, chair of medical sciences and biotechnology at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. "It fits everything — symptoms, timing, everything."

Lyles and other researchers found that dust particles — up to 1,000 of which can sit on the head of a pin — gathered in Iraq and Kuwait contain 37 metals, including aluminum, lead, manganese, strontium and tin. The metals have been linked to neurological disorders, cancer, respiratory ailments, depression and heart disease, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers believe the metals occur both naturally and as a byproduct of pollution.

The Department of Defense has not accepted the dust as the cause of the symptoms found in Gulf War Syndrome. It found the dust is "not noticeably different from samples collected in the Sahara Desert and desert regions in the U.S. and China."

SOURCE: USA Today online edition, May 12, 2011.

For assistance with your Veterans Disability compensation or pension claim, call VA Disability Lawyer John Tucker at (866) 282-5260.