The U.S. Census shows Florida is home to nearly half a million Vietnam veterans. The VA’s health clinic in Cape Coral alone served 37,000 of them last year—and the number of Vietnam veteran baby boomers retiring to Southwest Florida just keeps increasing. A significant number of these new retirees are showing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—or PTSD—often for the first time.
For a veteran who’s never shown symptoms of PTSD—or doesn’t remember ever showing symptoms—connecting new behaviors to what happened in a war fifty years ago can be difficult. Clinical psychologist Dr. Lynn Bernstein runs therapy groups specifically for Vietnam vets and family members in Englewood. She said the symptoms include:
“Not being able to handle stress,” said Bernstein. “The symptoms of avoiding people. Sleeplessness. Irritability. Road rage. Impatience with other people. Only associate with vets. Difficulty sharing their emotions.”
Bernstein said those symptoms combine with other, more well-known PTSD systems.
“Flashbacks can occur during the day,” said Bernstein. “We know of it at nighttime when they thrash around, when they have sweats. When they talk in their sleep. When they smack their wives unintentionally.”
She said most vets have actually had the condition since shortly after their combat experiences, but they’ve been hiding it.
“They make believe it doesn’t exist, and it comes out after retirement,” said Bernstein. “But it doesn’t start then.”
Bernstein and other therapists said PTSD occurs or reoccurs in retirement because it’s a time in life with less structure. Vets have more time to think. They may have been using work as a way to cope. They were self-medicating by turning into workaholics. Now, that coping mechanism is no longer available, and any number of events can trigger symptoms. Even something as simple as going to an Asian restaurant, even though the vet may have eaten at the restaurant throughout their working life.
Dave Henderson was a heavy-equipment operator in Vietnam. The Punta Gorda resident said he always had anger issues, what he calls a chip on his shoulder from the day he got out of the military in 1968. But then the first Iraq war happened. That’s when he discovered his PTSD trigger.
“I was going on fine,” said Henderson. “I was mad when they went into Iraq and in the middle of ’08 is when I started feeling like, I just didn’t know who I was. And it was the body bags comin’ home that got me. I lost control of who I was…it was like I was in a fog. I knew I needed help, and I went straight to the VA for help.”
Henderson described his own list of symptoms.
“Depression, hopelessness, kind of an inability to finish things up,” said Henderson. “Your concentration’s gone. You know something’s bothering you but you don’t know what. Can’t nail it down. Don’t know why you feel this way.”
There are several different kinds of therapies the VA and private clinicians use successfully to treat PTSD. Henderson said group therapy with other vets worked best for him.
“So you’re around your fellow sufferers,” said Henderson. “My first meeting, I remember walking out of there and this guy said to me, under his breath he said, ‘These guys are as nuts as I am.’ And I started laughing, and it’s true. It’s true.”
“The important thing is letting veterans know they’re not crazy, and that they don’t have to live with their symptoms,” said Schnurr.
The executive director of the VA’s National Center for PTSD, Dr. Paula Schnurr, has talked with a lot of guys like Henderson. She wants them to understand it’s never too late to get treatment. Schnurr acknowledged many vets may have had bad experiences with the VA in the 70’s or 80’s and got turned off, but she insists things are different now. She said there are effective PTSD treatments and she encourages people to get help because of what it can do.
“It ruins quality of life,” said Schnurr. “It can impair a person’s ability to function, and even if an individual is not working, it can affect functioning with children, with spouses, with friends.”
Schnurr said the typical course of treatment at a VA outpatient clinic is 10 to 15 sessions over four months, sometimes longer, often accompanied by medications.
Dave Henderson now runs a group for Vietnam vets. He said he hopes to help them manage their symptoms.
“Our group is really, really focused on hesitating the one instant after something is said, or something can turn into a bad situation,” said Henderson. “Hesitate that one moment. Think before you act and really screw things up. If you can find out that you have PTSD, accept it, work with it, defy it. Don’t let it run your life. It’s hard, but it can be done.”
Clinical psychologist Dr. Lynn Bernstein echoed Henderson.
“We learn how to adapt to society,” said Bernstein. “We learn how to not blame ourselves for things that have happened in the past. We learn how to be self-aware, so if we’re starting to get angry. We need to teach the vets, pick up the awareness early so you don’t blow up later on.”
And she had advice for spouses.
“Just like any relationship with anyone, you have to learn what the other person’s buttons are, and you don’t press them,” said Bernstein.
The VA offers help for PTSD at its clinics and at walk-in Vet Centers. A veteran does not have to apply for or be receiving disability payments to get help for PTSD. More information is at www.ptsd.va.gov.