Quote:
Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan
Both of my grandfathers, D-Day plus 6 (halftrack driver with 400 percent casualty rate in his unit, cut off at Bastogne) and D-Day plus 4 (surgeon who got to see every horrible thing than can happen to a human body in war) died of substance abuse related causes of death.
OTOH, they really enjoyed talking about it with each other.
|
As FB friends of mine might remember from a Thanksgiving Day post, I had an alcoholic grandfather whose PTSD and substance dependency was a product of a traumatic experience that was quite like war, but was not-war, so yeah. OTOH, he had a job in middle management and most of his dysfunction (that I know of) was directed around his household.
There is PTSD and there is training someone to overcome what I contend is a strong aversion to killing. I hope we direct good resources toward the ones we do this to, because telling them “Welcome home, hero” is just not doing it. The local transit district has a budget for counseling the train engineers who hear the sickening thud of the suicides, and those are the people who literally couldn't do anything to prevent it. Maybe a quiet seaside village with a mysterious killer balloon to keep the residents compliant?
