Foreign army veteran rescued after Songkran water gun exacerbates PTSD

[CanadaSam]

6 hours ago, JustAnotherFarang said:

pathetic - truly

 

1 hour ago, JustAnotherFarang said:

you have no idea what you are talking about, I was a soldier

 

I doubt if being a boy scout can qualify as a "soldier", and I sincerely hope you get an opportunity to be a real "vet" after having killed tens or hundreds of human beings, and watching countless comrades being maimed or killed next to you.  Then I would like your "opinion" on PTSD.

[billd766]

6 hours ago, JustAnotherFarang said:

I stand by what I said - no soldier would ever be triggered by plastic water pistols squirting water, the mere notion is ridiculous.  A snowflake would fare better at Songkran but it knows not to visit as its going to melt.

And your qualifications to spout this are what?

 

Are you a fully qualified and trained doctor, nurse, psychologist, psychiatrist, or none of them?

 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by billd766
corrected some bad spelling

[richard_smith237]

6 hours ago, JustAnotherFarang said:

I stand by what I said - no soldier would ever be triggered by plastic water pistols squirting water, the mere notion is ridiculous.  A snowflake would fare better at Songkran but it knows not to visit as its going to melt.

I think you’ve over simplified and dumbed down your response....

 

While I also don’t believe seeing a water pastor or the act of getting hit by a sprayed by water would trigger a PTSD episode the actives in the area i.e. environment itself may, i.e. highly animated crowds of people in a chaotic and unpredictable environment....   thats an environment many consider stressful already... 

 

... thus, I believe rather than the individual act of being sprayed by a colourful water gun, I suspect it was the environment itself which ‘could have triggered an event’... 

 

 

Or, perhaps more likely a combination of heat exhaustion and stress of the environment and the Gent in question looking for an explanation as to why what happened happened. 

 

 

[scorecard]

On 4/17/2023 at 11:53 AM, swbaggies said:

Whilst I agree the comment was probably not worded greatly, surely he would have at least been conscious of his triggers and could/should have avoided the place. 

Valid point, but PTSD triggers ae not always consistent and obviously different person by person. Even more important to the veteran is the desire to do things same as everybody else and quite possibly aim to get a 'win' /an occasional 'win' over the PTSD issues.

[tubby johnson]

"Ooh, I see colourful toy guns and plastic buckets. Happy people splashing me with water. I haven't felt this emotionally traumatized since I walked past the children's squirty toy guns section at Toys R Us!"

 

Indeed a bit pathetic. 

[kennypowers]

My word. The callous comments never cease to amaze me. That being said, you can guarantee those who make them couldn't fight their way out of a brown paper bag. 

[tubby johnson]

1 hour ago, kennypowers said:

My word. The callous comments never cease to amaze me. That being said, you can guarantee those who make them couldn't fight their way out of a brown paper bag. 

A toy water pistol of the kind that traumatized the retired boy scout in the OP would dissolve the brown paper bag pretty quickly. Aim toy gun, squirty squirty, paper bag turns to mush, problem solved.

[scorecard]

On 4/19/2023 at 3:44 PM, tubby johnson said:

"Ooh, I see colourful toy guns and plastic buckets. Happy people splashing me with water. I haven't felt this emotionally traumatized since I walked past the children's squirty toy guns section at Toys R Us!"

 

Indeed a bit pathetic. 

As are you. 

[giddyup]

On 4/17/2023 at 11:49 AM, scorecard said:

Not so fast.  There's many war veterans from the US, Australia and many more countries still having PTSD, panic, anxiety depression issues resulting from combat situations/experiences going back as far as the Vietnam conflict, it's real.

 

Have some respect and compassion. 

Even the ones who never saw any action.????

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, giddyup said:

Even the ones who never saw any action.????

I didn't say anything like that.

 

A theatre of war has many scenarios, some soldiers see / experience the ultimate of shooting other people and seeing their buddies killd and maimed.

 

Others in a war zone see other aspects of these scenarios; just one example, doctors and nurses at front line aid stations / surgical stations and field hospitals, and they know it's the result of a violent indiscriminate war.

 

There's many more examples but here's one more related to a military field hospital. Several very young (age not the key point) enemy soldiers captured by allied forces and brought to the nearest field hospital for medical check and medical attention, as required by the geneva convention.

 

Within a few minutes the enemy soldiers are transferred from the military police to a section of other soldiers called in, they are in camp on a rest for a couple of days.

 

As soon as the MPs are gone, the soldiers now guarding the prisoners of war decide to punish the enemy soldiers who are in hand cuffs and within a few minutes (until the MPs can quickly return) the guarding troops have severly bashed the faces of the prisoners of war using their rifle butts and broken their ribs, backs, legs and arms.

 

For all concerned this is prettty stressful and disturbing and for many will this scene will remain for a long time. For some it will generate panic and anxiety and deprssion issues, which never really go away. 

[giddyup]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

I didn't say anything like that.

 

A theatre of war has many scenarios, some soldiers see / experience the ultimate of shooting other people and seeing their buddies killd and maimed.

 

Others in a war zone see other aspects of these scenarios; just one example, doctors and nurses at front line aid stations / surgical stations and field hospitals, and they know it's the result of a violent indiscriminate war.

 

There's many more examples but here's one more related to a military field hospital. Several very young (age not the key point) enemy soldiers captured by allied forces and brought to the nearest field hospital for medical check and medical attention, as required by the geneva convention.

 

Within a few minutes the enemy soldiers are transferred from the military police to a section of other soldiers called in, they are in camp on a rest for a couple of days.

 

As soon as the MPs are gone, the soldiers now guarding the prisoners of war decide to punish the enemy soldiers who are in hand cuffs and within a few minutes (until the MPs can quickly return) the guarding troops have severly bashed the faces of the prisoners of war using their rifle butts and broken their ribs, backs, legs and arms.

 

For all concerned this is prettty stressful and disturbing and for many will this scene will remain for a long time. For some it will generate panic and anxiety and deprssion issues, which never really go away. 

PTSD can be faked just like any mental condition, especially when there's a very generous financial incentive that's available to vets in Australia. Not saying PTSD isn't real, but Psychiatrists are fooled very easily, as they tend to believe the symptoms that a client describes. Sometimes those symptoms quickly disappear once the financial objective is realised. Retiring to Thailand on a full TPI pension is like winning the lottery.

Edited April 21, 2023 by giddyup

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

PTSD can be faked just like any mental condition, especially when there's a very generous financial incentive that's available to vets in Australia. Not saying PTSD isn't real, but Psychiatrists are fooled very easily, as they tend to believe the symptoms that a client describes. Sometimes those symptoms quickly disappear once the financial objective is realised. Retiring to Thailand on a full TPI pension is like winning the lottery.

I wonder how much you know about how the DVA psychiatrists assess PTSD / the levels of PTSD etc., and I wonder if you knw that PTSD is not one specific item, it's usually several 'sub factors'. Overall these sub factors make up a PTSD confirmation. E.g:  panic assessment, anxiety assessment, depression assessment, fear of violence, fear of torture, fear of kidnap, flashback, affect on wive / family, and more.

 

The reality is that the interviews / discussions with psychiatrists is mostly done with several psychiatrists (I belive it's 4 or 5 qualified and very experienced psychiatrists) and in some cases it's ultimately a panel of psychiatrists; sometimes sitting together in the same room, sometimes alone and each giving their opinion by using scaled very well defined definitions. And then a final average but with each psychiatrists having the opportunity to challenge the 'level' indicated by other panel members. Further from my understanding somembers of he psychiatrists panel have strong military experience and/or they have military advisors instantly available to answer pertinent questions.

 

In other words it's not a one on one quick interview with the psychiatrist making up questions as the discussion proceeds. 

 

There also a self assessment which is thorough and assesses the self diagnosed levels of affect on the persons lifestyle and more, It's compared to the very carefully structured assessments of the psychiatrists, which can produce more challenges and requests for deeper self assessment. 

 

I rather doubt the serviceman being assessed would be able to fake PTSD.

Edited April 21, 2023 by scorecard