Collateral damage: The mental health issues facing children of veterans

Asked what he tells his children when something happens, Aaron replied, "I usually say, 'Leave me alone.' I would never intentionally harm them." Facing his daughter Abigail, Barton said, "You're my life."

The stories of veterans' lives upended by PTSD are all too familiar to us -- the struggles of their children practically unknown.

"I would get so angry," said Abigail. "I would just think, 'This is what Iraq did to my father.' I'd start blaming it on America's military, you know? I would be like, 'You guys stole my father.'

Continue Learning:  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/collateral-damage-the-mental-health-issues-facing-children-of-veterans/

Vietnam veteran still fighting, this time for VA's PTSD support group

Alexander Nogales still fights the Vietnam War, not with his Marine buddies along the border with Laos but in Southern Nevada where he’s battling the Department of Veterans Affairs over its plan to cancel his support group for post-traumatic stress disorder.

"They said it’s good for us to have change now and to try to make it to the Vet to Vet programs. So in other words, they’re washing their hands of us"” Nogales said.

But Nogales, who is 100 percent disabled from PTSD and maladies from Agent Orange defoliants that were sprayed in Vietnam, said he prefers the traditional support groups that he’s been involved with since 2008. He said the one-hour sessions held every other week for 15 to 20 Vietnam veterans have helped them cope with the invisible wounds of war such as nightmares and flashbacks of their combat experiences. Many of them can’t hold jobs, he said.

Continue Learning:   http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada-and-west/vietnam-veteran-still-fighting-time-vas-ptsd-support-group