Sean Barney is a Democratic Congressional candidate in Delaware. He is also a Marine combat veteran who was severely wounded in Fallujah in 2006. Today, in an article in Politico, Sean discusses his struggle with PTSD following his injury.
(Full disclosure: Sean is a friend of mine, so my take isn’t unbiased.)
I’m proud that Sean’s discussing his experience with PTSD openly and honestly. The stigma surrounding PTSD discourages countless veterans from seeking treatment, even though, as Sean notes, PTSD is treatable. If Sean’s story encourages even one veteran to seek help, he’ll have done some real good. If he’s elected to Congress, he’ll be in a better position to reform the VA so that all veterans who need help can receive treatment.
This issue is personal to me. My grandfathers both fought in World War II. Years after my dad’s dad returned from the war, he still suffered from what was called shell-shock or combat stress reaction. He would wake up in the middle of the night, startled, and sprint straight into the bedroom wall—a fight or flight response that left him bruised many times. My father vividly remembers the noise of his dad slamming into the wall, running from gunshots and explosions that only he could hear. I don’t think my grandfather ever sought or received treatment. No one should have to watch a family member suffer like that.
Excerpts from the Politico article are below.
If you’d like to donate to Sean, visit seanbarneyforcongress.com.
One candidate’s risky bet: Talking about his PTSD
By Austin Wright
Congressional candidate Sean Barney is doing something few politicians have dared: discussing his personal battle to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder from his tour in Iraq.
. . .
Barney will disclose his battle with PTSD at a campaign event to commemorate the day in 2006 when a sniper's bullet in Fallujah left him partially paralyzed. But he acknowledges it’s a political risk that some of his consultants advised him against taking, noting the stigma still attached to PTSD and the long history of real or suspected mental illness damaging candidates’ political prospects.
“There is no doubt about it — there is some unquantifiable risk,” Barney, 41, said in an interview with POLITICO in which he discussed his psychological struggle openly for the first time. He said he is taking the risk to further his argument that the government needs to do far more to care for military veterans of all ages and conflicts.
His own struggles included sleepless nights that ended only after he took anti-anxiety drugs and other medication for several years while regularly visiting Department of Veterans Affairs specialists, Barney said.
. . .
A decade after he was shot, Barney said he is now in a much better place than he was then, in large part because of his quick diagnoses, the sleep and anti-anxiety drugs he was prescribed, his regular visits to the VA and other factors — such as meeting his wife and getting involved in work that makes him feel valued by society, something he said many veterans struggle with.
“There’s an enormous point that needs to be made, that this is a treatable condition — that there’s the other side of the mountain or the other end of the tunnel,” he said. “My post-traumatic stress was recognized and diagnosed at Bethesda. There was no issue of falling into the cracks where I wasn’t with the VA. It was part of my diagnosis when my case was transferred over to the VA, and that’s why I received the treatment that I needed.”
. . .
[Bob] Kerrey, the former senator and wounded Vietnam veteran, said he hopes that Barney's decision will be rewarded.
"We’ve come a lot further than we were in 1968," he said. "It probably would have been disqualifying at the time. It’s a real condition. Not only is it treatable, but you can live a normal productive life, including being a member of Congress.
. . .
Last month, a study by the Government Accountability Office, citing a series of focus groups in and out of uniform, warned that "a stigma exists with seeking mental health care."
Terri Tanielian, a researcher for the government-funded Rand Corporation, said that within the military and veterans population "there is a very high level of concern that coming forward will have impact on their career — they won't be eligible for clearances or they may not be eligible for promotions."
. . .
Barney, who was a Marine Corps reservist working on the staff of Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) before he was deployed to Iraq, is now running a campaign that emphasizes campaign finance reform and the need to end partisan gerrymandering, along with other liberal planks like establishing a federal minimum wage of $15. He is also highlighting his role as a veteran of the Iraq War in shaping his view that the United States should be very cautious about when to use its military to solve problems abroad.
He said he has decided to discuss his battles with PTSD to help increase understanding of the illness, how it is treatable and to convince others who need help to seek it.
He said he was diagnosed with PTSD in 2006 at a naval hospital in Bethesda, Md., at the beginning of a yearlong recovery from his physical wounds, which included a nerve graft to improve movement of his upper right body, which was paralyzed.
His first and most obvious symptom, he said, was his inability to sleep, which he attributes to his body’s reaction when he was shot.
. . .
In his retelling of his private struggle, Barney kept coming back to the 22 veterans on average who kill themselves each day — many of whom are not in the VA health system. He said those are the veterans he worries about: The ones who don’t get diagnosed and are suffering in silence.
Read more: www.politico.com/...
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