Here we go with another story about addiction and the PTSD scam entitled “Siblings joined, separated by addiction” in your Saturday edition on your front page. I know what PTSD is and, in fact, I wrote a brief on it and submitted it to a federal judge for consideration for a wounded Marine back in 1985. The judge denied the motion which really didn’t matter to the veteran because he was making up the story how disabled he was by PTSD in the first place. He had been shot in the knee during the Vietnam War and was just looking for a reason to be excused for his criminal activity and the judge wasn’t buy it.
Unfortunately, and is demonstrated by the media and your front page, anyone, especially veterans, seems to be attempting to pull this PTSD scam to mitigate or excuse themselves from illegal activity or, even better, to garner unearned disability benefits which is a disgusting insult to people who really are disabled. Just recently, there was even an individual who attempted to use PTSD as a defense for his criminal activity. The jury didn’t buy it and he was convicted. Many people, not just veterans, have violent or psychological trauma that result in bad memories, keep them up at night, or dwell on the unjustness or horror of what happened to them. Such incidents might involve assaults or car accidents, for instance. Those people don’t whine and mope around and cry disability to garner free benefits for the rest of their lives.
In the article printed by your paper, the veteran in question used illegal drugs to “cope with post-traumatic stress disorder” but “admitted to playing VA doctors a bit and seeking out additional pills on the street.” See, that’s the problem: Everyone wants to have an excuse for getting high when that’s the bottom line: They just want to get high. End of story. It isn’t PTSD or anything else either – sometimes people just want to escape from reality and live in narco world where everything is okay but don’t expect the taxpayers to supplement your crutch with free money. Everywhere you go now, you hear about this mysterious PTSD affliction and how people are traumatized by it and some are even on the PTSD excuse mode and win undeserved gravy train benefits.
It’s life and life goes on. Memories fade. Having trouble sleeping? Do some work or exercise and you’ll be tired at night. Still having problems sleeping? Take a sleeping pill. Quit using the PTSD scam as an excuse not to succeed in life and sucking money out of taxpayers’ pockets.
