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A consideration for your 4th of July celebrations...

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SmokeAndMirrors

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So I ran into an article about veterans and their reactions to unexpected fireworks on the 4th, and I must say I had never considered this.

As the Fourth of July holiday approaches, [Purple Heart recipient Steven Diaz] wants everyone to make sure you know if a veteran lives near you, and most importantly, not to shoot fireworks at random days and times, especially late at night.

"It's not the actual fireworks that may scare a veteran or cause the symptoms to react," he said. "It's the unexpected sounds, because they sound just like bombs, or gunfire. One of the main weapons used in Iraq and Afghanistan is the IED, the improvised explosive device, which is something that you never know when its gonna happen. You never know when its gonna blow up. And when it does, it makes us react."


On a day meant to celebrate our nation's independence, PTSD expert Elizabeth Codega says many of our veterans will spend the holiday, and the days after, tense with fear.
Click to expand...
Fireworks Can Trigger PTSD in Combat Veterans

I'm hoping some vets can chime in here, but it did give me pause. Small personal fireworks often start the day before and carry on probably a day or two after the Independence Day, slightly annoying many of us, but perhaps very much frightening some with old, yet invisible wounds. Know your neighbors, and be considerate of their needs. Those of us with pets have been lamenting this for years, but I have never seen vets with PTSD talked about before. And why not? Surely this isn't a new issue. Perhaps just too polite to bring it up.

Happy 4th, to vets especially, and also to the rest of us. Blow stuff up with care please. :)
 
Don't worry about it, set off the fireworks and enjoy them. We'll survive somehow. It isn't necessary to find some reason to feel guilt about every single traditional aspect of American life.

Thanks for the kind thoughts also.
 
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SmokeAndMirrors said:
So I ran into an article about veterans and their reactions to unexpected fireworks on the 4th, and I must say I had never considered this.


Fireworks Can Trigger PTSD in Combat Veterans

I'm hoping some vets can chime in here, but it did give me pause. Small personal fireworks often start the day before and carry on probably a day or two after the Independence Day, slightly annoying many of us, but perhaps very much frightening some with old, yet invisible wounds. Know your neighbors, and be considerate of their needs. Those of us with pets have been lamenting this for years, but I have never seen vets with PTSD talked about before. And why not? Surely this isn't a new issue. Perhaps just too polite to bring it up.

Happy 4th, to vets especially, and also to the rest of us. Blow stuff up with care please. :)
Click to expand...

While I'm sure that they appreciate the thought, I can tell you first hand that any self-respecting combat veteran would be the first person to brush such concerns off.

Blow stuff up! Do it for 'MURIKAA!!!!

murika.jpg


Edit:

That being said, however, everyone should, of course, try their best to be safe, responsible, and courteous while doing so. :D
 
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Maybe the thing to do with a neighbor vet in that situation, would be to invite him over to enjoy some food & brews on the front-stoop together as the kids light-off their stuff.

But straight-up, if I had neighbor vet that told me fireworks really bothered him, I'd have no problem abstaining - fireworks are no longer a big thing to me, and I figure he earned the respect.

The rest of the city will still sound like the Fall of Saigon, though!
 
Chomsky said:
Maybe the thing to do with a neighbor vet in that situation, would be to invite him over to enjoy some food & brews on the front-porch together as the kids light-off their stuff.

But straight-up, if I had neighbor vet that told me fireworks really bothered him, I'd have no problem abstaining - fireworks are no longer a big thing to me, and I figure he earned the respect.

The rest of the city will still sound like the Fall of Saigon, though!
Click to expand...

Well... Yeah. If you know someone who lives near-by, and they explicitly ask you to abstain, that's a bit different. You can simply set the fireworks off somewhere else if worse comes to worse.

I wouldn't abstain from setting them off in general on the off chance that some veteran, somewhere, might happen to have their PTSD triggered by it, however.

To be fair though, I've also never been one of these people who's prone to setting fireworks off during the day, or the day before the actual 4th. lol
 
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Ray410 said:
Don't worry about it, set off the fireworks and enjoy them. We'll survive somehow. It isn't necessary to find some reason to feel guilt about every single traditional aspect of American life.

Thanks for the kind thoughts also.
Click to expand...

Gathomas88 said:
While I'm sure that they appreciate the thought, I can tell you first hand that any self-respecting combat veteran would be the first person to brush such concerns off.
Click to expand...

I agree with both the above responses. Vets are aware of the differences between the sounds of gunfire and combat explosions as opposed to fireworks.

I can't state categorically that there are no PTSD sufferers who might react badly, but I wouldn't think the chances significant enough to prevent 4th of July celebrations.

Of course as Gathomas88 said, try your best to be safe and responsible while doing so.
 
Gathomas88 said:
Well... Yeah. If you know someone who lives near-by, and they explicitly ask you to abstain, that's a bit different. You can simply set the fireworks off somewhere else if worse comes to worse.

I wouldn't abstain from setting them off in general on the off chance that some veteran, somewhere, might happen to have their PTSD triggered by it, however.

To be fair though, I also never been one of these people who's prone to setting fireworks off during the day, or the day before the actual 4th. lol
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Yes, of course I wouldn't worry in general on the off-chance someone near me has an issue.

But as an aside, when I lived in a really dense neighborhood in the city where fireworks were a full-on participant sport, I knew the occasional person or family that spent the night outside the city (at least in part) to not have to deal with the hellacious block-party crowds and rocking fireworks - my grandparents did exactly that.

But these were big-time block parties, with city permits, police barricaded streets, live bands, and sound-systems ... and lots of fireworks!

I live a little more sedated, now that I'm in one of the nicer 'burbs ...
 
Wow, I never considered that, but I can see how it might be true.

That said... the advisory is a little over the top.
 
SmokeAndMirrors said:
So I ran into an article about veterans and their reactions to unexpected fireworks on the 4th, and I must say I had never considered this.


Fireworks Can Trigger PTSD in Combat Veterans

I'm hoping some vets can chime in here, but it did give me pause. Small personal fireworks often start the day before and carry on probably a day or two after the Independence Day, slightly annoying many of us, but perhaps very much frightening some with old, yet invisible wounds. Know your neighbors, and be considerate of their needs. Those of us with pets have been lamenting this for years, but I have never seen vets with PTSD talked about before. And why not? Surely this isn't a new issue. Perhaps just too polite to bring it up.

Happy 4th, to vets especially, and also to the rest of us. Blow stuff up with care please. :)
Click to expand...

Probably the persons facing that challenge know about it and take protective measures.
 
Gathomas88 said:
While I'm sure that they appreciate the thought, I can tell you first hand that any self-respecting combat veteran would be the first person to brush such concerns off.

Blow stuff up! Do it for 'MURIKAA!!!!

murika.jpg


Edit:

That being said, however, everyone should, of course, try their best to be safe, responsible, and courteous while doing so. :D
Click to expand...

Yup, I'm sure. See above. But we can always just be nice despite them!

To be clear, I am not saying don't blow stuff up. Blowing stuff up is a time-honored Amurrican tradition. :mrgreen: Just try to stick to predictable times and places where they're going to be more ready for it. It's safer that way anyway, really. And more communal. Blowin' stuff up on the 6th is just annoying to everyone anyway.

Some vets with especially bad panic reactions do put signs out.

How veterans are coping with July Fourth fireworks - CNN.com

...So if you see one of them, be nice. I'm sure they were the last ones who wanted to admit they needed some consideration.
 
joG said:
Probably the persons facing that challenge know about it and take protective measures.
Click to expand...

Yes, but that's hard for them to do if it isn't the evening on the 4th, you know? That's what this article is saying: fireworks going off at 2am on the 3rd of July are what tends to get them.
 
SmokeAndMirrors said:
So I ran into an article about veterans and their reactions to unexpected fireworks on the 4th, and I must say I had never considered this.


Fireworks Can Trigger PTSD in Combat Veterans

I'm hoping some vets can chime in here, but it did give me pause. Small personal fireworks often start the day before and carry on probably a day or two after the Independence Day, slightly annoying many of us, but perhaps very much frightening some with old, yet invisible wounds. Know your neighbors, and be considerate of their needs. Those of us with pets have been lamenting this for years, but I have never seen vets with PTSD talked about before. And why not? Surely this isn't a new issue. Perhaps just too polite to bring it up.

Happy 4th, to vets especially, and also to the rest of us. Blow stuff up with care please. :)
Click to expand...

I've never liked fireworks, anyway. I don't see the appeal of them.
 
SmokeAndMirrors said:
Yup, I'm sure. See above. But we can always just be nice despite them!

To be clear, I am not saying don't blow stuff up. Blowing stuff up is a time-honored Amurrican tradition. :mrgreen: Just try to stick to predictable times and places where they're going to be more ready for it. It's safer that way anyway, really. And more communal. Blowin' stuff up on the 6th is just annoying to everyone anyway.

Some vets with especially bad panic reactions do put signs out.

How veterans are coping with July Fourth fireworks - CNN.com

...So if you see one of them, be nice. I'm sure they were the last ones who wanted to admit they needed some consideration.
Click to expand...

True, and fair enough. If someone with PTSD puts a sign up, or blatantly asks you to reign your fireworks in a little bit, there's really no reason not to other than to deliberately go out of your way to be a dickhead.

Personally, while I've never really seen the point of setting fireworks off during the day, or before the actual 4th (things are too damn expensive to waste them before the big night lol), if someone else wants to do so, that's kind of on them. This isn't something that particularly easy to regulate, unfortunately. lol
 
SmokeAndMirrors said:
Small personal fireworks often start the day before and carry on probably a day or two after the Independence Day
Click to expand...

Seriously? Only the day before and a couple days after? You have the politest neighbors ever then.

In my neighborhood people usually start setting them off on Memorial day, and don't stop until at least a week after the 4th. There's one particular guy that has to spend thousands of dollars every summer on fireworks. He sets them off literally every night for 6 weeks or so.
 
SmokeAndMirrors said:
So I ran into an article about veterans and their reactions to unexpected fireworks on the 4th, and I must say I had never considered this.


Fireworks Can Trigger PTSD in Combat Veterans

I'm hoping some vets can chime in here, but it did give me pause. Small personal fireworks often start the day before and carry on probably a day or two after the Independence Day, slightly annoying many of us, but perhaps very much frightening some with old, yet invisible wounds. Know your neighbors, and be considerate of their needs. Those of us with pets have been lamenting this for years, but I have never seen vets with PTSD talked about before. And why not? Surely this isn't a new issue. Perhaps just too polite to bring it up.

Happy 4th, to vets especially, and also to the rest of us. Blow stuff up with care please. :)
Click to expand...

Wow, how thoughtful!! :)
 
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