Written by an Iraq veteran I know who's having what sounds like a fairly typical rough adjustment to being back (and a typical struggle to get necessary care for service-related injuries from the VA). Long, but well worth reading.

More:

There's nothing so comfortable as a prejudice confirmed, even if it takes machinations and deprivation to bring that about.

Another one is pain. T's uncle was hurt in an industrial accident that broke his hip, pelvis, both legs, and some vertebrae. The bones never set right, or were not set right, perhaps, by an indifferent physician, who looked at his record or heard from R himself about busts and brawls and concluded that the man would merely injure himself again, as 'they' always do. It's hard to conceive of a future when you do have a past.

So R gets a vast amount of Vicodan per month, only some of which he uses, because his preferred anesthetic is liquid. When someone is creative, we view that as a tragedy.…