I commented on Jules original post on this subject and will do so again.
First of all, a little misleading, PTS (acute, short term, Post Traumatic Stress) and the more chronic disorder, PTSD, are fairly recent adds to the list of psychiatric disorders with its own diagnosis code. In previous wars, even during Vietnam, the condition was referred to as “battle fatigue” or “shell shock” and were not considered official, psychiatric diagnosis. Often, these conditions were not even identified as such, but were associated with other disorders such as manic depressives or bi-polar disorder.
Post Traumatic Stress didn’t even make it into our lexicon until almost 15 years after Vietnam. Since “battle fatigue” and “shell shock” were stigmatized as the conditions of the weak or the insane, reporting the numbers from say WWII and trying to compare them to modern war in the last half of the century when we actually started tracking it is also a bit misleading. Trying to compare suicide numbers from one time period to another, equally so.
Even after it became recognized, PTS and PTSD were so stigmatized and associated with “crazy” that troops were highly unwilling, even after years from discharge, to admit any symptoms. Here’s another fact, while we’re trying to discredit these numbers, what we’re losing site of is that, people with the “acute” short term version of PTS that actually do seek some sort of assistance are more likely to see a total recession of their symptoms and not drift into the more chronic “disorder”. It is among those suffering the “disorder” that suicide is the highest. Thus reduce PTSD episodes to PTS, reduce suicide rates (whatever they are).
While I appreciate the concern over inflated numbers and sensationalism in the press and Hollywood (I never liked Rambo for that reason), I am more appreciative that Mr. Crittendon talked a little about his own experiences and that he said it was “normal”. Lifting the stigma attached to such conditions is an important factor in improved recognition, treatment and resolution.
Frankly, I don’t see such discussions as trying to make our troops “victims”. I believe that our troops, particularly as an “all volunteer force”, deserves the best that we can give them and that it is our responsibility to insure that, when they come home, we bring them “all the way home”.
That includes advanced prosthetics, improved reconstructive surgery, the best rehabilitation and the best mental health care we can provide them.
I would like to see Mr. Crittendon, with his contacts and wide readership, do an article about that. Then I would be comfortable that such articles trying to debunk sensationalized media reports were really about defending our troops and not about some political disagreement with our media.
