Ptsd

PTSD: The War Comes Home

For millions of American citizens, the sound of the neighbor starting up their lawnmower or hearing the clatter of rain on the roof is just normal sounds of spring. However, for one third of our returning troops, these common sounds are momentarily terrifying. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is not a new concept to the military. After Vietnam, soldiers were labeled as "shell-shocked", a colloquialism for PTSD. Another coined term was the "one hundred yard stare" bestowed on the more severely affected veteran. These labels were cancerous in regard to the soldiers military career- no longer perceived to be competent or worthy of advancement. Their military careers were not the only victims in the difficult transition home; families were unaware of the psychological impact and residual effects the war had inflicted. If you didn't receive a "Dear John" while you were away, chances are you received the equivalent a few months after your return. Imagine your son leaving for combat and coming back a stranger- if he came back at all. This was and is the reality for many parents, wives, girlfriends and children of a war veteran.

PTSD is not only related to combat troops, but also to troops on peace-keeping missions as was our duty in Desert Storm. The anxiety of potential harm to oneself or having to inflict harm on another human being can be just as stressful, even if the situation never presents itself. Although troops in high-combat zones like Iraq are statistically superior in PTSD diagnoses, troops in less volatile Afghanistan are also seeking treatment for mental anguishes symptomatic of PTSD. An article in Psychiatric News states that, "Soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq were twice as likely to screen positive for PTSD as those who served in Afghanistan (9.8 percent vs. 4.7 percent)". On the bright side, it seems as if our military has recently decided to be markedly proactive about screening and providing support for our returning troops, but what about Vietnam veterans? With our nation's financial belt tightened due to our current war endeavor and fallout, are we supporting our fore-soldiers just as dutifully? The Seattle Post- Intelligencer's guest columnists don't think so....

"U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a courageous advocate for veterans, castigated the VA for attempting to strip veterans of service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder disability status over paperwork errors..." "First, VA's true intent is to limit government liability to veterans with service-connected disabilities. Affected veterans, often impoverished and isolated, must be able to document stressors and fight years-long battles with a Kafkaesque bureaucracy often staffed with incompetents and callous skeptics such as Satel. Countless veterans have committed suicide while their valid claims for help languish in an underfunded system with a backlog of cases numbering in the hundreds of thousands."

Unfortunately, our Vietnam veterans have never quite shook the stereotype that was forced upon them. Their afflictions and inabilities are still seen by their government and military as problematic individual flaws and not