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Caroline Reichard
Cynthia Richardson
English Comp 1201 Online
1 November 2015
Rough Draft
My son Chris is a Captain in the army. While stationed in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber blew
himself up a hundred feet away from my son. Chris was immediately taken to the closest
medical facility for physical and psychological evaluation. He was debriefed and deemed fit to
return to active duty. My son has never claimed to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a.k.a.
(PTSD). But who is to say what the future holds for him, there is currently controversy with the
diagnosis of PTSD, some would say it doesnt exist at all, while others claim it is over
diagnosed. In the midst of the controversy surrounding PTSD, will help be available for
returning veterans? There is also something else to consider, many war veterans may be fine
when first returning home but what about the long term effects? And if they are strong enough to
reach out for help they may need, will the help be available?
To say PTSD doesnt exist at all, in my opinion, is coming from someone who is completely
unenlightened. There are just too many facts to the contrary but for the people who think is it
misdiagnosed or over diagnosed. They may have a point to a degree and here is why, As
disability awards for PTSD have grown nearly fivefold over the past 13 years, so have concerns
that many veterans may be exaggerating or lying to win benefits, reports the Washington Posts.
The Post quotes studies and experts suggesting that roughly half of veterans may not really
have PTSD. Depending on the severity, veterans with PTSD can receive up to $3,000 a month
tax-free making the disorder the biggest contributor to the growth of a disability system in which

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payments have more than doubled to $49 billion since 2002, reports the Post. The Washington
Post, In The News October 25,2014.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by a persons exposure to

life-threatening or otherwise traumatic circumstances. The term is most often associated with
mental health problems suffered by soldiers returning from war. In recent years, PTSD has been
diagnosed in people who have endured other types of high-stress experiences as well. Some
argue that the definition has been broadened too greatly, which has resulted in PTSD diagnoses
for people whose stress levels do not warrant the same level as genuine PTSD sufferers. Detroit:
Gale, 2015
PTSD is a common disorder in soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan common
symptoms include depression, nightmares, anxiety and sudden displays of aggression. One in
five veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are diagnosed with PTSD and veterans account
for 20% of U.S. suicides. Suicides among troops overall are also up averaging nearly one a day
the highest rate since the wars Iraq and Afghanistan began a decade ago among the youngest
veterans between 17 and 24 years of age and primarily those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan
have suicide rates four times higher than other veterans. According to the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs: The Relationship Between PTSD and Suicide.
Government research indicates a link between PTSD and suicide but there is no hard data.
Treatment for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans suffering from PTSD has cost more than 2 billion
dollars, so far health care for a veteran with PTSD has cost 3 as much as care for those without
the disorder per veteran, treatment costs $8,300. 00 in the first year. According to the

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Congressional Budget Office: The Veterans Health Administrations Treatment of PTSD and
Traumatic Brain Injury Among Recent Combat Veterans.
The Creation of PTSD as a diagnostic category emerged as much from politics as from
medicine. The disorder was first included in the DSMs (Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of
Mental Disorders) third edition, published in 1980, in large part because activists, many of the
Vietnam War Veterans, had lobbied for a formal diagnosis that not only validated the experience
of delayed and prolonged psychic pain but also relieved sufferers of the shame and stigma
associated with mental illness. At the same time, clinicians who studied other traumatic events
as varied as rape and the Holocaust supported the idea that symptoms could appear months or
even years after exposure to the stressorone of the criteria the DSM incorporated. Detroit:
Gale 2015.
One of the reasons the system is so complex and dysfunctional is that the conceptual foundation
which it is based is fundamentally unstable. According to the DSM (the Bible of psychiatric
profession). The DSMs definition of the disorder is somewhat mechanistic; input a sufficient
degree of stress and you get a disorder. And therein lies the illnesses paradox. If you react
normally to trauma you have a disorder, if you act abnormally to stress you dont. Nancy
Andreason a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the University of Iowa, aptly observed in The
American Journal of Psychiatry in 1995. PTSD is the only disorder that patients want to have,
unlike all other psychiatric conditions which imply defects of some kind, and a diagnosis of
PTSD confirms the patients normality. Detroit: Gale, 2015.
During World War 1, PTSD was thought to be a result of concussions caused by explosions,
which is how the term shell shock came about. During World War 2 it came to be termed war
neurosis which was said to be the result of inherent weaknesses, bad parenting and then

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aggravated by armed conflict. The U.S. military unable to provide the intense psychotherapy war
neurosis would consist of, started discharging soldiers with any psychiatric distress. A number of
psychiatrists in 1980 were critical of the current definition of the disorder. Robert Spitzer among
the psychiatrists, had advocated for a tightening of the diagnosis, there is concern the DSM, may
have broadened and even blurred more between normality and the disorder, not everyone is
affected anyway, even in similar circumstances. Any returning soldier would rather be diagnosed
with PTSD than any other mental disorder, thereby disqualifying them from further service.
Under such severe circumstances such as roadside bombings and suicide bombers, you are
normal if diagnosed with PTSD and not normal if diagnosed with any other mental disorder,
therein lies the paradox. According to Katherine N. Boone The Wilson Quarterly 35.4 (2011).
When soldiers have experienced the horrors of war, they do not want to be labelled as mentally
ill. As returning soldiers explain their symptoms to psychologist they end up intensely saying
Thats crazy right? but given the amount of anguish suffered and the alienation from loved
ones its hard to let them know that they are indeed not crazy. Most of our soldiers are
discouraged from expressing their true feelings for fear and helplessness, because they will be
viewed as weak. The trend seems to be to try and remain numb to avoid expressing anger, they
also have insomnia in record numbers. If we ignore their numbness and silence, then who
protects them. The military ethos discourages soldiers from talking about their fear, frustration,
helplessness and uncertainty. No officer said negative feelings were normal; sometimes someone
would say that any soldiers who felt depressed or anxious should tell their leader, and be passed
to a chaplain or counselor. But the message was clear: Needing help was unsoldierly. For men, it
was unmanly; for women, it proved they should not be soldiers. For the most part, the military
offers little help for the emotional carnage of war. Its top priority is to produce soldiers who,

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above all, continue to function. They often hand out anti-depressants to blunt emotions that only
resurface later. In the Second World War, a soldier who broke down after seeing a buddy blown
to bits was usually sent far from combat and given time to recuperate. More recently, the military
switched to the PIE approach, proximity, immediacy and expectation, claiming it was to protect
soldiers from survivor guilt. This means soldiers who have been overwhelmed by wars
horrors are kept near combat zones, sent back immediately, perhaps after a few days rest, with
the expectation conveyed that they will soon be fine. Of course, soldiers sent back to the front
are likely to see more comrades die, increasing the chances of suffering from survivor guilt.
Transition times can also be excruciating. Ray, a veteran who had been holed up near Kabul for
months, recalled how in preparing for leave, he was called to a meeting where soldiers were told
not to hit their wives. Thats all the advice we got. Ray said. Back in his home town, people
asked: Whats it like there? Ray was dumbfounded. How could he possibly convey what hed
seen to the citizens of this peaceful Midwestern place: the constant, battering uncertainty about
friends and enemies, the life and death stakes of a wrong guess? Even if he could, should he?
Soldiers have a duty to protect folks back home by fighting wars abroad but also to protect them
from our emotional nightmares, he said. People felt Ray was weird because he wouldnt talk
about the war. Chasms grew. His best friend stopped calling. Family interactions were
awkward. New Scientist, Nov 17, 2007, Vol. 196 Issue 2630 p56, 2p
Ty Carter, emblazoned in a battle during a braze Taliban attack. He survived earning a Medal of
Honor. He never felt like a hero and felt guilty for being alive and not being able to save his
brothers in arms. Tys Platoon Sargent encouraged him to feel proud. Ty says I was more
focused on getting to my bunk, burying my head into a pillow and not existing, I wanted to find a
hole and disappear. Foreign Policy 208 (2014).

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The Department of Veterans Affairs is reeling from the knowledge that some of its facilities
made military veterans wait for healthcare, The V.A. Hospitals kept bogus records to cover up
the delays. Robert McDonald, recently appointed VA secretary, is a West Point Graduate and
Former CEO of Procter & Gamble. Mr. McDonald has vowed to streamline the huge department
into a more effective organization better to able to serve the 6.6 million patients who seek
medical treatment each year. In spite of its recent problems, the VA has conducted Nobel Prizelevel research and delivered high-quality care to most of its patients. Reforming Veterans
healthcare, 21 November 2014. (985-1008).
People believe PTSD is over diagnosed. Some people believe it does not exist. There are in fact
some returning soldiers who do not have PTSD and claim to have it to obtain benefits from our
government. PTSD is a real diagnosis, and unfortunately, some people cheat the system in every
facet of life possible. There are returning soldiers who are afraid to speak up, because they do not
want to show any weakness or be shamed, so they are suffering in silence. If people infuse
knowledge with compassion, then our returning veterans may feel better about coming forward
and getting the treatment they need to live a more fulfilled life. In the future it will be much more
difficult to cheat the system as scientist are seeing similar brain patterns in the soldiers who are
experiencing PTSD, through a process called magnetoencephalography.

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Works Cited

Boone, Katherine N. The Paradox of PTSD: thousands of soldiers are returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan with deep psychological scars. Posttraumatic stress disorder is a common
diagnosis but is it the right one? The Wilson Quarterly 35.4 (2011); 18+. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 18 April 2015 URL. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton,
Ohio. 17 Oct. 2015
Caplon, Paula J. Dont Call our Soldiers Crazy. New Scientist 196.2630 (2007: 56-57),
academic research complete. Web 18Oct2015 Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, Ohio.
17 Oct. 2015
Congressional Budget Office: The Veterans Health Administrations Treatment of PTSD and
Traumatic Brain Injury Among Recent Combat Veterans
Dreazen, Yochi. Tour of Duty: Ty Carter Fought in Afghanistan and became a hero. Now he has
one more enemy to fight: PTSD. Foreign Policy 208 (2014): 52+. Opposing Viewpoints
in context. Web 4 Apr.2015. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, Ohio. 17 October 2015
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Detroit:
Gale, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web 4 April 2015 Ohio Link. Sinclair
Library, Dayton, Ohio 17 Oct. 2015
Price, Tom Reforming Veterans Healthcare, 21 November 2014, CQ researcher, 24 985-1008
retrieved from <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre201412100
US Department of Veterans affairs: The Relationship Between PTSD and Suicide

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US Department of Defense: The Challenge and the Promise: Strengthening the Force,
Preventing Suicide and Saving Lives
Wipond, Rob Washington Post, October 25, 2014. In The News VA Struggles to Separate Fake
from Real PTSD, With Virtually no Patients Improving.