War and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) wasn't recognized as a real psychiatric condition until 1980, when great numbers of Vietnam veterans urged medical authorities to accept it as such. PTSD is distinct from depression or generalized anxiety in that its symptoms are often much more vivid and compelling. Soldiers so afflicted often report experiencing nightmares, lucid flashbacks, and moments when it's impossible to think rationally or distinguish the present from the past. It took many years for people to recognize that soldiers returning from Vietnam had PTSD, but nowadays returning vets are encouraged to seek help early on in order to hopefully prevent serious problems from developing later on.

Unfortunately, many do not seek such help even when they need it. Some are averse to the stigma attached to mental ilness; others are concerned about confidentiality. The military has its own standard, known as the risk criteria for mental health concern, that it uses to determine the psychological fitness of returning soldiers (about 19% of soldiers returning from Iraq have been considered causes for concern). Standardized checklists are given to screen soldiers for PTSD, major depression, and anxiety. More than 1/3 of soldiers coming home receive psychological counseling; 1 in 10 have been diagnosed with PTSD.

The incidence of this disorder are always highest where soldiers have been exposed to combat situations. Those who suffer the most often are the ones who've been shot at, have handled dead bodies, had to kill enemy combatants, or knew someone who'd been killed. For this reason, there has been greater incidents of PTSD amongst soldiers returning from Iraq (where more frequent and heavy combat was experienced) that Afghanistan. This has been especially true for those whose tour of duty began with the initial invasion of Iraq on March 20 and continued over the next 6 to 8 months when the fighting was most severe.

PTSD can be seen as the inevitable behavior of a psyche that has been pushed passed its limits. One wonders if it has always shadowed the lives of people involved with wars - since wars have existed somewhere or another all throughout recorded history. America has some strangely ambivalent attitudes towards warfare, however. At home, even normal aggression and anger is discouraged and frowned upon. Men go to work in places where they're expected to be generally docile and obedient. They're expected to bear life's misfortunes with little complaint, and not show too much emotion. Then, suddenly, they may be thrust into a combat situation where they're given carte blanche to release all their aggressive and destructive impulses. More than likely, they get exposed to a side of themselves that they've never seen before. Perhaps it's something they can't bear to look at, and want to deny. When their tour of duty is done, they return to their homeland and are suddenly expected to pick up the threads of their lives and continue on as before, as if the harrowing experience had never happened.

But of course this is impossible.