Several of us old buzzards were having our usual problem solving discussions at the nature center prior to going about our volunteer tasks. Our group included a WWII veteran, a couple of Korean War veterans and a Vietnam War veteran. Our conversation drifted to post traumatic stress disorder.
One of our fellow volunteers has been studying the Civil War for a number of years. He said that despite the horror of experiencing grape-shot and bayonet-stabbing, he has found no evidence that large numbers of Union and Confederate soldiers suffered the symptoms of what we now call PTSD.
I mentioned my experiences from WWII and since. In my outfit there were quite a few combat veterans who fought in the bloody battles of Guadalcanal, Saipan and Okinawa. None of those battle-hardened soldiers showed any signs of psychological problems resulting from close quarter and hand-to-hand combat. I’ve also associated with many veterans of bloody campaigns in France and Italy, including several who took part in the Normandy landings and the Battle of the Bulge. None of them had any psychological problems after the war.
The Korean vets also said they had seen few cases of psychological problems among their fellow war veterans. Our Vietnam vet pointed out that the overwhelming majority of Vietnam veterans returned home absent of the psychological problems the media played up during the war and thereafter. All that is not to say that there were no Civil War veterans, WWII vets and Korean vets who suffered psychologically following their return home. But their numbers were not anything like those purported to have occurred among Vietnam vets and veterans of the wars in Iraq ad Afghanistan.
During our discussion, I raised the question: Is PTSD for real or was it manufactured by psychiatrists?
It wasn’t until 1980 that the American Psychiatric Association added PTSD to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
As for all those Vietnam vets that have been pictured by the media as unable to function in society because they are suffering from PTSD, it must be noted that they were really a small percentage of Vietnam combat veterans. The draftees of that war were not exactly the crème de la crème of military recruits. Many had behavioral problems before they were drafted. A number of them became addicted to pot and heroin while in Vietnam. When those vets got back home, they did not suffer from psychological problems because of their combat experiences. Rather, they were unable to function in society because they had drug problems.
And now the media fills up the TV screens with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffering from PTSD. The Vietnam War was the last one in which close quarter combat and hand-to hand fighting was the rule of the day. Most of the deaths and injuries that have occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan resulted from roadside bombs and IEDs. While seeing and facing these deaths and injuries is a horrible and frightening experience, it does not compare to what our soldiers and marines experienced in prior wars.
Our soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan are brave souls and we should all be grateful for their service and sacrifices. And just like with the veterans of prior wars, the vast majority of them return home absent of psychological problems. A relatively small group is using PTSD as an excuse for the failures they experience in civilian life.
Our discussion group concluded that PTSD is less real and more of a psychiatry manufactured excuse for bad behavior. Even correctional officers are now claiming to suffer from PTSD because of their experiences trying to control unruly prison inmates. Will the gangbanging veterans of our inner-city turf wars be the next group diagnosed with PTSD? How about A-Rod? As he continues to play for the Yankees pending appeal of his 211 game suspension, will psychiatrists say he's suffering from PTSD if he goes into a batting slump?
Instead of writing, “Let’s kill all the lawyers first,” Shakespeare should have written, “Let’s kill all the psychiatrists/psychologists first.” But there weren’t any of those babbling brook therapists back then.
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