Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Another Veterans day has passed. It's the day where military veterans are recognized for the risk they take in protecting the country. Every nation has such a day, though it may not be called Veterans day. I think this is a good thing. But it's all happy talk. Never is there any question of the value of wars or the consequences of them. One of the onerous consequences of sending young men (mostly men, though some women do face combat conditions) into combat is PTSD.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a scourge to the individual soldier and to the society in which he lives upon return from the battle site. PTSD an emotional illness that develops when a person is exposed to a highly dangerous, very terrifying, possibly life threatening event. In the film 'Saving Private Ryan', the character Tom Hanks played had a trembling hand that appeared from time to time during the film. Involuntary trembling is a classic sigh of PTSD.

The military likes to hide PTSD but there is documentation of it in every war America has ever fought. it seems to be a stable affliction, in every arm, every nation , every war, in a every age. Until recently it was called being "shell shocked" to "combat fatigue" in W.W. I. In the American Civil War (1860-1865) it was called "soldiers heart". In W.W.II it was called "battle fatigue". In every war in every time some people regarded it as cowardice. It is not.

I looked for some stats on PTSD during the current Iraqi War and found that:

-While less than 10 percent of the general population will develop post traumatic stress syndrome, one in six soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from it.
-Enlisted men are twice as likely than military officers to report PTSD.
-American women serving in Iraq tend to suffer from more severe and debilitating forms of PTSD.

The symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can arise suddenly, gradually, or come and go over time. People with PTSD manifest many symptoms that include: anxiety, trembles in fingers, muscle twitches, eye twitches, anger dreams, weird dreams, panic attacks, dizziness or feeling of off balance, flashbacks, disorientation, sleeplessness, and many more I once heard a statistic that 30% of all convicts who served in the military in a war suffer from PTSD. Many soldiers with it have little help because the military does not want to acknowledge the depth of the problem because it could affect moral and combat readiness of soldiers, and society is uncaring about it. Often soldiers afflicted with it commit suicide as the only way to cope.

I had a friend, a mine sweeper in war, who told me he used to wake up in the night almost routinely in terror with flashbacks of some of the death and maiming he saw. Society is greatly impacted by the disorder as well as are the individual suffers.For me, Veterans Day is not a time to wave flags, but rather to be reminded that war is something that should be avoided at all costs.