This description seems to be given to everyone coming back from Afghanistan now. If a solider can give an incident that created stress, then they can apply for assistance from the government.
So how much do we pay for this? Since everyone is worried about the debt, this PTSD (as the professionals call it) is not going to help.
Let’s get real folks. It’s a volunteer army. These boys and girls sign up to go and protect a country who has pampered them through their teen years. Now the recruitment might sugar coat the obvious, the new recruits watch the news. They have been seeing the bad things happening for years.
Now the pride of country and faith may be strong, these kids are going into a hostile land to be shot at or worst. A teen has just eaten breakfast with a friend only to have pieces of him land in his lap after a roadside bomb is going to have some stress. You think?
Now fill out the paper work of the traumatic event with enough details to go through the government process to give a check to abate the affect of the trauma.
Face it these kids are going to WAR! Being shot at is a traumatic event. Hearing bombs going off is a traumatic event. Being separated from your family and friends and sent to a dusty dirty hostile environment where you do not understand the language or the customers and some of them are shooting at your is a traumatic event.
Of course the people who live there and can not leave have to cope with this every day as they have for years and years.
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Professionally, I know a bit about PTSD. Please do not assime that 'all' come back with this diagnosis, nor that this diagnosis is disabling for all. That said, please also do not assume that there are not cases where the psychological impact of combact can be severe nor that folks might have a severe inpact on their daily lives due to PTSD.
Bottom line, (1) neither you not I walked a mile in these servicemember's shoes and (2) do not balance the budget on their backs.
Art
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