Why PTSD

 We are all just one step away from what is currently called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. The hyper-vigilance (having your brain’s alarm on high alert continuously), flashbacks (daytime picture memories, played like a movie while you’re awake), nightmares, emotional numbing, terror and/or rage provoked by the small everyday events of life, all of this is what PTSD is. For as long as man has fought wars, and cataclysmic events have unfolded around the globe there has been PTSD. In the military arena it has been called many things-soldiers heart, battle fatigue, shell shock, to name just a few. It was not until 1980 that it became officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), given the name PTSD, and defined as a mental disorder. This came about mainly because of the large number of Vietnam veterans who had returned and were being diagnosed with “Post-Vietnam Syndrome”. In order for these men and women to receive treatment an official diagnosis was needed, and PTSD was born. Since that time, research into PTSD has ebbed and flowed depending on politics and the status of our military---whether actively engaged or not; now that the war on terror has produced millions of new combat veterans, PTSD has taken center stage. And we see that not much has been learned in the 30 years since its "official" name was born.

 The current medical model of PTSD comes mainly from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) definition of PTSD as an Anxiety Disorder. Under this classification a subject with PTSD must be diagnosed with a mental disorder in order to receive treatment and services. This, of course, is a high hurdle for young warriors to overcome. If one is to believe this model, they must agree that we send thousands of young, mentally healthy, physically fit, highly trained, military personnel into combat zones around the world, and that conservatively 25-45% comes back with a mental disorder!