Posted on Oct 22, 2015
The prevalence of PTSD from World War 2 through Modern Day. Thoughts on cause and effect?
16.3K
69
52
10
10
0
PTSD disability ratings have tripled since 2000. My question is, I could understand this if military doctrine was the same as it was during World War Two. But it is not.
In WW2, if you wanted to get 100,000 boots on the beach, you started with 150,000. Military doctrine is much different today. Make NO mistake, combat is horrific, in ANY form. Yet being affected by combat, is a natural human condition. To NOT be affected by the horrors of war, would infer a deficiency.
From discussions with other service connected veterans, I am told new PTSD ratings are given immediate 50% SC rating.
From this I cannot make any sense, is combat that much worse than it was during WW2? I would vehemently disagree and would argue the opposite.(Clarification, combat is horrific no matter which conflict. What I am inferring is combat doctrine has evolved from a numbers game to a force multiplier/tactics based strategy)
Do you believe the tripling in PTSD SC ratings have more to do with society today, an increase in the lethality of combat, a changing military doctrine, are today's warfighters less resilient that OUR forefathers, is today's VA more willing to address the stressors of combat rather than looking for the physical aspect of casualties?
As I am reading this question I have posed, I am of the notion that it "could" appear that I am challenging the validity of current PTSD SC ratings. Please understand I am NOT. I am looking for thoughts from the aspect of cause and effect, that being the tripling of PTSD/Battle Fatigue diagnosis's since 2000
In WW2, if you wanted to get 100,000 boots on the beach, you started with 150,000. Military doctrine is much different today. Make NO mistake, combat is horrific, in ANY form. Yet being affected by combat, is a natural human condition. To NOT be affected by the horrors of war, would infer a deficiency.
From discussions with other service connected veterans, I am told new PTSD ratings are given immediate 50% SC rating.
From this I cannot make any sense, is combat that much worse than it was during WW2? I would vehemently disagree and would argue the opposite.(Clarification, combat is horrific no matter which conflict. What I am inferring is combat doctrine has evolved from a numbers game to a force multiplier/tactics based strategy)
Do you believe the tripling in PTSD SC ratings have more to do with society today, an increase in the lethality of combat, a changing military doctrine, are today's warfighters less resilient that OUR forefathers, is today's VA more willing to address the stressors of combat rather than looking for the physical aspect of casualties?
As I am reading this question I have posed, I am of the notion that it "could" appear that I am challenging the validity of current PTSD SC ratings. Please understand I am NOT. I am looking for thoughts from the aspect of cause and effect, that being the tripling of PTSD/Battle Fatigue diagnosis's since 2000
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Operation Desert Shield/Storm
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) - Afghanistan
PTSD
Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 21
10
10
0
I don't think any of them suffered any less than today's veterans, but it's more of a result of better research and outreach to veterans to get help today than there was back then. Their generation was told to basically shut up and deal. Both my grandma and grandpa were WWII vets and both died before I was even born from alcoholism. They were never diagnosed with "war fatigue" but from what I've been told they definitely had the symptoms.
(10)
(0)
CPT Pedro Meza
SSG Damon Lightfoot, I met a few WWI vets and Many WWII, Korean, and Vietnam vets when I worked at the VA hospital in the 70's and you are correct, 97% of the vets were alcoholics with some also self medicating with heroin.
(1)
(0)
SSgt (Join to see)
Very well said SSG Damon Lightfoot. Was thinking something along the same lines, just didn't know how to word it. To add to what you said; people are also less afraid to go seek help now than they once were. There was a time that visiting mental health for anything was damn near a career ender. People chose to just deal with their problems themselves rather than lose everything.
(1)
(0)
8
8
0
1) Huge increases in the study of Psychology & Psychiatry
2) Massive changes in the perception of PTS, versus "Battle Fatigue" versus "Shell Shock" etc. George Carlin actually has a skit regarding this from the 70s-80s.
3) Changes in the VA rating system. Injury vs. Condition. It's really easy to give someone a rating for an injury. You can see if someone is missing a leg or has a limp. It's hard to see a Condition. It's hard to see how they are affected by a Condition. This goes back to 1 & 2. As the science & perception changes, the #s go up. More people are able to come forward and say they are affected, and how much they are affected is able to be actually documented.
4) Aside to #3. Things like drug use & alcoholism. We're able to tie them a lot better than we were before. Some of the "old timers" drank to keep the demons away. We know that now. We didn't then.
2) Massive changes in the perception of PTS, versus "Battle Fatigue" versus "Shell Shock" etc. George Carlin actually has a skit regarding this from the 70s-80s.
3) Changes in the VA rating system. Injury vs. Condition. It's really easy to give someone a rating for an injury. You can see if someone is missing a leg or has a limp. It's hard to see a Condition. It's hard to see how they are affected by a Condition. This goes back to 1 & 2. As the science & perception changes, the #s go up. More people are able to come forward and say they are affected, and how much they are affected is able to be actually documented.
4) Aside to #3. Things like drug use & alcoholism. We're able to tie them a lot better than we were before. Some of the "old timers" drank to keep the demons away. We know that now. We didn't then.
(8)
(0)
CPT Pedro Meza
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, along with the studies researchers were able to compare and contrast past war veterans and what is common to all; psych injury, behavior changes, self medication, aggression etc. Vets became the mice labs.
(0)
(0)
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
CPT Pedro Meza - No doubt. I wasn't trying to establish cause & effect. Just pointing out the links to "increase" per the original question.
(1)
(0)
CPT Pedro Meza
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS - You did not establish cause and effect you pointed out that the psychology/psychiatry field combine with cause and effect research using past wars and veterans lead to better evaluations.
(0)
(0)
6
6
0
Go an watch "Mad Men". A good portion of the main characters portrayed in the series were involved in either WWII or Korea. There was a large amount of drinking during the course of the day. Granted, that was part of the social landscape then, but I think it's very indicative of the way that many veterans of the era, who were now civilians, coped with the PTSD.
(6)
(0)
COL (Join to see)
I would definitely agree. Not only that, but there was a much bigger, "suck it up" mentality that went on back then. I think we'd call that being "resilient" now but it was assisted with lots of booze. My dad is a Vietnam Vet and always had a drink after work. We'd call it his "attitude adjustment time". He never had a problem with alcohol, it was something that was just done.
(1)
(0)
CPT Pedro Meza
LTC Bryan Bogle , Just add that heroin used increased post wars, and homeless did too, but no one talks about that, because it is no seen as self medicating.
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google