I just read a pretty horrifying article in a magazine about a number of soldiers wounded in Iraq that came home to find themselves with a diagnosis of "personality disorder" and no disability benefits. According to the Army "personality disorder" is a pre-existing condition. I guess from the standpoint of a VA facing a backlog of 600,000 disability claims and a budget that has no way to meet these needs, "personality disorder" sounds pretty good. At least one in four vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from severe mental injury, including post traumatic stress syndrome, to say nothing of physical wounds.
I imagine that the least of these mental injuries will be depression and, what the VA euphemistically refers to as "readjustment disorders." Men are often unaware or unwilling to admit that the symptoms they are exhibiting are those of depression. Instead of seeking medical help they often seek relief with drugs or alcohol.
“I’d drink and I’d just get numb. I’d get numb to try to numb my head. I mean, we’re talking many, many beers to get to that state where you could shut your head off, but then you wake up the next day and it’s still there. Because you have to deal with it, it doesn’t just go away. It isn’t a two hour movie and then at the end it goes ‘The End’ and you press off. I mean it’s a twenty four hour a day movie and you’re thinking there is no end. It’s horrible.”
-Patrick McCathern, First Sergeant, U.S. Air Force, Retired
I hope that "supporting our troops" means more than yellow ribbons...
Read more about men and depression here.
Read the article about vets and "personality disorder" here.
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