Support for Purple Heart award for wound of PTSD

If you support the fact that PTSD is nothing to be ashamed of, if you are aware enough to understand that PTSD is a wound, please go to the following link and post it. I just did.

http://www.purpleheartforptsd.org/profile/PeterSGriffin

Comment by Chaplain Kathie Costos just now
I am a certified, ordained, licensed and insured Senior Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains. I am on the NAMI Veteran's Council as well as holding membership in several organizations. I've been working with veterans focusing on PTSD for over 25 years and have researched it extensively as if my life depended on it, simply because it does. My husband is a Vietnam Vet with PTSD. I have a blog, web site, an online book and have done several videos on PTSD. There is not much I do not know about PTSD, so please consider where this is coming from.

I fully support the Purple Heart for PTSD as well as TBI. TBI comes from a traumatic jolt like a bomb blast as well as accidents. If they were in the combat arena, whatever they came into contact with causing TBI should be considered a wound. We cannot forget that the brain is in fact part of the body.

As for PTSD, the term itself was not chosen by accident and has been used since the 70's contrary to the popular belief they did not begin to study it until the 80's. While it is true the VA did not acknowledge it until then, it took many years of researchers and veterans fighting the VA to get it acknowledged. Publications of studies were printed all through the 70's. The term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was chosen very carefully. Trauma is Greek for wound. It sets off changes in the body as well as chemicals in the brain. None of this is new but has finally made it into the mainstream media reports. Brain scans have managed to prove all that comes with PTSD.

It is a normal reaction to abnormal events. It has been documented since the beginning of time under many different titles but can even be found in the Bible as well as in ancient Greek and Roman documents.

The Purple Heart, commissioned by General George Washington, was not created as a wound medal, but was to acknowledge the "grunt" of the day in the Revolutionary War. It was then adapted to acknowledge being wounded in combat. The term PTSD is "after wound" thus qualifying it for the award. While the military does not issue different Purple Hearts for gravities of wounds, awarding it for a bullet graze as well as a limb lost, there are some in this country who believe PTSD is a wound to a lesser degree and not worthy of an award that provides nothing more than the acknowledgement this wound is carried by those who have faced the enemy and paid the price for it.

Many who have visible physical wounds, also carry this wound within them. While the scar on their body is honored with the Purple Heart, the scar inside of them is disregarded, yet this wound is what does effect their entire life for the rest of their life and also the lives of their families. Financially PTSD is already compensated because the VA acknowledges it as caused by service thus awarding a "service connected disability" rating. The benefit of awarding the Purple Heart for PTSD is to remove the notion PTSD is a wound of an unworthy degree, something that is seen as something "wrong with them" and plays into the uneducated, uninformed viewpoint that PTSD is some kind of flaw within the veteran.

PTSD is a wound and not a flaw. It has nothing to do with character, bravery, patriotism, political party or gender. It has to do with being human exposed to the traumatic events in combat. If anything PTSD is a wound to a greater degree, not a lesser one. We need to wonder why anyone would want to dishonor the veterans carrying this battle born wound, ask what their motive is when they fight so hard to prevent their brothers and sisters from being honored for their service and for the wound they received in doing so. They only people against this, from all I've read, are still denying what PTSD is and what the Purple Heart has stood for.

When this was first made public, I told my husband about it. He was stunned and said, "Wow we've come a long way since Nam" and that came from someone who almost died because of his service and the wound he carries within him. His nephew was not as lucky. He took his own life along with far too many others.

links to some of the posts I've done on the Purple Heart for PTSD


http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/05/to-deny-purple-heart-for-ptsd-is-wrong.html

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-are-wounds-of-war.html

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/05/group-says-ptsd-doesnt-merit-purple.html

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-must-battle-against-stigma-of-mental.html

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/05/time-to-reclassify-ptsd-as-wound.html

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/05/ptsd-how-many-are-worthy-of-grave.html

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/05/troops-with-ptsd-could-merit-purple.html

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/06/thomas-lipscomb-wrong-on-ptsd-attitude.html

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/06/getting-rid-of-spin-on-purple-heart.html


Peter Griffin takes all of this very seriously. Do you? How do you feel about honoring this wound the same way all other wounds are honored?