Military misconduct may be sign of PTSD

He's a drunk. He's a druggy. He's a bully. He's cold. All of these labels are placed on them everyday, usually by the people in their lives who should know them the best, their families.

When "they suddenly change" there is a reason for it so no family should ever be off the hook just because they didn't understand PTSD. They knew them all their lives, knew their character and their moods, just as they knew the what they were capable of. They closed their eyes to what came home with them, not wanting to know what happened "over there" no matter where the "there" turned out to be. It didn't matter if it was Vietnam, Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan or Kuwait or another other nation. The biggest problem is, no one pointed out to the families there are always reasons people change.

How do you go from being a hero in the eyes of your family into being a waste of life or a problem bigger than the family wants to deal with? How do you go from being a buddy watching someone's back, fully trusted with their lives into being a reject from the military you served proudly for 5, 10, 20 years? Drastic changes in anyone do not happen without a reason but this is what happens everyday.

Commanders will still close their eyes to the records of service if all of a sudden they are a discipline problem. Families still kick veterans out of the house if suddenly they become someone else, like a stranger living with them. Unless everyone opens their eyes, seeing the history of these men and women, their futures will be damaged because no one saw what was behind it today.

Military misconduct may be sign of PTSD

Navy doctor gives warning

By Amanda Carpenter

In 2007, a high-ranking Navy doctor sent a sobering warning to colleagues: The service may be discharging soldiers for misconduct when in fact they are merely displaying symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

By doing so, the anonymous doctor noted in a memo to other medical administrators, the service may be denying those troops their rights to Veterans Affairs benefits — including treatment for medical conditions they incurred while serving on the battlefield.

In the future, any military personnel facing dismissal for misconduct after a deployment should be screened first for PTSD, the memo said. The recommendation was never implemented.

High-ranking Navy doctors who oversee medical care for the Marines say such screenings would help avoid sending troops back into society without the ability to get treatment for combat-induced illness from the very government that dispatched them to the battlefield.
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Military misconduct may be sign of PTSD