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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Dropping the 'Disorder' from PTSD?

How about instead of just talking about the label these veterans actually understand what it is so that a label won't get in their way of getting better?

Dropping the 'Disorder' from PTSD. What Do Psychiatric Labels Mean?
By Maia Szalavitz Monday, June 6, 2011

What's wrong with me? The question of where to draw the line between normal and abnormal and how to label our mental differences has become more vexing than ever. It's an issue that fuels the continuing debates over Americans' liberal use of psychiatric medications and the possible overdiagnosis of conditions like Asperger's syndrome. Now it's at the heart of an interesting move by the military.

As our colleagues over at the Battleland blog reported today, Pentagon officials are trying to remove the disorder from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), arguing that posttraumatic stress is a "normal reaction" to very serious events in soldiers' lives.

Read more: Dropping the Disorder from PTSD

If it is a "normal reaction" then why support the stigma by talking about changing the name instead of changing attitudes? I get a lot further with these veteran by making them human again and reminding them of what they were like before. Once they know they didn't cause it, was not born with it, fully understanding it invaded them, they are on their way to defeating it. Maybe dropping one word will help but considering it took 40 years to get them used to the term PTSD, I doubt it will do much good when there isn't enough being done for them after all these years.

My beef is that they still don't understand there is a different type of PTSD military folks end up with than what civilians have after traumatic events. They should have a term that really separates them considering they do not suffer after only one event, but have to endure many other events while deployed. We're talking about a whole different type of stress on them and that's where the name change should begin.

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