Combat PTSD is nothing to fear

When I read the title of this article it bothered me.

Growing number of veterans endure mental problems
By JENNA MINK
Daily News
Published: July 1, 2012

Bowling Green, Ky. — One Bowling Green veteran remembers too well the deep depression and mental breakdown that haunted him after years of combat. Decades after serving in the military, the man still does not want his name connected to his condition.

“That’s one of the main problems in combat,” he said. “It’s what it does to you mentally.”

A growing number of veterans are reporting mental problems, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. They are just a few issues veterans encounter when they return home.
read more here

"Enduring mental problems" makes it sound like they are the subject of a Criminal Minds episode with an "unsub" blowing people away instead of pointing out the simple fact that less than half of the veterans with PTSD seek help.

Yesterday I was talking to a group of veterans and one of them wanted to warn me about phony PTSD veterans just looking for a free ride. I told him he was listening to the wrong people because while it is true there are some trying to take advantage of the compensation, the likelihood of this happening is very low especially when you know they are more apt to avoid the VA than they are willing to reach out for any kind of help from them.

We read reports of veterans committing crimes simply because the majority of them do not commit crimes but are not considered newsworthy. There are actually more veterans seeking to kill themselves than commit crimes. We don't talk about that though. It is heartbreaking enough to know that out of the 8% of this country 18 veterans a day take their own lives and out of the less than 1% serving today they are averaging 1 a day. Should we actually face the fact that many more attempt suicide each day, the number of veterans committing any crime at all would seem insignificant but if a person is accused of committing a crime and happens to be in this minority, well then, it makes the headlines.

Don't get me wrong. This article is well worth the read but the title misleads. More veterans have PTSD for several reasons. Repeated deployments increase the risk and we know too many have done multiple tours. The other factor is there are now more combat veterans with more knowledge than every before and more seeking help to heal.