Medal of Honor recipient fights to remove stigma of PTSD

Medal of Honor recipient fights to remove stigma of PTSD
The Denver Post
By Austin Briggs
POSTED: 12/01/2013

Staff Sgt. Ty Carter, a Medal of Honor recipient, is pictured at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, where he spoke Sunday at the VFW Post 1 Founders Day Banquet. Carter earned the nation's highest military honor in Afghanistan.
(Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

A therapist usually isn't on the list of people someone gives thanks to in an acceptance speech.

The acknowledgment is even more striking when it comes from a Medal of Honor recipient whom President Barack Obama called "as tough as they come."

For 33-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Ty Carter, it seemed only natural to thank his support group, including mental health professionals, which helped him cope with psychological wounds he suffered after surviving one of the most intense firefights in the Afghan war.

Carter was a guest speaker at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1 114th annual Founders Day Banquet on Sunday evening at the Brown Palace Hotel. In an interview before the banquet, Carter spoke about his work in removing the stigma associated with post- traumatic stress disorder.

He has toured the country and spoken to countless media outlets since Obama placed the medal around his neck Aug. 26. He wants to see the D removed from PTSD.

"Because by calling it a disorder, individuals believe that 'if I have this, then there's something wrong with me,' " Carter said. "With PTS you just had a bad experience and you're trying to learn from it and trying to reintegrate how you live your life with it, because that trauma will never go away."

In the battle that earned him the nation's highest military honor, an outpost in Afghanistan's Nuristan Province was surrounded by almost 300 insurgents who opened fire with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades the morning of Oct. 3, 2009. Fifty-three Americans were stationed there; eight were killed in battle, and 25 were wounded, including Carter, who suffered hearing loss, shrapnel injuries and a concussion.
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