Junk Science Behind Michael Savage's Attacks On Military Troops With PTSD

I can't write some of the words used by veterans when we talked about Michael Savage attacking veterans. I got about as bad as I could get when I posted Veterans Fed Up With Michael Savage After PTSD Rant

There is an article over on Media Matters that pretty much summed up where the crap Savage came up with came from. No, it wasn't in his own delusional-dysfunctional head. It is nothing more than, as Lisa Reed put it, "junk science" we've all been fighting against for the last 40 years.

The Junk Science Behind Michael Savage's Attacks On Military Troops With PTSD
Media Matters
Lisa Reed
October 26, 2014

Last week, Michael Savage leveled his latest in a long string of attacks on Americans with mental illness and the medical community that works to help them. After a veteran caller with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) expressed support for the city of San Francisco naming a bridge after the late Robin Williams, the right-wing radio host announced that he is "so sick and tired of everyone with their complaints about PTSD, depression," asserting that it's a sign of a "weak, sick, broken nation."

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), approximately 5.2 million adults have PTSD within a given year. As of 2012, mental illness was the leading reason for active-duty hospitalizations in the military, and the VA estimates that up to 20 percent of veterans who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since 2001 suffer from PTSD. For veterans who left the military between October 2002 and July 2011, nearly 200,000 had a provisional diagnosis for PTSD, not including those who went undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. And the Institute of Medicine reported in June that "PTSD is the third most common major service-connected disability after hearing loss and ringing of the ears."

PTSD isn't just a combat-related injury. It can result from various traumatic incidents, ranging from child abuse to car accidents to muggings to sexual assault. A fight-or-flight response can be triggered by things that remind the survivor of her trauma, or things that catch the person off-guard, like bright lights or loud noises. Often those with PTSD experience flashbacks, where memories and feelings associated with past trauma come rushing back as if the trauma was happening all over again.

In an interview with CNN, former U.S. Navy Seal Brandon Webb said that he had observed significant improvements in the way PTSD is reported and discussed within the military, but pointed out an even larger challenge that veterans face:

WEBB: Most of the veterans and active duty folks I speak to, actually their biggest fear is that this stigma is created in the media and elsewhere that these veterans, as they're transitioning from active duty to civilian life, that there's this stigma that they're damaged goods.

Webb also pointed out the positive qualities that veterans, even those with PTSD, can bring to the civilian working world that are often overlooked by the media: "They're leaders, they can think on their feet, and make incredibly tough decisions under extreme amounts of pressure." read more here

I wonder if Savage has the balls to tell off a Navy SEAL and tell him he's a crybaby while explaining how exactly he celebrates weakness.