PTSD: If you don't come home with it, you might be a psychopath

Few psychiatrists would agree that the veterans who don't get PTSD (a majority) are psychopaths. I'm not a great fan of the military, but that's pretty unfair.

Then, of course, came the war in Vietnam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years. And thanks to the lies and deceit surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called "post-traumatic stress disorder."

Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. "Post-traumatic stress disorder." I'll bet you if we'd have still been calling it shell shock, some of those Vietnam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll bet you that.  - George Carlin

From the linked article

Others work for peace so the next generations of soldiers won't have to know the heartache of moral injury.

Our country's leaders, knew the people would have rebelled if another draft had been initiated. Our generation knew the moral injury

So now we have the "ALL VOLUNTEER",  now it excuses our leaders. They can say "We didn't force anyone"  

But they sure can manipulate, the economic conditions that make people seek employment, in the military.
They can also force the soldiers with Stop Gap measures.

The hell they didn't force anyone.

Like religions of old; Sacrifice your children, to the god of fire.

I can't agree, either, with the word "psychopath", though I understand why you used it.  I wrote about this a couple of years ago, using the lengthier quote from Carlin.  While the draft never did anything to ease the suffering, if it was used fairly today, so that every parent's child would have to go, our wars would either shorten or end completely.

I understand your larger agenda here, but you might want to reconsider how you getting your point across.  First of all PSTD isn't about having nightmares, although it one of the symptoms.  It is a disorder, because the consequences of not being able to reconcile etc past experiences debilitates the individual from being able to function on a significant level.

Using your logic, the rape victim who is able through counseling to get on with his or her life is somehow the one with the disorder, while the one who years later still cannot sleep at night, is unable to trust anyone, is afraid to turn out the lights at night or leave their residence is in touch with their true humanity.

Many (most?) have at least one event in their life that is traumatic (with those at war it is not only something traumatic happening, but one that goes on for years before it ends).  Some folks are able for whatever reason to come to terms with the experience, find inner peace to some extent, and move on.  Other are haunted, wounded in a way that makes day-to-day life nearly impossible.  Some of those latter folks, through counseling, spirituality, and other paths, can eventually find some of that peace.

But I think just tossing out there that those who are able to come to terms with trauma quickly as psychopaths goes a long way of towards muddying the waters around a complex and highly misunderstood facet of human experience.

Years ago while watching the news I saw the Budd Dywer public suicide. It was a big controversy back then, whether it should have been shown on the tv news.

When I saw it I was left gasping for breath. It overwhelmed me.

Now I've seen uncountable graphic murders and atrocities in the movies. One would think I'd have been hardened and inured to that sort of video. Not so, not so.

If I was affected so profoundly to that short 5 second video I can't imagine what it must be like to see it up close and personal, and worse, to be the cause. Over and over and over again.

Surely every soldier on the battlefield is affected to some degree. And yes, if they are not they must have some severe psychological disturbance beforehand.