[Gunrunner2]

What?

(Stand by for rant)

I guess you missed the word "mandatory" in the language.

These do-gooders never spent a day in the military, never were under fire and never were stressed beyond having a bad hair day. . .and because they have to see a shrink because they "feel" bad because the boss yelled at them, they now presume to dictate to warriors, men that faced fire and hardship, that they MUST see a shrink?

A shrink!?

Mandatory review by shrinks smacks of nanny-state intrusion and is nothing more than an attempt to wussify warriors.

I guess all those millions, yes millions, of men from WWI and WWII became mass murdering thugs. . .and not the men that built this great nation. . .and hundreds of thousands of them were in sustained combat for years. Throughout the history of this country we have men fighting wars and coming home and re-building their lives and building a nation. Quiet, honest dedication and service were their watch-words, and for those yahoos in MA to presume to pass judgment today on ALL of warriors, to ACCUSE all of them of being potential PTSD cases is an insult to their character, heritage and professionalism.

So, you see nothing wrong with compelling ALL warriors that come home to sit down for a Oprah gab-fest with some stick-boy and discuss "feelings"?

Not me. Not on your life.

Compelling warriors to play some sort of game so they can convince some psycho-babble "expert" to pass favorable judgment on them, to basically clear them for public release, is lunacy.

No Freaking Way.

[ukman]

Oh well, suit yourselves. As a Briton I didn't really consider the constitutional aspects. I don't really care either way, as it's not my country :-).

[ukman]

Incidentally, whenever I think of PTSD after Vietnam I think of the first "Rambo" film. He solved his problems in a somewhat destructive manner.

The problem's not new: in your Civil War it was called "nostalgia". It's also been known as "shell shock", "battle fatigue" and "paranoid schizophrenia".

I remember reading about many homeless drifters after the Civil War, and about loners living in the wild after Vietnam.

In Germany the phenomenon was familiar but not spoken of. After WW1 it was manifested in old-soldiers' clubs with a tendency to political violence. Adolf Hitler is a classic example of a PTSD sufferer who projected his fears to politics.

WW2 ended differently, so the symptoms differed too. A neighbour's friend is still jittery and "wussy" after being buried alive in a trench or something in Russia. There's also a tendency to be somewhat timid and unwilling to face up to conflict. All the ex-Wehrmacht men I have met have been EXTREMELY anti-war and left-leaning. There were in any case far too many sufferers to be treated, they had to work it out themselves.

The suicide figures for British Falkland War veterans (no "wussies" they!) are also not encouraging for the do-nothing approach.

I agree that pyschologists aren't always the answer, it's often the individual personality that counts most. But you'd be well advised to keep an eye on Iraq veterans, if only for their families's sake.

But whatever, they're your soldiers, not mine.

[Modernman]

So, you see nothing wrong with compelling ALL warriors that come home to sit down for a Oprah gab-fest with some stick-boy and discuss "feelings"?

PTSD is much more common in people who have been in highly stressful situations. Combat. Natural disasters. Things like that.

We used to ignore PTSD and pretend like it didn't exist or that it was a sign of cowardice. We know better now.

Maintaining the stigma will only serve to keep veterans with PTSD suffering. I don't really see why you would be opposed to getting help for National Guardsmen who need it.

I guess all those millions, yes millions, of men from WWI and WWII became mass murdering thugs. . .and not the men that built this great nation. . .

No. But many of them suffered from PTSD for the rest of their lives because it was considered "wussy" to seek help for mental problems back then.