New To The Group

[SteveMD]

Does anyone else see that's not a good idea? One in five gets PTSD due to deployment. that's the claim in the article. So every time you deploy its another one in five chance. So if you deploy five times your at or above a 100% chance of getting it. Yet they deploy some guys 8-9 even 10 times. Even Rambo would get PTSD over that much stress.


RD1111

Right, compounding probabilities.

I always scratched my head about the 25%-30% stats. I remember big bases like Anaconda and Speicher where, maybe, 25% ever went out beyond the wire. It was so weird one time when one of them at Speicher asked me to pick up something Iraqi from Tikrit (Saddam's watch or that big gold shotgun that General Abdullah kept at his farm?). Like they had seen that McCain footage of walking around shopping? Sure, I'll hop out and grab you something from the gift shop at the Provincial Council Building.

Tooth to tail, etc., aside, it always seemed to me that the 25% should, unsurprisingly, highly correlated with something other than REMFs. Segmented stats might look like 50%+ of a few categories.

Having said that, I remember 25-30 mortars a day falling on the Green Zone in April/May 2008 (pre-Sadr City crackdown). A mortar really doesn't care about MOS, tickets home, etc., but it seems to me that the stats would bias to people routinely outside the wire (including a lot of contractors) and fed civilians.

 

[fwduff]

The antidote for war is more war. You can even go to war while on PTSD meds.

I know, I know that could never happen in the American Military, we take care of our own right?

Link Removed

That's a good example of mental health going into the toilet

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/many-frontline-troops-turn-to-meds-to-cope/

The army is drugging Massive levels of troops while they are STILL in combat to retain them as combat effective.

Does anyone else see that's not a good idea? One in five gets PTSD due to deployment. that's the claim in the article. So every time you deploy its another one in five chance. So if you deploy five times your at or above a 100% chance of getting it. Yet they deploy some guys 8-9 even 10 times. Even Rambo would get PTSD over that much stress.

An entire generation of young men AND women. This site is due for a HUGE influx of new members in the following years. This is sad. And every bloke on the planet is going to have a "cure"

There was the baby boomer generation, and gen x now we will have generation ptsd.

It makes me mad that no one that had the power to stop this crap from happening bothered to do something. How can anyone involved with psychiatry say that someone with ptsd is cured or that its ok to give meds to combat the effects of ptsd so you can keep adding combat stress?! Our leadership failed these warriors!

That makes me totally screwed

 

[JarHed]

One in five gets PTSD due to deployment. that's the claim in the article. So every time you deploy its another one in five chance. So if you deploy five times your at or above a 100% chance of getting it. Yet they deploy some guys 8-9 even 10 times. Even Rambo would get PTSD over that much stress.

Ok, to clarify; each time you go your chances are 1 in 5, it doesn't become cumulative. You may be at greater risk with multiple deployments but it's not just adding the numbers from each time. My therapist said this; that there's what she calls the 'trip wire' effect that no matter how well adjusted someone is and from a supportive background that after a while you just experience too much to over come it. Personally I think the numbers are a lot higher than 1 in 5. I think it's more like 80+% on the first deployment.

Oh, Rambo had PTSD. He talks about it in the first movie.

 

[reddevil1111]

OMG. Remind me to stop posting. lol

 

[Spock]

...Personally I think the numbers are a lot higher than 1 in 5. I think it's more like 80+% on the first deployment...

I agree Jar for many reasons, I think the 20-25% has more to do with who can get through the gauntlet to be diagnosed and nothing to do with how many combat vets deal with PTSD across the scale. In the HBO doc -- "Wartorn" -- the Army' docs at Walter Reed that studied PTSD got around that specific question by saying as much, the 20% number was BS, noting 100% are affected by combat. When it comes to numbers consider the source, whether it is DoD or the VA, for them to admit, and document, higher numbers while depending on a all volunteer force does not help their overall mission. Far more troops just come back, self medicate, and are pushed out before they have a clue how to connect the dots. Imagine the shit storm that would come with DoD or VA documenting higher numbers or cumulative effects? It is an interesting question.

 

[JarHed]

Imagine the shit storm that would come with DoD or VA documenting higher numbers or cumulative effects? It is an interesting question.

Yeah, that would certainly happen. Denial is the watchword for those departments. It might cause a number of things to happen. Some that had thought about going into the military might reconsider on the grounds of possible negative affects. Some would see a 'free' ride to 'money' like in any system without realizing what it would actually mean to their lives.

 

[Lee C]

Welcome