anthony
Founder
Many a person associates PTSD with the military. Let's face it: going to war is good media. The media provides what the public wants to watch, and what the public watches funds the salaries of those who produce the stories. Lots of watchers equals lots of money, which equals more stories about the military and those military who obtain PTSD. Simple arithmetic answers why the myth exists.
What's worse is that civilian society perpetuates the myth. We want to watch news on rape, torture, murder--all the bad stuff that happens. What we don't care for is the aftermath. The limited times when we do want that sad yet uplifting story of survival, that aftermath is limited to a person or small group, giving the impression that PTSD has travelled no further.
The best way to demonstrate that PTSD is more pervasive in civilian society than military brings us back to arithmetic. Statistics and some basic math will answer this myth best.
Let's use the United States of America as our statistical project. Most developed countries have similar statistical outcomes, some higher, some lower. Under-developed countries, if they cared about mental health, would demonstrate much higher civilian mental health statistics than presented here.
The population of the US as of 2014 is 319 million.
Data is somewhat hard to distinguish due to the difficulty of garnering accurate mental health statistics. We can observe this deficiency of data by looking to the US National Institute of Mental Health website for PTSD statistics. NIMH cites that the average 12 month prevalence for people suffering from PTSD is 3.5%. Of those suffering, approximately 36.6% are classified severe.
So, according to the US NIMH, in any given year approximately 11.1 million people have PTSD, of which approximately 4 million of that figure are severe cases.
Now we use a source that sifted for data at a more precise level, digging through study results and institutions not reporting to the NIMH. Dead Link Removed. It is averaged that at any given time within the USA, approximately 6% - 10% of the population are suffering PTSD. This figure increases and decreases within the various socio-economic areas. This changes the NIMH figure from 11.1 million to now 19.1 - 31.9 million suffering PTSD. Of that figure, it is estimated approximately 5% are considered lifetime PTSD sufferers, with 960k - 1.6 million classified as severe.
The US military consists of approximately 1.4 million personnel with an additional 850k reserve personnel. Not all personnel deploy on operations, and those at home who get PTSD are insignificant in numbers to worry about in these calculations. Let's use the combined forces--2.25 million personnel. PTSD rates vary significantly for military personnel, averaging 30% for deployed troops. Again, not all these troops are deploying, but we'll use the worst case outcome to prove this myth invalid.
30% of 2.25 million is 675,000 troops with PTSD at any given time. Remember, worst case scenario.
If you wanted to give this the lowest discrepancy possible, use the NIMH data of 11.1 million civilians having PTSD in any given year versus our worst case military of 675,000 in any given year. The numbers just aren't even close, are they?
11.1 million civilians with PTSD, minimum.
675,000 military personnel with PTSD, maximum.
The military are certainly the largest collective group of people that can be isolated for data, though they're not the significant number in the scheme of PTSD within the US population.
To further this point, let's look at just male to female rape. Females comprise approximately 158 million citizens. The approximate ratio for reported sexual assault within a females life is 18%. Actual figures are estimated much higher, these are only those reported and released by the US Department of Justice.
Approximately 28.5 million females report sexual assault. Working with our original figures of 6 - 10% exposure to abnormal trauma obtaining PTSD, we're given 1.7 - 2.8 million females obtaining PTSD from sexual assault. You can transpose this to an ongoing event, maintaining a constant between those recovering and those exposed to trauma.
Sexual assault alone blows combat PTSD out of the water, let alone life-threatening events such as accidents, gun or knife trauma, et cetera.
The math of it is simple; awareness, however, continues to be a challenge.
What's worse is that civilian society perpetuates the myth. We want to watch news on rape, torture, murder--all the bad stuff that happens. What we don't care for is the aftermath. The limited times when we do want that sad yet uplifting story of survival, that aftermath is limited to a person or small group, giving the impression that PTSD has travelled no further.
The best way to demonstrate that PTSD is more pervasive in civilian society than military brings us back to arithmetic. Statistics and some basic math will answer this myth best.
Let's use the United States of America as our statistical project. Most developed countries have similar statistical outcomes, some higher, some lower. Under-developed countries, if they cared about mental health, would demonstrate much higher civilian mental health statistics than presented here.
The population of the US as of 2014 is 319 million.
Data is somewhat hard to distinguish due to the difficulty of garnering accurate mental health statistics. We can observe this deficiency of data by looking to the US National Institute of Mental Health website for PTSD statistics. NIMH cites that the average 12 month prevalence for people suffering from PTSD is 3.5%. Of those suffering, approximately 36.6% are classified severe.
So, according to the US NIMH, in any given year approximately 11.1 million people have PTSD, of which approximately 4 million of that figure are severe cases.
Now we use a source that sifted for data at a more precise level, digging through study results and institutions not reporting to the NIMH. Dead Link Removed. It is averaged that at any given time within the USA, approximately 6% - 10% of the population are suffering PTSD. This figure increases and decreases within the various socio-economic areas. This changes the NIMH figure from 11.1 million to now 19.1 - 31.9 million suffering PTSD. Of that figure, it is estimated approximately 5% are considered lifetime PTSD sufferers, with 960k - 1.6 million classified as severe.
The US military consists of approximately 1.4 million personnel with an additional 850k reserve personnel. Not all personnel deploy on operations, and those at home who get PTSD are insignificant in numbers to worry about in these calculations. Let's use the combined forces--2.25 million personnel. PTSD rates vary significantly for military personnel, averaging 30% for deployed troops. Again, not all these troops are deploying, but we'll use the worst case outcome to prove this myth invalid.
30% of 2.25 million is 675,000 troops with PTSD at any given time. Remember, worst case scenario.
If you wanted to give this the lowest discrepancy possible, use the NIMH data of 11.1 million civilians having PTSD in any given year versus our worst case military of 675,000 in any given year. The numbers just aren't even close, are they?
11.1 million civilians with PTSD, minimum.
675,000 military personnel with PTSD, maximum.
The military are certainly the largest collective group of people that can be isolated for data, though they're not the significant number in the scheme of PTSD within the US population.
To further this point, let's look at just male to female rape. Females comprise approximately 158 million citizens. The approximate ratio for reported sexual assault within a females life is 18%. Actual figures are estimated much higher, these are only those reported and released by the US Department of Justice.
Approximately 28.5 million females report sexual assault. Working with our original figures of 6 - 10% exposure to abnormal trauma obtaining PTSD, we're given 1.7 - 2.8 million females obtaining PTSD from sexual assault. You can transpose this to an ongoing event, maintaining a constant between those recovering and those exposed to trauma.
Sexual assault alone blows combat PTSD out of the water, let alone life-threatening events such as accidents, gun or knife trauma, et cetera.
The math of it is simple; awareness, however, continues to be a challenge.