The War Within

The War Within

Since the establishment of the United States of America there has never been a long period of peace. A war or conflict has occurred in almost every decade of the United States’ history. Some of the most recent wars include World War II, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, and the Afghanistan War. While many sacrifices of war are physical and can be seen, there is one that goes beyond physical, wounding many with only the infliction on one person. That sacrifice is the diagnoses of a mental illness; the most common and talked about mental illness, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. Throughout history we can see a rise in the diagnosed cases of PTSD. In attempts to explain the rise, many different ideas of what causes this illness have arisen. Many believe it is all due to the trauma the individual experienced, however, if we look at history we see a change in society, the roles men and women have played after war, and how this could affect PTSD.

While the military acknowledged that something was occurring in the mind of their soldiers they called it “combat fatigue”, “shell shock”, or “war neurosis” in the wars prior to Vietnam (Epstein). They believed that mortars exploding created a disturbance in the air that damaged nerves in the brain. They soon realized that this was untrue when soldiers who were not in the presence of explosions began to exhibit the same symptoms. In 1980 PTSD was officially recognized as a clinical condition by being added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-IV. This recognition led to the beginning of numerous studies by the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the National Center for PTSD, and the Rand Corporation. Due to this late reorganization there are not many reliable statistics on World War II. The National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder has estimated that “one of every twenty World War II veterans” suffered from symptoms of PTSD such as flashbacks, irritability and bad dreams. Vietnam proved to be a war that not only damaged the United States and Vietnam but also mentally disturbed the soldiers. A study taken by the Department of Veterans Affairs has determines that “31 percent of men and 27 percent of females” in some point of their return from Vietnam suffered from PTSD. The results of this study show the highest number of people having suffered after the Vietnam war, compared to all other war and civilian studies. A study conducted by the Rand Company in 2008 estimated that 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffered from PTSD. It also diagnosed 92,998 possible cases of PTSD out of 178,483, if all of these cases were confirmed PTSD it would bring the total percent of those affected by PTSD to well over fifty percent. Diagnosed cases of PTSD within the military has risen fifty percent in the past year, it is estimated that one in every five military