PTSD trauma survivors are on the job every day, actions of one not all

Erin Burnett of CNN has a great question up on Facebook.

Erin Burnett OutFront 
Should Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) be flagged before getting a security clearance from the United States government? Many in the military would say no -- wanting to "de-stigmatize" veterans suffering from PTSD, which in many cases has been tied to the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. What do you think? Erin Burnett tackles this issue #OutFront at 7p ET onCNN.

It is a great question because reporters are trying to make sense out of what happened after the shooting at the Navy yard leaving 12 people dead, 8 wounded and a couple of thousand shocked. Most of the questions have come after the shooter's history was made public. Most are wondering how in the hell he kept his security clearance as if PTSD should have taken him off his job instead of understanding that we have thousands on the job everyday with PTSD and doing just fine.

The troops with PTSD are redeployed over and over again depending on their ability to do their jobs. Some are able because the level of PTSD they have is low enough they can still function well. For others, their levels are so high they have many health effects to deal with including lack of sleep with nightmares, more flashbacks topped off with constant stress. They are not dangerous to others but are more dangerous to themselves. Then there are the rare few with PTSD who are a danger to "society" because other things are going on with them.

The Navy yard shooter should have been taken off his job so he could have gotten treatment and when he was better, given back his job. That didn't happen. Doctors are required to report mental health patients if they are a danger to themselves or others. (I am even required to do that too as a Chaplain.) They should have seen the warning light flashing over the shooter's head instead of just hearing the denials coming out of his mouth.

We need to remember that there are a lot of cops on the job with PTSD along with firefighters and emergency responders. We have a nation full of National Guardsmen and Reservists with PTSD as well as veterans but we don't have a nation full of them committing crimes. The numbers show that they are more likely to harm themselves than they are even thinking of harming someone else.

We also need to remember that civilians end up with PTSD as well. If you take the almost 8 million Americans with PTSD and the fraction of them committing crimes, you'll have a better idea of how rare it is for them to "snap" and commit crimes and even more rare to commit mass murder.

So we're going to keep reading reports with reporters asking a lot of questions as if PTSD trauma survivors should all be lumped together instead of knowing they are all different and not all dangerous.

If you are a veteran with PTSD please fill Erin in on what she needs to learn.