PTSD: You're not Dinky Dau, you're CBC
by Chaplian Kathie
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder became the term used to label combat veterans changed by war. After that, therapists used the term to label all individuals changed by traumatic events, never acknowledging there are many different types of traumatic events.
People surviving natural disasters can find themselves changed afterward and they need help to overcome the shock and loss. They are not suffering the same way survivors of crimes do. For them, the shock of another person doing it to them is harder to overcome and being able to trust again is one of the hardest things to do. There is another type of PTSD and it involves careers. Emergency responders see the aftermath of the traumatic event others go through. Firefighters arrive after the fire has done damage to property but also after the people have been in a struggle between life and death, burned, and all too often, have succumbed. For them, the exposure to traumatic events hits them hard as the number of times increases.
Then there are the participants. The police and sheriff deputies, the highway patrol officers, risking their lives but all too often become part of the traumatic event itself. The number of events increases for them but so do the number of times their lives are on the line. For them they are changed by these events and they usually suffer a higher rate of PTSD and suicide. Divorce for them is higher than other occupations and so is the reliance on alcohol.
The highest occupation to set off PTSD is combat veterans. The exposure to traumatic events is astronomical. We can understand all of the above being changed by the events in their lives but when it comes to war veterans, we tend to minimize the difference when we should be focused on them more.
During the Vietnam War there were terms to label GI's changed by combat.
flaky
to be in a state of mental disarray, characterized by spaciness and various forms of unreasoning fear
DINKY DAU: Vietnamese term for "crazy" or "You're crazy."
FUBAR short for "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair" or "Recognition." To describe impossible situations, equipment, or persons as in, "It is (or they are) totally Fubar!"
Yet during WWII it was called "shell shock" and during Korea it was Section 8.
Section 8(military)
The term Section 8 refers to a discharge from the United States military for reason of being mentally unfit for service. This term was made popular by the television program M*A*S*H, in which a corporal in the US Army, Max Klinger, attempts for years to get a Section 8 discharge (usually by wearing women's clothing), in order to get out his tour of service of the Korean War.
In the 1950s, Section 8 discharges were commonly given to service members found guilty of "Sexual Perversion," especially for homosexuality — and it was classified as an undesirable discharge, depriving the soldier so discharged of veteran's benefits but not resulting in the loss of any citizenship rights, such as the right to vote.
Discharge under "Section 8" is no longer a military reality, as medical discharges for psychological/psychiatric reasons are now covered by a number of regulations. Perhaps the most commonly used of these is AR 635-200, Enlisted Administrative Separations. Chapter 5, paragraph 13 governs the separation of personnel medically diagnosed with a personality disorder.
The practice of discharging homosexual service members under Section 8 ceased after the "Don't ask, don't tell" Policy went into effect during the Clinton Administration; those found to be homosexual are now issued honorable discharges in most circumstances, under Chapter 15 of the above referenced publication.
The Section 8 discharge sought after by Corporal Klinger in M*A*S*H differs from a real Section 8; Klinger is attracted to a Section 8 discharge because on the show, it is considered a medical discharge and not a dishonorable discharge. The Section 8 has also been referenced in the book (and later movie) Catch-22, in the movies Full Metal Jacket and Jarhead, and in an episode of Family Guy, in which Stewie briefly parodies the Klinger character. There is also a group of investigators identified as "section 8" in the movie Basic
With the term PTSD being used for one size fits all, it lumps in all events together as if someone with combat PTSD would respond the same way someone who survives a car accident would. They are not caused by the same events any more than they are affecting the lives with the same level of cuts.
Veterans were trained to use the weapons and they responded to orders and acronyms that made sense to them because their lives depended on knowing them. Right now they struggle with the term PTSD because it comes with a label of "disorder" making it for some just as bad as hearing they are DINKY DAU. The stigma lives on because they still have not been assured by commanders it does not make them weak or defective or worthless any more than it makes them a coward. There are still some people in this country looking at them as if they are faking, as the disgusting piece on AP suggested.
Military PTSD FraudThe stigma of PTSD is already set in and has not been removed after all these years. It suggests that they are responsible for having it. The truth is, had it not been for being sent into a war zone, they wouldn't have been changed or haunted by combat. Every combat veteran will tell you that no one walks away after it unchanged. Some are not as affected as others but then again, they don't enter into service with the same histories behind them. Some are more focused on themselves while others are more compassionate just as some are more courageous than others. The most courageous also happen to be the ones with the most compassion, able to set self-preservation aside for the sake of someone else.
They are the last to ask for help among the survivors of traumatic events yet they are the most deeply changed. There was a thought that linking all survivors of traumatic events together would humanize it but the problem with that is the approach to it has evolved into a one size fits all answer. The military has taken this one step too far and assumes the servicemen and women can train their brains to prevent it. This is part of the problem. Life prepares us for what we face and our histories come with us on the journey. You cannot prepare psychologically to take a life or watch a friend die. You can train ahead of time to have the ammunition ready to begin healing as soon as it's over.
LP Listening Position A 3-man post placed outside the barbwire surrounding a fire base. Each would lay out claymore mines; they would have 1 radio and take turns during the night listening and looking. They were the early warning for the troops inside the parimeter.
There needs to be an early warning for the troops after combat so they seek help right away instead of "waiting to get over it" and hoping they can drink it or drug it away.
There are many things that are possible in healing the warriors after combat and the sooner they happen, the more that can be reversed. With the wrong view of what PTSD is and what it does, time is lost and they pay the price. They are not defective any more than they are Section 8. The other side of this darkness is a stronger, more caring and dedicated soldier as well as citizen.
It's time for the military to stop treating them like everyone else. They were changed by combat.
