Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Our Veterans and Our Jails
Combat veterans who return from active duty with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) do not always get the treatment they deserve.
Sometimes they suffer with depression, flashbacks or even brain injury.
It doesn't matter what the diagnosis is, they deserve the best treatment available.
The difficulty is that PTSD isn't always recognized - and therefore it isn't always treated.
Sometimes these veterans end up in front of a judge.
Not all judges take into consideration that what they have done might be caused by PTSD.
There are people who are trying to change this.
This trauma is invisible.
There is no cast to put it back in condition.
Some judges think there should be some treatment other than jail time for these veterans who have broken the law.
There are certain attorneys who specialize in criminal defense for veterans with PTSD.
Since World War I, veterans have been coming home with their attitudes altered.
They haven't always been received well by the people they have risked their lives to protect.
After WWI, veterans were fired on when they organized to present their grievances to the President.
WWII veterans returned to a ticker tape parade but they still had difficulty fitting back into the world they left.
The Korean War veterans were virtually ignored when they returned and the Vietnam veterans were booed and hissed at with such force that many of them chose not to return at all.
Today, the veterans of the Gulf War and of Iraq and Afghanistan have some of the toughest audiences to face.
So many people were against our actions that they don't treat the veterans who fought at our behest very well at all.
Veterans who return from war or conflicts and are psychologically impaired because of the trauma of the death and destruction they had to face head on.
They deserve our finest treatment.
This does not mean that we turn our backs on these veterans when they commit a crime because psychologically they are not aware anymore that it is wrong.
Isn't it a shame that these veterans must seek counsel from attorneys who specialize in traumatic brain injury or PTSD? Haven't we thrown away enough people in our history? Don't these people deserve treatment just as much as those with lost limbs? Some states have passed legislation that modifies sentencing rules and making them more appropriate to those with this type of injury.
For the longest time after the Gulf War, doctors did not want to acknowledge that there is psychological damage to our veterans.
This type of damage didn't just start with our servicemen and women.
It has happened since the beginning of wars.
Servicemen/women are sent to foreign venues to conduct aggressive campaigns in which people are maimed and/or killed.
They see their friends dismembered and killed from I.
E.
D.
s and from innocuous looking people by the side of the road.
How are they supposed to deal with something like that? How could anyone deal with that? How can they process what they are seeing and experiencing when it is totally alien to their upbringing? Most of these men and women have grown up protected from violence except for what they see on television.
None of what they learn in the service even seems real until they are out in the fighting watching people be blown apart and die.
If we have asked them to endure this in the name of protecting our country, how can we deny them the treatment they need? Veterans who have a history of PTSD and become a part of the criminal justice system deserve to have their mental history considered.
While our history does not excuse our behavior, we do need to consider their full story and how their service of our country impacted them.
Sometimes they suffer with depression, flashbacks or even brain injury.
It doesn't matter what the diagnosis is, they deserve the best treatment available.
The difficulty is that PTSD isn't always recognized - and therefore it isn't always treated.
Sometimes these veterans end up in front of a judge.
Not all judges take into consideration that what they have done might be caused by PTSD.
There are people who are trying to change this.
This trauma is invisible.
There is no cast to put it back in condition.
Some judges think there should be some treatment other than jail time for these veterans who have broken the law.
There are certain attorneys who specialize in criminal defense for veterans with PTSD.
Since World War I, veterans have been coming home with their attitudes altered.
They haven't always been received well by the people they have risked their lives to protect.
After WWI, veterans were fired on when they organized to present their grievances to the President.
WWII veterans returned to a ticker tape parade but they still had difficulty fitting back into the world they left.
The Korean War veterans were virtually ignored when they returned and the Vietnam veterans were booed and hissed at with such force that many of them chose not to return at all.
Today, the veterans of the Gulf War and of Iraq and Afghanistan have some of the toughest audiences to face.
So many people were against our actions that they don't treat the veterans who fought at our behest very well at all.
Veterans who return from war or conflicts and are psychologically impaired because of the trauma of the death and destruction they had to face head on.
They deserve our finest treatment.
This does not mean that we turn our backs on these veterans when they commit a crime because psychologically they are not aware anymore that it is wrong.
Isn't it a shame that these veterans must seek counsel from attorneys who specialize in traumatic brain injury or PTSD? Haven't we thrown away enough people in our history? Don't these people deserve treatment just as much as those with lost limbs? Some states have passed legislation that modifies sentencing rules and making them more appropriate to those with this type of injury.
For the longest time after the Gulf War, doctors did not want to acknowledge that there is psychological damage to our veterans.
This type of damage didn't just start with our servicemen and women.
It has happened since the beginning of wars.
Servicemen/women are sent to foreign venues to conduct aggressive campaigns in which people are maimed and/or killed.
They see their friends dismembered and killed from I.
E.
D.
s and from innocuous looking people by the side of the road.
How are they supposed to deal with something like that? How could anyone deal with that? How can they process what they are seeing and experiencing when it is totally alien to their upbringing? Most of these men and women have grown up protected from violence except for what they see on television.
None of what they learn in the service even seems real until they are out in the fighting watching people be blown apart and die.
If we have asked them to endure this in the name of protecting our country, how can we deny them the treatment they need? Veterans who have a history of PTSD and become a part of the criminal justice system deserve to have their mental history considered.
While our history does not excuse our behavior, we do need to consider their full story and how their service of our country impacted them.