Honoring the Warrior

November 29, 2007

His voice trembled while he talked to me.  “How hard do the police look for AWOL soldiers?” he asked.
I asked the usual questions: “How long have you been AWOL? What branch? What duty station?"

The heartbreaking, nauseating story unfolded.  He was stationed overseas where he had only recently been transferred after returning from Iraq.  He had come home from Iraq with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, moderate hearing loss and a painful shoulder that would periodically freeze up on him.  He had asked for treatment and received a low level CAT scan that showed no brain damage.  But he was refused “permission” to see a psychiatrist for the PTSD, an audiologist for the hearing or additional tests or treatment for the shoulder. 

Then he went home on leave for his baby to be born and he didn’t go back.

The military issued an order in the summer of 2007, directing military and VA psychiatrists to avoid diagnosing PTSD.  At the Center, we have been getting more and more calls from soldiers afflicted by PTSD being discharged with the notation, “personality disorder.”  On top of the label not constituting a formal diagnosis, PTSD is an anxiety disorder, classified by mental health professionals in a completely separate category from a personality disorder.  This discharge notation is available to the veteran’s would-be employers. Employers often discriminate against people with personality disorders, more so than those with PTSD. 

The military cannot admit that war causes PTSD.  After all, we want to believe the myth that soldiers come home stronger than they were when they left, that veterans are stronger as result of their military service.   We want to ignore the daily suicides of veterans and the scores of homeless veterans because they cannot function in the world.

There is a bill before Congress—HR 3167/S 1817—to stop the discharge of soldiers with PTSD not diagnosed but labeled “personality disorder.”

If we truly honor the men and women in the military for their willingness to risk all, how can we treat them so shabbily?