Download Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Politically Correct Name Destroys

Running Head: PTSD
1
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Politically Correct Name Destroys Humanity of
Mental Disease
Shelby Henschen/Kyrun Foster
Period 1
Dec. 9, 2015
Body Word Count: 1,061
Originality: 100%
Word Choice: 2/3
Vocabulary Score: 4
Paper Rater Grade: B
Abstract
Throughout the course of history, war has afflicted many soldiers with mental illnesses
that doctors never clearly understood. Today, one specific mental illness related to war is
called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This illness was not always labeled this way. The
term evolved and as the years passed, we found a way to dehumanize the terrors of this
disease. During WWI it was labeled shell shock, a much more violent and direct term.
The new lax terminology has prevented patients from getting the treatment they need.
Psychologists and doctors have minimized the severity of the symptoms by neglecting to
properly treat patients with this mental disease. Patients do not get immediate treatment
and the same sense of urgency that someone with a physical disease would receive. This
mental illness is just as much of a killer as cancer is, but when “Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder” is compared to something like “cancer”, there is no comparison in which
disease seems to be the more violent.
PTSD
2
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Politically Correct Name Destroys Humanity of
Mental Disease
1
Nostalgia is a word most commonly associated with fond memories. However, the
2
etymological breakdown indicates that it also deals with a type of pain that accompanies these
3
memories. PTSD is a heightened version of nostalgia. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
4
has only been a part of this world for a short amount of time in everyday lives, but the disease
5
itself has lived on for generations with various incantations of the same syndrome. Whether it is
6
called nostalgia, Shell Shock, or PTSD, the world has found a way to minimize the horrors of
7
this mental disease.
8
9
Shell Shock. It has an audible ring that strikes fear into the most iron hearted men. The
First World War brought on this term as soldiers from the front line filled up medical bays with
10
no physical injuries. Dr. Charles Meyers is credited with giving the condition a name. Shell
11
Shock is suitable for the condition because it quite simply is exactly what each word describes ---
12
a physical shock coming from the explosion of a shell while in combat. After 6 months of war,
13
15% of the British army was considered to be afflicted with Shell Shock. Most people describe
14
the symptoms as being shaken all over their body. Dr. Meyers was put in charge of sorting out
15
this Shell Shock epidemic, and he felt that some soldiers were falsely diagnosed because they
16
were never been near a bomb, but that they were psychologically unstable and unprepared for the
17
horrors of war (Shell Shock Part 1 of 4, 2012).
18
World War II brought on another questions for the diagnosis of Shell Shock. The
19
questions being asked corresponded to whether it should be classified as a short-term or long-
20
term disease. “Because [all] studies were based on the military data... psychologist assumed that
21
cases of PTSD would be short-term” (Anders, 2012). They assumed the military men would
PTSD
3
22
forget about their war experiences and would begin to live their normal lives again.
23
Psychologists in 1980 and again in 1992 realized that the “clinical guidelines” of DSM-III
24
(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and ICD-10 (International Classification
25
of Disease) could show this disease as being chronic and recurrent. Shell Shock would now be
26
seen as an “anxiety disorder” -- something it had never been seen as before (Anders, 2012).
27
As soldiers were sent to war, they experienced many different sights and sounds. These
28
factors of war were embedded into their memories --- things that could not be unseen once they
29
were seen. Men came home experiencing symptoms that would recur in their daily lives -
30
sometimes forever. Symptoms of PTSD could come through three different modes. One, re-
31
experiencing symptoms: nightmares that depicted the exact moments they did not want to see
32
and vivid images and hallucinations that could make a normal setting seem far scarier than it
33
should be. Two, avoiding symptoms: not visiting any place that might look like where the wars
34
took place or avoiding the world as a whole. Three, hyperarousal symptoms: a soldier would feel
35
“on edge” and indifferent about natural settings. Combat veterans experiencing these symptoms
36
were often afflicted for the entirety of their natural born lives (PTSD, n.d.).
37
As WWII developed, psychologists evolved shell shock into what they called “battle
38
fatigue”. These same symptoms continued to plague veterans after they were relieved of duty. As
39
WWII ended, the United States moved into the war in Korea. These symptoms were relabeled as
40
“operational exhaustion”. Comedian George Carlin voices his opinion on that matter by saying
41
that changing the term “sucked the humanity” out of the term and that operational exhaustion
42
sounds like “something that could happen to your car” (George Carlin Shell Shock, 2012). When
43
Korea was finished and we began sending troops to help resolve a conflict in Vietnam, this exact
PTSD
44
same mental condition was (once again) renamed. This new term is the current name for the
45
condition--- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Anders, 2012).
46
4
PTSD was most commonly diagnosed in the military until 1980 when it was added to the
47
DMS-III and broadened the spectrum from a military condition to experiencing a traumatic
48
event. These traumatic events can include: rape, torture, child abuse, car accident, train wrecks,
49
etc. These extremely horrific topics are not easy in any way for anyone to cope with. Tragedy
50
and loss are two of the hardest struggles a person will have to overcome throughout their life.
51
These emotions cannot be captures in an eight syllable term (with a hyphen). We need a term
52
that expresses these emotions that one would encounter when they go through these experiences.
53
To soldiers during the First World War, “Shell Shock” was a perfect description because it, in a
54
short few words, projected the terrors of trench warfare by delivering vivid description in a
55
statement of brutal honesty (Matthew, n.d.).
56
People underestimate the severity of this mental disease and psychologists themselves do
57
not seem to understand the true horrors. This is proven true in the way they label the disease.
58
PTSD doesn’t have an audible ring to it. It is literally four letters that, when spelled out, become
59
eight syllables with a hyphen. Take cancer for example. Two syllables, an audible ring that will
60
literally shake someone to the bone and bring tears to their eyes. People are not told to “just live
61
with it.” They get help immediately. The diagnosis of PTSD does not have the same sense of
62
urgency a diagnosis of cancer would have. People have to travel through everyday life and are
63
just expected to make it out alive, act like it’s not actually killing them.
64
No one truly understands that because people don’t experience it first-hand. If a woman
65
is diagnosed with a terminal cancer, or a curable cancer, there is always a chance that she can be
66
cured and will never have to deal with it again. There is no “next step” for a PTSD diagnosis.
PTSD
5
67
The same is true for a diagnosis of an eating disorders or depression --- there is no help because
68
it’s not a “real disease.” Soldiers and everyday people are diagnosed with this disease and told
69
they will have to live with it everyday because one cannot just erase memories. Post-Traumatic
70
Stress Disorder never truly expresses the mental destruction of a person's psyche. PTSD is just as
71
much of a killer as cancer and the medical world never treated it as such.
PTSD
Works Cited
Anders, C. J. (2012, April 4). From "Irritable Heart" to "Shellshock": How Post-Traumatic
Stress Became a Disease. Retrieved November 16, 2015, from io9: From "Irritable
Heart" to "Shellshock": How Post-Traumatic Stress Became a Disease
George Carlin Shell Shock (2012). [Motion Picture]. Retrieved 12 2, 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSp8IyaKCs0
Matthew, J. F. (n.d.). PTSD History and Overview. Retrieved 12 4, 2015, from PTSD: National
Center for PTSD: http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/PTSD-overview/ptsdoverview.asp
Nancy, C. A. (2010). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A History and a Critique. Retrieved
November 18, 2015, from BrainLine.org:
http://www.brainline.org/content/2011/01/posttraumatic-stress-disorder-a-history-and-acritique_pageall.html
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2015, from National
Institute of Mental Health: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stressdisorder-ptsd/index.shtml
PTSD: A Growing Epidemic. (2009). Retrieved November 18, 2015, from NIH Medline Plus:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/winter09/articles/winter09pg1014.html
Shell Shock Part 1 of 4 (2012). [Motion Picture]. Retrieved 11 30, 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc7ehb8agWY
6