Centerfield

Sorry. Not "former" vetrans. Just veterans. I meant former soldiers. :-)

My brother is a vet ( he's been home about 2 months) and he says it's a matter of pride for some, however, many have no idea that their problems adjusting are related to PTSD. They are told about it, but the fact that everyone at home is adjusting (or readjusting) to a soldier coming home can disguise symptoms. It's just hard to tell when it is time to get help. He also says that he has not heard of "punitive" action being taken against those who are dealing with that issue.
This is a good topic and I would like to read other comments about this.

My wife is a lawyer for the Veterans Administration and I can tell you why the soldiers fear it. If they get a dishonorable discharge (as opposed to an honorable discharge), they are not eligible for VA benefits. It may be paranois on their part, but the military has some incentive to get rid of these people. And benefits for PTSD as opposed to say, benefits for amputees, are based on ability to work. If they get kicked out of the military, but are not totally unfit for work, they would not get PTSD benefits or least not as much.

Edudude, you bring up a point I forgot to mention in the original post. The report also said that soldiers are given info about PTSD as soon as they return, but that for the reasons you note above, that is not the time to try to diagnose PTSD. The psychologists that they interviewed said that in most cases, symptoms don't start to really make their presence adamantly known until about 4 months after the soldier has been home.

There's a bunch of information here:

"The National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was created within the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1989, in response to a Congressional mandate to address the needs of veterans with military-related PTSD."

http://www.ncptsd.org/

It shouldn't really be very surprising that many soldiers don't feel they can trust the brass to give them a fair shake on such issues. The Army is very segrated between officers and regular non-com soldiers. Distrust and antipathy follows from this. And such attitudes are also found throughout various workplace cultures. It's especially so in rigid organized ones like the Army and in union shops, but it is far from exclusive to them.

People who feel like foot soldiers compared to whoever their brass is are prone to getting together to commiserate about their bosses, who can be seen as mean, unfeeling, unloyal, greedy, more concerned about their @ss than yours, and so on. Such bitch sessions are the vehicles for spreading terrible stories about this that or the other footsoldier that got shafted by this or that executive, general, HR person, etc. There's something of an oppositional mindset.

And the terrible stories are very, very often also teaching tales that spread prudent conventional wisdom about how to shelter your hindquarters, like "wait until after discharge to file a claim."

HR departments are ALWAYS sending out nice stuff urging employees that they can trust the company, that it's a big family, and so on. But if it's a big company, few people really buy into this completely.

So the answer is that soldiers believe the things you describe because they are jaded, and they are jaded because it's pretty much an inevitable by-product of service in a large hierarchical organization with a clear dividing line between the worker bees and the queens.

BK: I believe this bifurcation you're talking about is called "military discipline" and "command structure".

The military is not a Fortune 500 company and should not be run like one. The divisions between officer and enlisted exist for a reason.

Besides, any line officer is just as likely to suffer from PTSD as a grunt. IMO, the military mindset (at all levels) does not take kindly to mental illness in any form.

Jason

Jason wrote:

IMO, the military mindset (at all levels) does not take kindly to mental illness in any form.

This is my take. If you look at history, soldiers aren't encouraged to talk about the horrors of war in and of itself regardless of rank. You only get attention when you can tie physical damage to some sort of chemical exposure or maybe POW-related torture. Gulf War vets had to lobby to get a minimum evaluation and that came about seven years after the war.

You'll also find this same mindset in specific communities/households. A lot of it has to do with economic limitations to getting help. So, it comes down to suck it up and get on with your (dysfunctional) life.