Increasing Rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Today’s Military

With the frequent deployments and the deployment conditions currently facing US Troops overseas, the number of men and women affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is on the rise. A staggering number of troops returning home from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan show symptoms of mental illness – typically leading into full blown Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Department of Veterans Medical Facility has released total numbers of service members who have actively sought treatment (in VA facilities; treatment sought in the private sector cannot be calculated nor factored into the total), and other studies are being done to try and find or develop ways to encourage a greater majority of veterans to use the resources offered to them.

Because of the large numbers of deployments service members complete, it really should be no surprise that cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are on the rise. Add to that the current (and past) conditions troops faced while down range, it may seem surprising that the rates are not higher than what they are currently. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not a new disease. It has been known by many different names and there are documents written by soldiers of early wars showing its symptoms from as early as the Egyptian and Roman empires (Bentley, 1991). 1687 was around the first diagnosis provided by a physician; the Swiss gathered up the common, repetitive symptoms and gave the disease a name: heimweh, which essentially meant “homesickness” and attributed the disease to the soldiers’ longing for home causing a literal sickness (Bentley, 1991). During the Civil War it came to be known as the “exhausted heart” or the “soldier’s heart” and military hospitals were set up to treat those afflicted. World War I called it “shell shock” because of the shells dropped near daily. In World War II it became “battle fatigue” or “combat fatigue,” almost suggesting that a short trip away from the front lines would ‘cure’ it....