I know everyone has a right to their opinion, but…

There is a local research project being worked on to pre-treat US service members in hopes of decreasing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I’m aware of it but not involved. Anyway, there are people who are against the research because, in their words; “the soldiers should feel bad for what they are doing.” WHAT? The lesson I learned here is that the depths of human ignorance knows no bounds.

Let me continue to explain because it boggles my mind that people are so misinformed. PTSD is post traumatic stress disorder. People who suffer from it are seriously adversely affected by traumatic events. An important difference between being stressed by something and having PTSD is with PTSD a person re-lives those traumatic events. They can have nightmares, day terrors, flash backs etc. So the trauma continues to occur. IT IS NOT GUILT. In world war I soldiers who came back from the front were diagnosed with “shell shock” often caused by the constant shelling. They had what we now call PTSD, but might never have seen action, so there is nothing for them to feel guilty about. Nonetheless they were incapacitated by the events in WWI. The last surviving WWI shell shock victim died in the late 1990s, never recovering. I believe that the people who are working on ways to prevent PTSD are doing a great job and if we can prepare our service members so that they can come back and enter society as opposed to entering institutions that will be a big win for society. My continued concern is that there are people out there who think our soldiers have something to feel guilty for.