PTSD: There's No Such Thing!?

Consider the Washington massacre and personality disorder

Still from CBS NY News 9-18-13

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - I don't know if I can call myself a PTSD expert, or not, but I did have more than 1000 PTSD patients whom I successfully treated. I also have PTSD from my 25-month visit to the US Army in World War Two. PTSD is a mental disorder, because people with it are not normal.

PTSD victims had too much artillery, mortar attacks, airplane strafing and the usual hell of combat.

Aaron Alexis (Courtesy: FBI Video)

I was “able” to survive the PTSD by working after I got out, hard- physically- and psychologically, by getting two Masters degrees and two Doctors degrees. They did not help PTSD very much. Some of that work was almost as stressful as combat itself.

When I started to read that PTSD and TBI were both considered “personality disorders” by the VA, I almost choked. Such a diagnosis is by someone who never was subject to hearing a shot fired in combat.

The latest massacre by Aaron Alexis is a good/bad example of PTSD and it's sequels. There should be no question that Aaron Alexis had a short fuse.

Shooting out someone's tires for blocking one's driveway and shooting through the floor to “request” someone to turn down the TV/radio noise is fairly common place. Many of us wish we could do that.

Aaron must have been reasonably intelligent in the Navy to become a computer technician, but I have an idea that as a black man, he was not given proper respect.

Aaron Alexis. Before.

He was sent several places and it is likely he was not give the respect he should have had.

I read that he did go to a Navy medical clinic where he complained of serious insomnia. This is an important symptom of PTSD but he was probably given one of the anti-depressant drugs which help one sleep.

Some of these drugs do aid for sleep but they also can cause hallucinations, nightmares, and suicidal thoughts. All of which, Aaron had. In fact, about 22 Veterans and active military commit suicide EVERY DAY. Even suicide by policeman is not uncommon.

Salem-News.com (Sept 22 2013) published this story, "Navy Yard Mass Shooting: Deja' Vu All Over Again" in which about 20 stories of mass shootings were listed. Many of the shooters were on psychosis-producing drugs.

The fact that the shooters had access to these kind of drugs AND guns is incidental to this subject.

Mental health therapy in this country is a cruel joke. And the medications for it are more harmful than good. They are handed out like m&m's.

Currently, the federal government is handing out maybe 100 million dollars for guards at schools. Good mental health care deserves as much.

For all of these massacres, how much did the sequels really cost? Correct care would save all that cost and the PTS-TORMENT of the survivors.

YES! PTSD IS REAL. TREATMENT IS NOT.