Because Americans are notorious for paying little attention to things that happen elsewhere, even among other English language-speaking countries, here's some news from Great Britain's tabloid-esque "The Sunday Mirror" today about their soldiers' battles with PTSD on the homefront -- soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the link to the article, called "War's Silent Victims," by Rupert Hamer, click here. (The tabloid nature of the newspaper explains the fairly breathless writing style, but let's hope the facts and the reporting are accurate nonetheless.)
Points worth mentioning from the article include:
"Alarmingly, the charity [Combat Stress, see below] say[s] the figures are just the "tip of the iceberg" and add that the rate at which soldiers are developing the condition has accelerated. Usually it takes 13 years for cases of post-traumatic stress disorder to develop in veterans.
But psychiatrists at Combat Stress's pioneering centre say the men and women now being treated have come forward after just THREE years.
Also:
Dr Walter Busuttil, a consultant psychiatrist at Combat Stress, said: "What we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg.
"Because there has been no proper study of post-traumatic stress disorder among troops in this country we have no idea of the true scale of the problem.
"The same thing happened in the US after Vietnam. The Government tried to dismiss the disorder as a myth - then the whole thing exploded. Now when I speak to my colleagues in America they tell me: 'You are going through your Vietnam'."
And finally:
Dr Busuttil, 49, a psychiatrist in the RAF for 16 years, says the Government has covered up the severity of the conflicts from the public.
"The worst thing for a serviceman or woman is to come back from a war and for people not to have any idea what they have been through.
Editor's note: For a link to Great Britain's charity, Combat Stress, click here. To find them on Facebook, click here. We've written about them before on this blog, but according to their website, "Combat Stress is the leading charity specialising in the care of British Veterans who have been profoundly traumatised by harrowing experiences during their Service career and who are suffering from poor mental health as a result."
