Reading Brandon Friedman's excellent diaries about the VA e-mail controversy, I was struck by the manipulation of language that is occurring yet again in discussion of the combat condition that occurs after the human body is subjected to the physical and mental stresses of war. I was reminded of a George Carlin stand up routine which really spoke to the history of the language behind "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder". Follow me below the fold for a look at how language is once again being "used to squeeze all the humanity out" of a very human reaction to the stress of war.
George Carlin once said:
I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war, that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock! Battle fatigue. Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called operational exhaustion. Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called post-traumatic stress disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-traumatic stress disorder. I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it shell shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha.
We've done a lot to educate people about what PTSD really is, and now that the general public once again sees the connection - PTSD=Shell Shock, along comes yet another one that they want to use to say that some shell shocked members of the United States Armed Forces aren't quite so shell-shocked that they deserve help.
Adjustment Disorder.
" the staff should "refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out" and they should "R/O [rule out] PTSD" and consider a diagnosis of "Adjustment Disorder" instead.
Wikipedia defines adjustment disorder as:
In psychology, adjustment disorder (AD) is a classification of mental disorder that is a psychological response from an identifiable stressor or group of stressors that causes significant emotional or behavioral symptoms that does not meet criteria for more specific disorders.[1] The condition is different from anxiety disorder which lacks the presence of a stressor, or post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder which usually are associated with a more intense stressor.
Now, I'm no psychologist, but isn't the "stressor" in this case.... WAR???? Shell shock originally had to do with the stress of incoming fire - is there anywhere in Iraq where our troops have not had to deal with the stress of incoming fire... AKA...shelling? That's a pretty intense stressor if you ask me. Always. That's why they diagnose it as shell shock, battle fatigue, operational exhaustion, post-traumatic stress disorder, Adjustment Disorder. Same stressor... same specific disorder... SAME CHEAP A$$ CHICKENHAWK LYING SACK OF SH** POLITICIANS AND THEIR CHEAP A$$ CHICKENHAWK LYING SACK OF SH** TOADIES ATTEMPTING YET ANOTHER SHORT-CHANGING OF THOSE WHO HAVE BORN THE BATTLE.
Don't let them get away with it. Call it shell shock.
Let's make sure the veterans from this generation's wars get the attention they need at the time.