Jourdyn Grande

Eng 2010 Effect Project

10/16/16
Some more
of the most
common
diagnoses
they have
discovered
for the 1.5
million vets
is Mental
Disorders,
Nervous
system or
sense
organ
diseases,
Connective
tissue
diseases.
About 20% of females that are vets from serving in Iraq and
Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD.

Some people do
not realize what its like to
serve our country and place
your life on the line. Many of VETs when they come home become
very depressed and some even get to the point of committing suicide,
its amazing how high our suicide rates are.

Mental health is
a big deal for
vets a lot of the
time when they
return home they
dont know all of
the resources
they have
available to
them. 82% is a
huge percentage,
we loose more
people in a year
from suicide
because they are
struggling from
depression or
PTSD.
Its amazing to
me that these
people go out and
fight for our
freedom yet
they are the
part of a large
population
that is
homeless when
they return home
from combat.

According to
the National
Institutes of
Health,
Department
of Veteran
Affairs, and
Sidran
Institute, the
societal
and economic
burden of
PTSD is
extremely
heavy.
Important
facts,
numbers, and
statistics
include:

The
annual
cost to
society
of anxiety disorders is estimated to be significantly over $42.3 billion, often due to
misdiagnosis and under treatment. This includes psychiatric and non-psychiatric
medical treatment costs, indirect workplace costs, mortality costs, and
prescription drug costs.
People with PTSD have among the highest rates of healthcare service use.
People with PTSD present with a range of symptoms, the cause of which may be
overlooked or misdiagnosed as having resulted from past trauma.
Much of the general public and many mental health professionals used to doubt
whether PTSD was a true disorder.
In 1980, PTSD was recognized as a disorder with specific symptoms that could
be reliably diagnosed and was addedto the American Psychiatric Associations
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
PTSD is recognized as a psychobiological mental disorder than can affect
survivors not only of combat experience, but also terrorist attacks, natural
disasters, serious accidents, assault or abuse, or even sudden and major
emotional losses.
PTSD is associated with changes in brain function and structure and these
changes provide clues to the origins, treatment, and prevention of PTSD. Some
cases may be delayed, with only subtle symptoms showing up initially and more
severe symptoms emerging months after the traumatic event.

PTSD affects about 7.7 million American adults in a given year, though the
disorder can develop at any age including childhood. Symptoms include strong
and unwanted memories of the event, bad dreams, emotional numbness, intense
guilt or worry, angry outbursts, feeling on edge, and avoiding thoughts and
situations that arereminders of the trauma.
PTSD was once considered a psychological condition of combat veterans who
were shocked by and unable to face their experiences on the battlefield.
Soldiers with symptoms of PTSD often faced rejection by their military peers and
were feared by society in general.
Those with PTSD symptoms were often labeled as weak and removed from
combat zones, or sometimes discharged from military service.
In addition to providing healthcare to about 5 million veterans each year, the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also funds research that focuses on the
specific health conditions that veterans may experience. One condition that>is
examined in VA-funded research is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); an
anxiety disorder that can occur after a person is exposed to a life-threatening
event. Veterans diagnosed with PTSD may experience problems sleeping
maintaining relationships, and returning to their previous civilian lives.
Almost 50% of all outpatient mental health patients have PTSD.

My end goal of my research is to know more information on the

experience of war and to know what our troops go through on a daily
basis. I have made it my goal to try and place myself in there shoes
during this research project to try and see how they feel day to day.
There has been a couple times I have found myself on the urge of
wanting to cry reading some of the stories and other information they
go through. I have continued to stay with this topic because it really
touches home with me, I have many people in my family that have
served and I thought it would be really interesting to get more
information and understand it a bit more.
Some goals I have for this topic is get a better understanding of
war and how vets feel before during and after. Be more familiar with
what resources are available for them. Learn more about the different
ways they feel after being deployed and how they cope with PTSD.