Stolen Trauma
The Guardian reports that military psychiatrists claim that nearly half of the claims for PTS in Britain are not related to military service – that the claims are more related to “Walter Mitty” personalities, instead;
Ian Palmer, a former senior military psychiatrist who ran the government’s medical assessment programme (MAP), a veteran’s mental health service, found that in 42% of cases there was no definite link to military service and at least 10% appeared to be making up or significantly exaggerating their service history.
[…]
“Fabrications are intriguing because they range from outright fraud through to the fantastic and even delusional. I reckon about 10%, which may be an underestimate, of those coming for assessment may have either exaggerated or fabricated,” he said.
Palmer said too many people, including health professionals, were quick to make a causal link between mental health and military service.
Of course, the problems affects the availability of services for real veterans with real problems and it drains the finite resources available. Not to mention that many criminals blame their bad behavior on non-existent military PTS-related issues.
Edgar Jones, a professor of the history of medicine and psychiatry at King’s College London, said the deception risked taking finite resources from deserving cases.
“The pressing issue of ‘stolen trauma’, that is the elaboration or falsification of traumatic experiences and the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, is important because it has the potential to undermine the validity of genuine cases and dilute scarce resources.
A number of our own Stolen Valor cases come to mind, many of whom are drawing a substantial monthly check for their obvious lies. The VA is either unwilling or unconcerned to fix these cases despite the fact that I’ve reported most of them to VAOIG.
Category: Veteran Health Care
No big surprise hear… I’m beginning to understand why some of these PTS groups at the VA want you to keep your mouth closed about what happened and the where it happend my head shrink said a lot of people that never had boots on sand have story’s that are just fantastic and a lot of them stolen from listening to other vets what a fracking shame
No one should be fearful of calling a spade a spade. There are some number of PTSD cases that are fraudulent. How many? I have no idea, but for some former members of the military, the fraud is easily rationalized. I can see easily how that can happen. The country throws money in your direction and, what the hell, may as well pick it up. Everyone else does. I guess it’s for each individual claimant to decide the right and the wrong of their situation. I don’t have a crystal ball.
FREE CHEESE.
But do they have dogs?
????? And ????? Stories to boot
There are a lot of us who work damn hard on our treatment. Making our appts. Learning to cope. I’m not worried about soneones treatment or wether they are lying or not. My life is about keeping it in the middle of the road. And while I suffer from mental and physical conditions I am not those conditions. I’m me I don’t lose who I am because of what I have
If their lies keep you from getting treatment, you will change your mind. I guarantee you, the lying posers getting treatment and paychecks for fake injuries, fake PTSD, etc. ARE keeping good veterans from getting the treatment they need.
I hear what your saying. I’ve heard some suspect stories In VA waiting rooms. But I guess what I’m saying is I’m not privy to what goes on in others doctors offices. So I can’t say he’s lying or he’s telling the truth. All I can do is focus on my treatment. To be honest I don’t like hearing war stories and all about the horrors of war in a public place. I dunno guess I’d prefer to keep it to myself. But I will say that I have a great team of docs and peer counselers at VA
I am extremely pleased that you are getting the treatment you deserve in the current atmosphere of sub-par service to our veterans. You have the right attitude, stay the course and focus on your treatment. Thank you for your service.
Thank you for your service as well. I know there are Vets out there with treatment and Appt issues. My advice to them is you are your own best advocate , educate yourself , utilize myhealthevet for pharmacy. VA notes and secure message your provider. And for vets not to view themselves as damaged. Rather as someone who has endured a lot and to try and work towards recovery total may not be possible but manageable. I hope some listen. Again thank you
Finite resources are a problem for a great many things, especially for those based on reality system of cost and budget.
With Hollywood helping promote the crazy vet meme on a regular basis most of society assumes if you were trained to fight you must be fucking crazy and consequently not to be trusted to carefully to manage your own affairs. It would appear that even health care pros fall prey to this sort of thinking.
Too bad because those who need this help often have no other resources and we see their suicides daily…that needs to stop. If you’re a fucking faker you need a beating and some prison time for stealing what others rightly deserve and require to be returned their former selves.
PTSD is not a ‘military disease.’ It is quite possible to suffer PTSD as a result of any number of traumatic events that can be experienced — and that INCLUDES BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO combat.
And the point about finite resources being used by Stolen Trauma types is very true. And it should be CRIMINAL.
Yes! I know quite a few retired firefighters and law enforcement folks who’ve seen far more gore and trauma than almost any military types. These cases are not near as well known, and certainly don’t have the support structures in place that the military does.
Generally their support groups are just their buddies and a case.
True, PN. But the Guardian article that Jonn writes about above was a study of PTS claims by British veterans. Presumably the numbers in that group should be highly skewed towards PTSD due to combat stress.
My guess is that it’s about the same here. If I had to guess, I’d guess that somewhere between 10% and 20% of the people being treated by the VA on any given day are outright fakes, and at least another 10-20% are exaggerating the hell out of their claims. It wouldn’t surprise me if the numbers were higher – but it would absolutely floor me if the combined total was much lower than 15-20%.
Why? “Follow the money.”
Whenever there’s free stuff to be had for the asking, it never takes long for some to start lying through their teeth to get it.
Spot on. How many folks enter a recruiters office and already have issues? I’ve known quite a few who have carried that baggage with them. That begs the question: How many folks in that category try and lay blame on the military for shit that happened before service and are now claiming an issue? (It’ seems evident the word has gotten out that a PTSD diagnosis brings “x” amount of disability).
Hell, in one of my past units we had a “Joe” fresh from Basic & AIT claiming THAT had given him PTSD. Some kids these days…
I hate those kids.
Hate is a strong word.. and so is the emotion.
My daughter who is adopted and is only a teenager has PTSD. This is because of many surgical experiences that she has had because of being born with kidney disease and bladder problems.
It was diagnosed after she had a kidney transplant 2 years ago and how she was recovering from the transplant. After her diagnosis it was “yes” that is her problem. I recognized a lot of my military brothers’ behaviors in her that I was too close to realize what the problem was.
Now that she is receiving treatment she is getting better.
And just for the record those POS posers can rot in hell.
“Now that she is receiving treatment she is getting better”.
That’s what’s important. If she’s figured that getting help this early in the game she’ll do fine.
Which is a lot more than what can be said for many others who haven’t figured that out yet.
I saw this years ago as a RD XO.
The wounded and the shitbags were put into the same formation.
This was before the WBUs, WTU’s etc had been established.
The turds would listen to the stories and relay the same ones to heir docs on psych evals. Most docs never even checked.
Well modern culture celebrates the biggest fucking train wreck these days and everyone is a victim of something, so it was only a matter of time.
Western Civ is in so much trouble.
SSDI and The VA are a Gravy train for those that work the system.
Tell the right Story enough times to the right person and play the role and presto $$$$$$.