Trump Suggests That Soldiers Who Suffer From PTSD Aren’t “Strong” (buzzfeed.com)

“When people come back from war and combat and they see maybe what the people in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it,” Trump told a room full of veterans.

Great comment from MCRemix on Reddit (link below):

“For those unfamiliar with PTSD…

The real problem with what he said isn’t the implied insult people are seeing in this, the real problem is that he’s feeding a stereotype that we really need to stop.

There is a stereotype that if you’re only strong enough, you’ll be able to handle coming back, to handle the PTSD without treatment and that seeking treatment is weak. His comment plays directly into this idea that if you’re strong enough, you’ll handle it yourself and that if you can’t, you’re weak.

That stereotype has led to scores of soldiers not seeking treatment and doing something they can never undo, either harming themselves or someone else.

It’s just another example of why someone should not be running around spouting opinions on subjects he doesn’t understand.”

 

~

In contrast, check out Obama’s response to a Gold Star Wife whose husband committed suicide after PTSD. This happened last week.

Edit to include text from the most relevant part:

This just something we have to talk about more. […] Sometimes the weight of battle comes home, and we see this all across our veteran populations.

Two points I’d make. I have instructed the joint chiefs and up and down the chain of command that they have a responsibility to destigmatize mental health issues and issues of PTSD and help to explain to everybody and all of the units under their command that there is nothing weak about asking for help.. .

If you break your leg, you’re going to go to a doctor to get that leg healed,” he said. “If, as a consequence of the extraordinary stress and pain that you are witnessing, typically, in a battlefield, something inside you feels like it’s wounded? it’s just like a physical injury. You’ve got to go get help, and there’s nothing weak about that. That’s strong, and that is what will allow you to continue with your service and there shouldn’t be a stigma against it.

Also from Reddit, this: “True strength doesn’t come from not needing help. It comes from understanding that you may need help and taking the proper steps to ensure that you receive it.”
Read more on working with PTSD mindfully here. Or here. Or here. Or here.

Some of the strongest people you will ever meet are #veterans facing #PTSD head on. #RoadtoHope @MichaelBerrySho pic.twitter.com/kZFicWFNcV

— PTSD Foundation (@ptsdusa) October 3, 2016

Wow: Joe Biden passionately Calls Out Donald Trump on His PTSD Comments, Shares Story of Son Beau (youtube.com) “I didn’t think he was being mean, he’s just so uninformed.”

Two spot-on comments via Reddit:
[–]rounder55 [score hidden] 4 hours ago
I don’t understand how the same people who thought John Kerry was a coward and disrespectful to the military for testifying against Vietnam and that he didn’t deserve ALL of his military medals support Trump. There are sectors of the right that want someone who supports the military in a rah rah bullshit way. Yet they dont take issue with a guy who has bashed McCain, who whether or not you agree with his politics, you cannot fault his service. They don’t caare about him saying he knows more about ISIS than generals. They don’t care about him calling the men and women who sign up to be sent off to fight in wars and be immersed in settings that people with a sense of humanity wish no one have to endure “not strong”. I don’t really like any of the candidates, but fuck that shit.
Statesments like this leave me kind of thinking Trump doesn’t want to win. That this started as a PR stunt gone too right that it became wrong.
At the same time, I find it deplorable that we send these kids off to war as pawns and then yap away about how they need the right services and fail to provide them with the right ones.
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[–]Bay1Bri [score hidden] 3 hours ago
They also called 47% of Americans takers for not paying income tax, yet they call trump a genius for doing the same