Page 54 - Total War on PTSD

Source Cited: (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.
Many combat Veterans will present in my office with trauma symptoms, but do not endorse enough of them to actually meet the criteria for PTSD. As noted above, individuals can have multiple symptoms, but if they do not have symptoms under each of these specific criteria, they will be given a different diagnosis based on the symptoms they do endorse. This is by no means minimizing their distress or level of symptomatology they do experience, instead, these individuals are given a diagnosis related to the disorder for which they meet criteria. These diagnoses may include an acute distress disorder (PTSD symptoms with a duration of three days to 30 days), generalized anxiety disorder, an adjustment disorder, a panic disorder, etc., just to name a few. Individuals with PTSD often have co-morbid conditions, such as depression and substance abuse, as their PTSD often leads to considerable community, word, social, and family adjustment issues.
**The following description of symptom presentation is based on my clinical experience of treating combat Veterans for over a decade. It is broadly generalized and it should be remembered that combat Veterans may present with only a few of the symptoms listed below or the majority of them, based on the individual. Please keep this in mind as you read the following summary, as it will not be descriptive of everyone.
Community and Family Reintegration:
When combat Veterans are in a war zone, their families and hope of returning home, as well as camaraderie with their combat peers, are lifelines for enduring their experiences. However, during the reintegration process, they often encounter struggles they do not anticipate while overseas. While they were deployed, their families, who also serve, have gone through significant adjustment issues to live without their combat Veteran while he/she was away. The military spouse has suddenly become a single parent, taking on the role of both parents in the family. This phenomenon is called role shifting. The family, including the Veteran’s children, may have endured a significant sense of loss and abandonment while the combat Veteran was
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