Purple Hearts for mental health?

Time magazine's cover story this week broaches, at one point, the idea of purple hearts for post-traumatic stress syndrome and other mental maladies resulting from combat.

I'm curious to know people's thoughts. Few take mental health more seriously than I do, and I cringe at the "rub-some-dirt-on-it" crowd.

On the other hand, I can't help but feel this would somehow be devaluing the award.

Thoughts?

 

I don't have a problem with it, but I suspect the military will not be eager to document PTSD if it doesn't have to. 'Cause then you've got to treat the problem.

Lot cheaper to rub dirt on it.

 

I think Pat Putnam said he did win one for PTSD in Korea.

I just don't see how they'd go about documenting it. Will they look at brain scans and see that brain patterns have changed, will they analyze the behavior after getting out of the war (and how will they know what behavior is related to war trauma)? I really hope the Iraq war does shed more light on all mental health issues, but I just don't see how they'd go about this.

 

Well, psychiatrists diagnose it, so I would imagine that would be how.

 

Of course. But PTSD is an anxiety disorder. What if a soldier is diagnosed with "just" depression (which I don't think is usually classified with anxiety disorders), which could have been caused by something that happened during his service. Will that be a Purple Heart as well, or is it going to be limited to PTSD? I don't know. Personally, I don't think it would devaule the Purple Heart, since PTSD, depression or other brain disorders can be much more devastating than a shrapnel wound to the ass or some other less serious physical injury.

 

Exactly. The "no physical evidence" part of it all kinda throws a kink in it and makes it harder to prove. I can just see where our wonderful government would waste taxpayer money trying to chase down a purple heart that was awarded to someone with PTSD that they thought was faking it.

 

TPD is missing out on you, Ace.

 

As a veteran, No, No and No.

 

Maybe they should come up with a new medal for this, like a green brain.

 

We have a winner.

 

It's a question which deserves to be asked . . . as it's a question which SHOULD embarass our current leaders in areas where they richly deserve to be royally embarassed.

For that reason alone, it's worthy of exploration.

 

As a veteran, I'd be hesitant to have this be a reason to award the medal, though I certainly understand the argument FOR doing it offered by some.

If it were awarded for these reasons, I'd probably have one, and I'm not sure I'd feel good about it if I did.