The term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, carries a stigma that has discouraged too many soldiers from understanding the condition and seeking proper treatment, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff told the PBS NewsHour. He would like to see PTSD called Post Traumatic Stress Injury, or PTSI, instead.
I agree that PTSD is a combat wound. And it is good to make efforts to reduce the stigma so that troops will seek help as readily as they'd seek help for a shrapnel wound. But this kind-hearted attempt to be kind to the existing term does not help. We still have the "traumatic stress" part, implying that the wound is the result of something the soldier, marine, airman, or sailor could have resisted if made of sterner stuff. Why retain any of the bad term if it is viewed as an obstacle to making sure we get our troops back in shape to defend us (or treat veterans at home so they can resume their life)?
No, just junk the whole term. Go back to "combat fatigue," as it was called in World War II. Or, if you really need something that can give you an acronym, call it Combat Exposure Injury. Or maybe Combat Endurance Injury. Either way, you can call it CEI.
This is an injury that almost everyone will get if they survive combat. It's a matter of time and not a matter of weakness any more than having skin that isn't bullet proof is a sign of personal weakness. We are who we are.
