Rant

I just read the new diagnostic criteria for PTSD in DSM 5 and I am so horrified I can barely stand it. What a crock of shit. Basically, it says, "Let's express our complete lack of understanding of WHY people have these symptoms and cluster them in an even more randomly ignorant way to make them look like nut jobs."
I fucking hate the American Psychiatric Association.
I lived through DSM II which came out in 1968 and on the basis of opinion, decided that if you were affected by a trauma for more than six months you had to be diagnosed with a preexisting condition like narcissism. Bob was diagnosed with "anxiety," so condescending to a guy who flew into hot LZ's day after day and never once said no to any request for help.
The DSM II actually was published DURING the 1968 TET Offensive and was used to mistreat Vietnam vets and ignore their post-traumatic reactions and pretend they were whiners and nut jobs.
It was not till 1980 that the diagnosis of PTSD was forced into the DSM III by people who had worked with veterans of all wars, Holocaust survivors, rape, incest and battering survivors, and survivors of disasters, natural and man made. That's a long time to be stigmatizing and misdiagnosing people.
So no wonder the women on the PTSD wives groups I joined have absolutely no understanding of what is going on. I know why they are so mad, because I was too. I took it all personally till I read the DAV pamphlet, "Readjustment Problems of Vietnam Veterans," which made me cry because there was a name for it and other people had it too.
But these women are being fed diagnostic criteria that make their husbands look mentally ill, instead of having a normal reaction to trauma. It is hard to live with but vets are not crazy.