Military Mental Illnesses

Mental Illnesses among military service members Mental illnesses have become a serious issue. PTSD being one of these, which has caused service members to suicidal thoughts and actions. Studies have been done as well as comparisons but we still are lack a good understanding of what these people are going through. Since there is a lack of understanding of the human mind, not many prevention groups or cope methods have been found. Scientists should do more studies to understand the human mind in order for military personals to find ways to help members cope with the illnesses. Military service members go through a lot physically and mentally when they go through training or are in combat. During basic training/bootcamp …show more content…
For example, MST, “military sexual trauma is defined as a sexual assault experienced by military service member”.Betsy O’Brien informs us in her article that “individuals that are most vulnerable for MST are most likely to be women between the ages of 30 and 49 years who are white, highly educated, have served in the reserves more than 5 years..”, with this mental illness it is prone in only a certain group of people. With this illness it can cause other mental illnesses to develop such as PTSD because with the trauma they have experienced it could lead to having flashbacks. O’Brien states “the diagnosis of PTSD, in the DSMII and in the PTSD manual was seen as the result of certain gender specific stressors, mainly combat for men and rape and sexual trauma for women” in this result it show’s how the same mental illness differs with different genders because of what they go through. Many question why some do not report the crimes that have been committed or why they do not seek help. It seems as if those do not report these mental illnesses are ashamed. Although mental illnesses are very common, those who come off as strong or are looked up to by others do not want to show that they have an illness that makes them weak and vulnerable. O’Brien states “ an element of guilt may also play a role in not reporting the crime, as male victims of MST may interpret reporting to be a threat to their manhood”, which brings up the topic what can scientists or military personals do in order to insure the victims that they are safe? Even though there are groups made specifically where they can talk about the crimes commited the victims still do not feel safe. If scientists came up with a study where those victims can state exactly why they are afraid or ashamed and come up with a solution as to making them feel strong not as many victims will feel alone. Still