George Carlin on PTSD Euphemisms

By on January 19, 2012 in News 9

Thanks to Anarchy Pony for the comment on this post:

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  • Andrew

    So what do we call it when severe child abuse produces a similar state?

    • Butter Knife

      Does it need to have the same name at all?

      One of the things about “shell shock” that has been lost in the transition to PTSD and is largely not applicable to child abuse survivors is that repeated long-term exposure to high-explosive shockwaves, gunfire, propellant smoke/residue, ordinance fragments and the other various hazards one encounters when two military forces attempt vigorously to exterminate one another actually has long-term negative physiological effects IN ADDITION to the psychological trauma. For a lot of years doctors have tried to treat one or the other, and the fact is that BOTH are genuine concerns deserving of attention.

      Actually, PTSD itself is a bit of a cludge, intended mostly to make it seem as though a wide variety of people with a wide variety of symptoms and needing a wide variety of treatments actually have the same problem simply because they share similar traumas. If someone said that a punctured eardrum from being too close to a blast should be treated the same way as a gunshot wound because both were sustained in combat, most people would look at them funny and disregard everything else they said forever. If one veteran suffers from clinical depression, and another suffers from periodic hallucination, the treatment that they receive shouldn’t be determined solely, or even in large part, by the fact that these disorders are a result of combat.

      By no means am I demeaning the challenges that individuals with PTSD, be they veterans or abused children or anyone else, face, or arguing that they deserve any less than the best available treatment. What I’m saying is that trying to wedge all trauma-related mental illness into the same narrow box isn’t going to help with treatment, and in fact will likely harm the effort; while making the box wide enough to accommodate everything makes the label meaningless anyway.

      • Calypso_1

        I’d like to address some of your statements, but first so as to divest myself of any degree of snark in reply, I’d like to know to what level of expertise you hold yourself in the area of PTSD treatment.

        • Redacted

          Doesn’t need a degree to dispense common sense, which in my opinion is what he did.

          • Calypso_1

            And in my opinion common misconception was dispensed, thus the inquiry as to the level of knowledge the presenter feels they have on the topic. 
             
             
            For example – “If one veteran suffers from clinical depression, and another suffers from periodic hallucination, the treatment that they receive shouldn’t be determined solely, or even in large part, by the fact that these disorders are a result of combat.”
             
            I would like to know where the basis for such a claim of treatment on these grounds comes from.
            Are we talking hallucinations or flashbacks?  What treatment, and how is it supposedly tied ‘solely..or in part’ to combat. 
             
            or  - “all trauma-related mental illness into the same narrow box isn’t going to help with treatment”
             
            PTSD is not the only diagnosis that can be related to trauma.  PTSD itself is a multifaceted disorder with 6 different diagnostic criteria with 19 presentations – all of which allow for the individual nature of the patient’s symptoms…and more are added with each manual as research and clinical based knowledge increases. That doesn’t qualify as a narrow box.
             
            And – “Actually, PTSD itself is a bit of a cludge, intended mostly to make it seem as though a wide variety of people with a wide variety of symptoms and needing a wide variety of treatments actually have the same problem simply because they share similar traumas.” 
             
            Last things first – share similar traumas – NO.  PTSD can stem from an accident, rape, abuse, surgery, combat etc….any event the person experience or witnessed that was a threat to the physical integrity of self or others.  Wide variety of treatments – here’s where I wanted to know the experience level of the poster – maybe we could talk about Interoceptive Exposure, fear learning extinction, EMDR, Propranolol and Prazosin prophylactics, or the latest research on cycloserine, or the use of anticonvulsants.  Then there’s VRE or the fun stuff with Ketamine and MDMA.
            “make it seem as though…. actually have the same problem”  Though there are currently differing theories as to the specifics of PTSD, they all center on the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex – it is a definite disorder, differentiated both morphologically and functionally from other neurological disorders.
            Wide variety of people – of course you treat the person not the disease – the ‘label’ is not intended to do anything other than create a pathway in the medical model for the attempted alleviation of an individuals pain and suffering based on the collective accumulated knowledge of thousands upon thousands of physicians and researchers who strive to understand the human condition.

          • Redacted

            tl;dr

          • Andrew

            “Common sense” = willful ignorance.

          • Calypso_1

            314.00

  • damnadamzama

    Greatest, most honest comedian ever.