PTSD Linear DA

Link:
Bringing troops home without an adequate solution for PTSD will
have dangerous effects
psychologically.
�Dangerous Drugs for Combat Soldiers: Zombies on the Attack,�Dr. Phil Leveque, forensic
toxicologist and Univ. of London
professor of pharmacology, Salem-News.com, March 28, 2010, http://www.salem-
news.com/articles/march282010/zombie-attackpl.php
I am not guessing about this stuff. I have frontline combat induced PTSD
myself and I have been given
these drugs by the VA doctors. The adverse effects are AWFUL. In addition, I
have taken medical of about 1000 PTSD Veterans from all wars since WWII.
They not only have rejected VA prescribed
anti-depressants but have taken up alcohol which though ultimately more
dangerous at least is more
preferable to them than the hated, repulsive anti-depressants.

Internal Links:
A. Current medical infrastructure is inadequate to meet veterans mental
healthcare needs
The New York Times – 2006
(The New York Times, “For Some, The War Won't End,” lexis)

A September report by the Government Accountability Office found that officials at six of seven Veterans
Affairs medical
facilities surveyed said they ''may not be able to meet'' increased demand for treatment of post-
traumatic stress disorder. Officers who served in Iraq say the unrelenting tension of the counterinsurgency will produce
that demand.
''In the urban terrain, the enemy is everywhere, across the street, in that window, up that alley,'' said Paul Rieckhoff, who served
as a platoon leader with the Florida Army National Guard for 10 months, going on hundreds of combat patrols
around Baghdad. ''It's a fishbowl. You never feel safe. You never relax.''
In his platoon of 38 people, 8 were divorced while in Iraq or since they returned in February, Mr. Rieckhoff said. One man in his
120-person company killed himself after coming home.
''Too many guys are drinking,'' said Mr. Rieckhoff, who started the group Operation Truth to support the troops. ''A lot have a hard
time finding a job. I think the system is vastly under-prepared for the flood of mental health
problems.''
Capt. Tim Wilson, an Army chaplain serving outside Mosul, said he counseled 8 to 10 soldiers a week for combat stress. Captain
Wilson said he was impressed with the resilience of his 700-strong battalion but added that fierce battles have produced turbulent
emotions.

*****B. Soldiers returning home will face inadequate space and

medical care
PTSD Support 2010 http://www.ptsdsupport.net/lackof_spendingsupport.html

Congress recently voted to send $87 billion to Iraq, money that will be used to build
everything from roads to power plants to hospitals. Yet while Congress appears ready to
rubber-stamp unlimited monies for nation building in Iraq, thousands of our own soldiers at
home are languishing with substandard medical care. You may have read about conditions
at Fort Stewart, Georgia, where hundreds of injured reserve and National Guard soldiers are
housed in deplorable conditions and forced to wait months just to see a doctor. These
soldiers made huge sacrifices, leaving their families and jobs to fight in Iraq. Now they
find themselves living in hot, crowded, unsanitary barracks and waiting far too
long to see overworked doctors. This is hardly the heroes' welcome they might
have expected. Only an exposé in a major newspaper brought attention to their plight,
prompting an embarrassed Defense department to rush additional doctors to the base.
Many of these men and women expressed shock at their treatment. They assumed wounded
soldiers returning from Iraq would receive priority treatment, given the "support the troops"
rhetoric coming from Washington. Their complaints went ignored, however, until the media
became involved. Similar mistreatment of soldiers has been evident throughout our
occupation of Iraq. Some wounded soldiers convalescing at Walter Reed hospital in
Washington were forced to pay for hospital meals from their own pockets! Other soldiers
returning stateside for a two-week liberty had to buy their own airfare home from the east
coast. Still others have paid for desert boots, night vision goggles, and other military
necessities with personal funds. It's shocking that our troops are forced to pay for basic
items that should be supplied to them or paid from the defense budget. Perhaps the most
shameful mistreatment of our veterans is in the area of concurrent receipt benefits. Existing
federal rules force disabled veterans to give up their military retirement pay in order to
receive VA disability benefits. This means every VA disability dollar paid to a veteran is
deducted from his retirement pay, effectively creating a "disabled veterans tax." No other
group of federal employees is subject to this unfair standard; in every other case disability
pay is viewed as distinct from standard retirement pay.
For years veterans have fought for concurrent receipt benefits to no avail. Last week
Congress finally passed a very limited concurrent receipt law, but the change is unlikely to
satisfy those disabled veterans who need benefits the most. Under the new partial
concurrent receipt bill, only those veterans in essence deemed "disabled enough" will
qualify; this means roughly two-thirds of disabled veterans will not receive concurrent
receipt benefits at all. Even severely disabled veterans who do qualify may never enjoy their
long-sought relief, because the bill passed by Congress takes ten years to phase in. How
sad that some disabled soldiers will die in the next decade without seeing a penny of their
concurrent receipt benefits. Members of our armed forces deserve more than platitudes
when they return from foreign wars with illnesses or disabilities. Unfortunately, the trust our
soldiers place in the federal government to provide for their health care has been breached
time and time again. Last week's partial grant of concurrent receipt benefits will prove
woefully inadequate for most of our disabled veterans, veterans who could be well-served
with just a fraction of the billions Congress gave away in Iraq.

We Isolate 3 impact scenarios for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:

Impact 1: Lack of treatment causes PTSD to worsen

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/post-traumatic-stress-
disorder/DS00246/DSECTION=complications
MayoClinic 2010

Post-traumatic stress disorder can disrupt your whole life: your job, your relationships and
even your enjoyment of everyday activities. Having PTSD also may place you at a higher
risk of other mental health problems, including: depression, drug abuse, alcohol abuse,
eating disorders, suicidal thoughts and actions. In addition, studies of war veterans have
demonstrated a link between PTSD and the development of medical illnesses, including:
cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis
and thyroid disease, musculoskeletal conditions. More research is needed to understand the
relationship between PTSD and physical health problems

****Impact 2: PTSD leads to domestic violence

Matthew Tull, PhD, About.com, 2008, Accessed July 8, 2009, ME
“PTSD and Domestic Violence” http://ptsd.about.com/od/infoforfriendsfamily/a/PTSDViolence.htm

There is a relationship between the experience of a traumatic event, PTSD and domestic
violence. In fact, intimate partner abuse happens more than you may think. National
estimates indicate that, in a period of one year, 8 to 21% of people in a serious
relationship will have engaged in some kind of violent act aimed at an intimate partner.
People who have experienced a traumatic event or have PTSD may be particularly at risk
for the perpetration of relationship violence.
Trauma, PTSD, and Relationship Violence Separate from PTSD, a connection has been
found between the experience of traumatic events and relationship violence. In
particular, men and women who have experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, or
emotional neglect in childhood are more likely to be abusive in intimate relationships as
compared to people without a history of childhood trauma. In addition, people with
PTSD have also been found to be more likely to be aggressive and engage in intimate
partner abuse than people without a PTSD diagnosis. The connection between PTSD
and violence has been found for both men and women with PTSD. How Are They
Related? Several studies have been conducted in an attempt to better understand what
may lead people with a history of trauma or PTSD to engage in aggressive and violent
behaviors. In studies of U.S. veterans, it has found that depression played a role in
aggression among people with PTSD. People who have both depression and PTSD may
experience more feelings of anger and, therefore, may have greater difficulties
controlling it. In line with this, a couple of studies have found that violent and aggressive
behavior, especially among men, may be used as a way of attempting to manage
unpleasant feelings. Aggressive behavior may be a way of releasing tension associated
with other unpleasant emotions stemming from a traumatic event, such as shame, guilt,
or anxiety. While aggressive and hostile behavior may temporarily reduce tension, it, of
course, is ineffective in the long-run -- both in regard to relationships and dealing with
unpleasant emotions. What Can Be Done? Mental health professionals have long
recognized that trauma and PTSD increase risk for aggression. Therefore, many
treatments for PTSD also incorporate anger management skills. Learning more effective
ways of coping with stress is a major part of reducing aggressive tendencies, such as
deep breathing and identifying the short- and long-term negative and positive
consequences of different behaviors.

***INSERT MORAL OBLIGATION

2NC
Impact 3: Unemployment
Veterans who have PTSD must show they cannot work in order to
get compensated –leading to
thousands being unemployed, living off low compensation and
getting inadequate PTSD treatment.

� VA Benefits System for PTSD is Criticized,� Shankar Vedantam, staff writer for Washington
Post, Washington Post, May 9, 2007,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050801746.html
The government's methods for deciding compensation for emotionally
disturbed veterans have little
basis in science, are applied unevenly and may even create disincentives for
veterans to get better, an
influential scientific advisory group said yesterday. The critique by the
Institute of Medicine, which provides advice to the federal government on
medical science issues, comes at a time of sharp increases in cases of post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
among veterans and skyrocketing costs for disability compensation. The
study was undertaken at the
request of the Department of Veterans Affairs amid fears that troops
returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will produce a tidal wave of
new PTSD cases. Between 1999 and 2004, benefit payments for PTSD
increased nearly 150 percent, from $1.72 billion to $4.28 billion, the report
noted. Compensation payments for disorders related to psychological trauma
account for an outsize portion of VA's budget -- 8.7 percent of all claims, but
20.5 percent of compensation payments. VA officials said they welcomed the
report. "VA is studying the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the
report to determine actions that can be taken to further enhance the
services we provide," spokesman Matt Burns said in a statement. The report
suggested changes to VA policies, but the panel could not say whether those
changes would result in more or fewer PTSD diagnoses, or in greater or
lesser expense for taxpayers. "PTSD has become a very serious public health
problem for the veterans of current conflicts and past conflicts," said
psychiatrist Nancy Andreasen of the University of Iowa, who chaired the
panel. Noting the shortcomings of the VA system, Andreasen added that "a
comprehensive revision of the disability determination criteria are needed."
She said the current VA system, in which PTSD compensation is limited to
those who are unable to hold a job, places many veterans in a Catch-22.
"You can't get a disability payment if you get a job -- that's not a logical way
to proceed in terms of providing an incentive to become healthier and a
more productive member of society," she said. The practice is especially
wrong, she added, because it is at odds with VA policies for other kinds of
injuries. To determine the compensation a wounded veteran should get, the
government assigns one a disability score. Veterans who are quadriplegic,
for example, can be assigned a disability level of 100 percent even if they
hold a job, whereas veterans with PTSD must show they are unable to work
to get compensation.