June 27 Is PTSD Awareness Day

This week the U.S Senate passed a resolution naming June as the National Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month, and made June 27 National PTSD Awareness Day.

In a rare episode of bi-partisan collaboration the U.S. Senate passed the motion with unanimous support. The aim is to improve awareness of this grave issue in an attempt to increase the availability  of diagnosis and treatment to men and women that served or are currently serving in the Armed Forces.

This is one of the most noble gestures made by the U.S Senate but some say it has to be about more than soldiers. Some women are suffering from PTSD induced by Sexual trauma from their days in the army, either because of incidents of rape or harassment.

PTSD Awareness Day must also stand as a day against war, sexual harassment, poverty, child abuse and other causes that cause the horrible syndrome.

In order to efficiently raise awareness  many argue that PTSD Month and Day must be used to inform people on the causes of the syndrome not only on the effect of the trauma. Specialists have stated that without preventing the conditions in which the trauma can occur people will continue to be afflicted.

Poverty and lack of education along with other problems like alcoholism and drug abuse, are responsible for countless reports of  abuses on children and women. Poverty also pushes people into accepting jobs that are dangerous and underpaid like the ones in illegal mineral mining and sweatshops.

People who are forced by conditions beyond their control to accept such jobs are overworked and risk horrible work-related accidents according to statements from several NGOs. In many cases people are not even given the choice to work but are simply used as slaves by criminal organizations.

Some of the most horrific acts that can induce PTSD are now being reported in ISIS occupied territories , where women and men alike are beaten , burnt, tortured or raped by terrorist factions.

Humanitarian NGOs say that even if the war against ISIS would be won today and the criminal terrorist organization wiped out entirely the effects of the methods of ruling they used would still traumatize millions of people for decades to come.

For those who strongly believe in the necessity to fight ISIS and whipping it out the most cited reason is the protection of the innocent civilian population, but many say that without care and comfort a tortured population can never fully recuperate and form a healthy society.

PTSD victims tend to become isolated from society and are prone to blaming themselves for what caused the trauma. In many cases PTSD prevents people from being able to function normally, and hold steady jobs.

This is why so many U.S. veterans have either ended up homeless or have committed suicide.Some members of the  U.S. Government have promised to use the occasion of PTSD Month in order to remind citizens of the attention required by the people who suffer from it.

PTSD is treatable in many cases but the chance of success depends on early diagnoses and proper treatment without interruptions. PTSD events should also raise awareness on the necessity to offer better treatment option to victims and more government involvement and support towards veterans.

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