New Film Continues to Raise Awareness on PTSD

This past weekend I watched the new film "Brothers" starring big movie buffs Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhal, and Tobey Maguire. This movie was about a marine (Maguire) who is deployed to Afghanistan and leaves behind his wife (Portman), two daughters, and ex-con brother (Gyllenhal). The trailer alludes to the wife and the brother having an affair a short while after they are notified that the marine was killed in the war. (I'm going to keep referring to the trailer, because I don't want to give the movie away...) ... so, in the trailer, we also see that Maguire's character is not, in fact, dead; he's very alive and comes back. In the movie you see his paranoia, fear, and confusion as he tries to get his life back to 'normal.'
The character is violent and trusts no one. He is depressed and takes it out on his wife, kids and brother.
Many do not realize what goes on in the minds of soldiers when they're in a foreign country fighting a war they don't even understand. And then to come back to the states after experiencing what they experienced, many cannot deal and then start to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Here deep depression sets in, suicidal thoughts, violence, paranoia, and many other possible symptoms occur in variations that are expressed differently by each individual.
According to VFW Magazine's March 2009 issue a report prepared and released by the department of Veterans Affairs in January found that:

Between fiscal years 2002 and 2008, VA reported that 400,304 Iraq and Afghanistan vets - or about 24% of the total troops who had served in those conflicts - had gone to VA for treatment. Some 178,483 vets (45%) were diagnosed with possible mental disorders.
Of that total, 92,998 (23%) vets were diagnosed with PTSD, and 63,009 (16%) were found to have possible depressive disorders.

It is really unfortunate that soldiers are out there protecting our freedom and still have to deal with this when they get home.
It is scary to think that these incidents escalate to the point where a person suffering with PTSD could seriously harm themselves and or others.
Something similar happened in Ft.Hood. A psych doctor, who was also an active duty soldier set to deploy, began to fear his upcoming deployment and to experience the symptoms his patients (who were returning war soldiers) were talking to him about. This particular case gets complicated when you factor in the terrorist ties and such, but I'm referring to the PTSD factor in this. l
PTSD not only harms the person who is suffering from it, but also the families and people surrounding that person.
I hope the movie reaches out to people and not only soldiers, who suffer from PTSD to seek medical attention before it's too late.

Link to articles....
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/chuck_keller/2009/0...
http://www.truthout.org/1202095