By the end of 2014, over 23,000 American troops will return home from Afghanistan. This struggle in Afghanistan, beginning with the deployment following Sept. 11, has taken the lives of 7,000 service members and has left thousands more with physical and mental wounds. While our troops may be coming home from the war, real life for many of them may never be the same. Post-traumatic stress disorder leaves a deep invisible wound on soldiers, one not easily treated.
This dangerous psychological illness affects men and women in different ways. However, there is little research on the causes and effects to women in particular. Today, while gender plays a large role in other areas of research, such as physical ailments and their medical diagnoses, PTSD is treated as if one size fits all.
While women technically have served noncombat roles in Iraq and Afghanistan, they still found themselves on the front lines of the violence. Since 2001, 149 women on duty in the Afghanistan war have been killed, and many more continue to suffer from PTSD and other psychological illnesses.
In January, the Department of Defense lifted the ban of women in combat roles. This decision was celebrated by all political parties and was viewed as a step toward equality of the sexes. On the other hand, many day-to-day struggles of women in combat were revealed.
The ability to physically serve as combatants in war gave women a new voice. Women in the military now, more than ever, actively share their accounts of sexual harassment and physical abuse. An anonymous survey found that nearly 26,000 women in the military were victims of unwanted sexual contact or assault in 2012. In 2013, there were 5,061 official assault sexual reports, but many incidents still remain unreported. President Barack Obama has attempted to work with the military, reforming how sexual assault is handled. Changes included decreasing alcohol intake, sustaining a culture of respect, and attempting to acknowledge the sexual assaults on male victims. Congress sought to further deflect sexual assaults with reform, including a provision preventing commanders from overturning convictions. The Senate approved modest means of strengthening prosecution; however, the House denied proposals to alter the process of handling sex and rape crimes.
These new accounts of sexual assault being made public shows how these injustices play active roles on women soldiers. Rape and sexual assault could be causative factors of the struggles women face after deployment. Painful acts of violence, including rape, increase one’s chances of suffering from PTSD. Some common feelings of rape victims, including fear, stress, and anxiety are also causes and symptoms of PTSD. The combination of sexual violence and the violence on the battlefield can result in grave psychological consequences. Taking more preventative measures against sex crimes in the military could decrease the number of women PTSD victims.
Research suggests that women could be more susceptible to psychological disorders. In a UK study, women were found to be twice as likely to develop PTSD compared to men. Not to mention, another study stated that women are more susceptible to suffering from PTSD after a tragic or traumatizing event than men. Hormonal regulation can cause depression in women. Menstruation and contraceptive drugs can affect these hormonal changes. The position of the relative locus of the X chromosome is another contributing factor for emotional illnesses in women. Depression is a dominant gene in the x chromosome; women have two x chromosomes. In the armed forces, men and women can be compared further; women veterans under the age of 50 are twice as likely to commit suicide when compared to their male counterparts. If more studies analyze the different experiences between men and women on the battlefield, more concrete observations and statistics could help victims of emotional illness before it is too late.
Men have been the brave warriors in battle throughout time. Women are now on the front lines too though. These women soldiers find their own struggles that can affect the severity of PTSD. It is important to honor every soldier, who fights for everyday liberties with his or her life and service. By both decreasing contributing factors for PTSD and conducting more research on how gender affects of PTSD, every soldier can return home with less invisible scars.
