"How PTSD took over America"

It's called PTSD. Ever heard of it? Well with how often it's diagnosed here in America, I'd give a nice bet that you have. PTSD, also know as post-traumatic stress disorder
As author Alice Karekezi writes in her article "How PTSD took over America", some people will argue that there is now a recognition of psychological disorders that is a good thing. However, Karekezi seems to disagree, and so does someone else. As explained by Stephen Joseph, whom Karekezi interviewed after reading his new book "What Doesn't Kill Us", the American society as a whole is obsessed with the idea that there is something wrong with us. Joseph believes that we need to draw a line between normal human experiences that shape who we are and psychological disease, rather than instantly assuming something is wrong with us. Just because we change our behavior after a troubling event doesn't mean we have a disorder-- it could be as basic in meaning as simply adapting to changes that may have been made without our control or forced upon us at a bad time.

I found this article particularly appealing because I'm interested in psychology, and how it applies to the human mind-- I want to study the subject, mainly because I believe it could help me create more realistic characters as an author. In years past, PTSD was only a disease for war veterans, people who actually saw the worst of the worst of what man was capable of. While I do agree that incidents like car crashes can be scary, I don't think that childbirth (mentioned in the articles tagline) can be a traumatic event to the point of a psychological disorder.
While Karekezi seems to remain unbiased, I get the feeling that she's also pushing towards more of what Joseph says because she may secretly agree with him. And personally, I do. Some of the examples given don't seem to be very... "traumatic" to me. In other words: man up.

In my experience, I've found that what it sounds like is being diagnosed in patients as PTSD really are simply 'bad memories'. In myself and even in people I know, certain sounds or pictures may trigger negative reactions in their minds. It could be just an embarrassing moment at a party, or it could be a bad event that you just associate with something visual or audial. I agree with Karekezi, and by extension with Joseph. It seems like Americans, in becoming desensitized within the media to violence, find that "real life violence" is much scarier. When it's not on the opposite side of the screen, it's a terrifying thing. And because we are not used to such violence, even the slightly squeamish incidents may lead people to believe they have the intense psychological disorder.

How PTSD took over America