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Madison Waitzman
Professor Michele Griegel-McCord
English 2089
April 27, 2015
PTSD: The Stigma Surrounding the Invisible Scar
They are the most honored citizens in our country. They sacrifice their lives and being
with their families to protect all other American families. They often lose limbs and are scarred
from their diligence and patriotism they so eagerly provide. They are our heroes. And yet, why
do some of these treasured men or women of our military feel embarrassed or decide to take their
own life upon returning to civilian life? What scars do they have that makes them feel
embarrassed or unworthy of life? The role of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, more commonly
known as PTSD, seems to be the cause. However, the way in which Americans treat these
soldiers as they return directly impacts their chance of recovery.
In the past, veterans humbly relived the stories of their battle scars. Soldiers were even
awarded a Purple Heart for being wounded in an action against an enemy of the U.S. However, a
new invisible battle scar called PTSD began being diagnosed more readily after the American
Psychiatric Association added PTSD to the DSM-III in 1980 (About). Up until then, physical
wounds from war overshadowed psychological issues. PTSD is not a scar any veteran would be
showing off; instead they are embarrassed of it. One out of three returning troops is diagnosed
with serious PTSD symptoms, and less than 40% of them seek help (About). The Department
of Veteran Affairs found that every day 22 veterans take their own life; one every 65 minutes,

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based on the agencys own data reported by 21 states from 1999 through 2011. Veterans make up
7% of the American population, but account for 20% of its suicides (Basu). What is causing
these veterans to commit suicide and keeping them from seeking help?
Unfortunately, the image of a violent, out-of-control veteran usually comes to mind for
most Americans when thinking about PTSD. This stereotype of PTSD is the result of
Hollywoods depiction of it in the movies. Movies are one of the main sources which develop
Americans views on PTSD. Dramatized symptoms and inaccurate portrayal of veterans with
PTSD has lead to the stigmatization of the disorder and anyone who has it. This stigma may
cause somebody who has PTSD to hide their symptoms, not seek help, or even take their own
life. The way in which movies depict characters with PTSD and what happens to them as a result
of their PTSD, influences the audiences perception of the mental illness, possibly creating a
stigma.
In 1978, The Deer Hunter was released which inaccurately portrays several aspects of
PTSD. The movie shows the experiences of three close friends who became prisoners of war
when they were captured by the North Vietnamese Army. A main inaccuracy in this movie is all
three of the main characters display symptoms characteristic of PTSD, which suggests the
prevalence of PTSD is very high. However, since the Vietnam War, the prevalence of PTSD in
US military war veterans has ranged from 2% to 17% (Movies). After their escape from being
prisoners of war, Steven is sent home, unable to walk as a result of injuries he obtained while
escaping. Steven shows symptoms of PTSD including re-experiencing symptoms and physical
arousal symptoms. For example, he continues yelling and cannot be subdued. Michael returns to
combat and then returns to the U.S. at the end of his tour. After Michaels return to America, he
clearly shows avoidance symptoms which are part of PTSD, by numbing his feelings through

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avoidance of family and friends. With the stress of Russian roulette plus the horrors of war Nick
experienced, he has a mental breakdown, mute from the trauma of his experience. In a military
hospital, Nick is diagnosed as unfit to continue his tour of duty in Vietnam (Deer).
Another inaccurate impression about PTSD the audience may leave The Deer Hunter
with includes a veterans desire to return to the same trauma they experienced in war. While the
men were POWs, their captors forced them to play Russian roulette which ultimately created the
trauma for them. After Nick leaves the hospital, he stumbles upon a gambling den where Russian
roulette is played and joins in to play for money, and ultimately turns the gun on himself and
commits suicide playing the game. Normally people who suffer from PTSD avoid anything that
reminds them of the trauma, so Nick would have avoided Russian roulette, versus engaging in it
(Kenny). While those diagnosed with PTSD will often return to war, returning to a game of
Russian roulette is not likely. Nicks involvement in an aggressive, cold-hearted game like
Russian roulette encourages a general audience to misunderstand how war affects soldiers. War
doesnt turn good people into cold-hearted aggressors who seek out dangerous situations. People
with PTSD often respond to environmental conditions that are similar to those that traumatized
them with extreme emotional reactions like anxiety attacks or anger attacks (Kenny). However,
they usually try to avoid these stimuli as well as the experience of recalling the trauma.
Finally, the dramatization of Nick wandering off after being deemed unfit for further
service leaves the audience with an impression that is both unprofessional and that medical
issues are not important to the military. Instead of being placed on the first plane out of Vietnam,
it seems he is left to wander off alone. Most soldiers do not go AWOL and do not toy with their
own lives or the lives of others. Instead, they try to connect with those they love, but fail due to
the horror of their experience in the combat zone. After Nick commits suicide while playing

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Russian roulette, it leaves the audience with the sense that there is no hope for someone with
PTSD. It leaves the sense that a veteran with PTSD will seek out dangerous situations and wont
be able to recover from the trauma they experienced.
On the other hand, The Deer Hunter successfully showcases how family and friends of
individuals suffering from PTSD must deal with the disorder, which helps the general public to
understand what families may really face. In the movie, Steven comes back from war but avoids
coming back to his family. Research shows that numbing and avoidance symptoms in individuals
with PTSD are especially predictive of familial distress (Kenny). Angela, Stevens wife, clearly
shows this distress. The movie shows Angela lying in bed and her friends talking about how she
is having a rough time dealing with Steven after the war. When The Deer Hunter was released it
gave voice to the general publics feelings about war and its effects on soldiers and family. The
movie portrayed how war has long lasting psychological effects on soldiers, their family and
their friends.
The Deer Hunter is an important movie because of the time it was released and how
popular it became; it had a lot of effect on Americas perception of PSD. Three years after the
Vietnam War ended, the publics understanding of what had happened and its consequences was
illustrated in this 1978 Academy Award winning film. The Deer Hunter is a highly successful
film that won five Oscars and cast the spotlight on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to a national
audience (Deer). This movie was incredibly popular and since it was released in 1978, which
was before PTSD was really known to the public, it became their first display of PTSD that first
formed their opinions about the mental illness.
In the next movie portrayal of PTSD, instead of dramatizing the prevalence, Hollywood
dramatized the use of violence a veteran with PTSD engages in. This violent movie is called

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First Blood, which was released in 1982, and is one of the most well-known due to its sequels. In
the movie John J. Rambo is a former U.S. Special Forces soldier who fought in Vietnam and won
the Congressional Medal of Honor. However, Rambo suffers from PTSD, having nightmares,
difficulty sleeping, flashbacks, and problems with relationships. In this movie Rambo goes to
Washington to visit a friend where a sheriff insults him and Rambo becomes violent and is
arrested. He escapes jail and goes on a rampage throughout the forest to escape from the sheriff.
Throughout the movie, the audience feels sympathy for Rambo while he is being hunted down
by the sheriffs office. However, the audience doesnt grasp what Rambo is going through until a
scene at the end of the movie when Rambo has a conversation with his commanding officer
Colonel Samuel Trautman in a building surrounded by the police about to arrest him. Rambo
cries, Out there I was in charge of million dollar equipment, but here I cant even hold a job
(First). This is typical of someone with PTSD to feel like they had a purpose while they were at
war, but upon coming back home, they cant seem to live a normal life and even hold a simple
job. Rambo then goes on,
My friend went to get a beer. The box is wired. He opened up the box f******
blow his body all over the place. Hes laying there and hes f****** screaming.
There are pieces of him all over me and Im trying to pull them off and my friend
is all over me. Ive got blood and everything. I hold him together trying to put him
together, but parts keep coming out and nobody would help, but he kept saying, I
wanna go home. But I said I cant find your f****** legs I cant get it out of
my head. Ive thought about this for seven years everyday and sometimes I wake
up. I dont talk to anybody, sometimes a day, sometimes a week. I cant put it out
of my mind (First).

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This scene shows the inner battles Rambo is struggling with and gets the audiences sympathy.
However, it causes the audience to believe that soldiers suffering from PTSD, because of a
traumatic event in war, are capable of going on a rampage and killing everyone. Similar to The
Deer Hunter, it also gives the audience no hope of recovery from PTSD. There is never a turning
point where Rambo seems to start healing or recover from the traumatic experience from war.
First Blood and all its sequels portray Rambo as a super
macho hero who is a brainless machine using guns for fun, and
glorifying violence (see figure 1). Figure 1 is a movie poster for
First Blood which shows Rambo on the cover as he is depicted
throughout the movie. By the time Hollywood was done with this
violent sequel of movies about a war hero with PTSD in 2008,
there were 4 movies each earning over one hundred million dollars
worldwide in ticket sales (Brown). Viewers left these four Rambo
movies filled with a sense that Rambo was a hero by using his rage
and violence to kill others. Throughout the years between these sequels, there has been much
more about PTSD learned, however these sequels seem to continue

Figure 1: The movie poster

for First Blood featuring
Rambo. (First)

to portray Rambo as violent and doesnt make an effort at making his symptoms more accurate.
A less glorified depiction of violence is shown in the next movie Shell Shock, released in
2009, starring Robert Whitelock as Tom, a British veteran from a war in the 1990s. While
serving, Tom had a traumatic experience in a barn where his fellow soldiers were found dead on
the ground and he had to fight off an attacker. The memory continues to haunt him forever. He
returns from war a decorated hero, but he cant seem to escape that haunting day. This movie
correctly depicts the feeling of isolation veterans with PTSD feel when returning from war. In the

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movie Tom is unable to handle his life and family at home, he now lives a nomadic existence, in
search for isolation which leads him to Tokyo. Throughout this movie Tom is living in Tokyo
suffering from flashbacks of that haunting day in the barn. He awakens from nightmares
screaming and he drinks alcohol as a way to cope with the pain (Shell).
This movie contains two scenes where Tom becomes violent, which are the basis for how
the audience feels about PTSD when watching this movie. The first is a more realistic example
of someone with PTSD lashing out. In this scene his severe flashbacks cause him to attack
someone in the hallway of the hotel because he believed it was his attacker from the barn, but
then he realizes it is not and he walks away. The other scene was much more dramatized and
could cause the audience to be scared of a veteran with PTSD. Everything starts to turn around
when he meets a girl that seems to be an outsider as well because of her mixed race, and her job
in a Love Hotel shop. Toms spirits begin to rise as they go on a date and start to connect.
However, after they engage in sexual intercourse, they are lying in bed and her arm is around his
neck. He has a flashback to the day in the barn when he is fighting the man and he is getting
strangled. He panics and gets the phone from the bedside and beats her to death with the phone
imagining she is his attacker from the barn (Shell). No matter how hard he tries, he cant escape
his past and he is haunted by the visions of what he saw and did.
Throughout the movie Shell Shock, you get to know Tom and sympathize with his life,
but this movie again gives the audience no hope of rehabilitation. Even though the audience
sympathizes with him throughout the movie, he cant seem to move past that day. It gives the
audience the sense that it is just a matter of time before a PTSD veteran will break and become
violent. At the end of the movie, Toms feelings are well depicted as he reads a letter he wrote to
his wife while he was at war, Hello my dearest wife. Weve all been told to write these letters as

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things are heating up here. So if youre reading this Im a goner. Im one of the glorious dead
instead of the stranger war turn all men into. (Shell). This letter shows how Tom sees more
glory in being killed in battle, than he does in his life. He has given up on life and sees no
meaning in it anymore. This is typical of a PTSD veteran in how he feels he would have been
better off if he didnt survive that day, now he feels isolated and will forever be haunted by that
day.
In the movie The Hurt Locker, Hollywood gets more aspects of PTSD right; it was a more
typical case than the extreme and incorrectly displayed cases of PTSD in these previous movies
discussed. The main character Sergeant William James seems more relatable and human. The
scenes of daily activities post war left the audience with a more realistic view of PTSD, showing
that the real struggle they deal with is living a normal life when they come home from war
because they are changed and arent the same they were when they left.
The movie starts with a statement, War is a drug, which it then depicted throughout the
movie while three men in a Bomb Squad are completing their rotation in Baghdad in 2004
(Hurt). The focus of the movie surrounds Sergeant William James who is a bomb squad disposal
expert. He portrays the theme of the idea that war is a drug very well throughout the movie. He
goes beyond what his job calls for him to do, putting himself in grave danger day after day. Even
though he never has a violent outburst like most of the other movies have, he repeatedly puts
himself in unreasonable dangerous situations not thinking about his life. James keeps pieces of
deconstructed bombs under his bed as trophies. After Jamess rotation is over he has a short visit
home and then is right back for another deployment (Hurt).

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Although all but a few minutes of this movie are scenes of war, the two most powerful
scenes are when Sergeant James returns home. First, Sergeant James is back home feeding his
young son. He is talking to the boy with both anguish and anxiety, a father wanting to convey a
truth to his son that the boy is far too young to apprehend. James says, You love playing with
that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You
love your pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yea. But you know what, buddy? As you get
older some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore.(Hurt) That was part of
the message that Sergeant James was giving his son: the people and things once cherished may
not keep their importance. Things that once seemed so valuable were now less so and the
experiences that superseded those things in importance can never be replicated again. The second
scene that stood out was when John was grocery shopping with his wife and his wife asked him
to go get a box of cereal. Pushing an empty cart, staring at all the shelves of cereals, he is
inaccessible. He is lost in thought or overwhelmed by the choices. Even the simplest activities of
normal life became challenging. He can unarm a bomb in a matter of seconds in life or death
situations, but he cant simply pick out a box of cereal from the grocery. This shows very well
the tendency of PTSD veterans to feel like an alien when doing the most ordinary thing, but
feeling a sense of belonging and meaning when theyre in combat. Even though James ends up
back at war at the end of the movie, for the first movie out of the ones discussed above, it leaves
the audience with the feeling that he isnt completely hopeless.
The movie The Hurt Locker released in 2008, was the first realistic depiction of PTSD. It
won six Oscars along with other awards. The movie was based on the personal wartime
experiences of journalist Mark Boal (Hurt). Although a fictional story, it presents the conflict
in the Middle East from the perspective of soldiers who witnessed the fighting first hand. The

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fidelity of this movie to the true war experience gained the movie respect, and therefore the
depiction of PTSD was also respected and taken as an accurate portrayal by the audience.
The most recent war movie, American Sniper was released in January 2015, earning $107
million over its first weekend in wide release (Griggs). The movie is based on a true story of a
decorated marine Chris Kyle, showing the cause for and everyday struggle with PTSD. He was a
sniper credited with 160 kills, more than anyone else in US history. However, his struggle
wasnt with the missions he had overseas, but with managing his life, wife, and kids once he
returned home. The movie portrayed everyday life for Chris on leave between tours. For
example, at the obstetricians office for a checkup, Kyles blood pressure is very high and the
doctor and his wife Taya are both worried about him, but he claims that he is doing fine and
brushes off their concerns. Taya tries to get him to open up to her and talk about what he went
through, but he assures her that he is fine and gets frustrated with her. He rants to her that he
doesnt understand why everybody isnt talking about whats going on in Iraq, and instead people
are just living their everyday lives concerned about trivial things. Kyle continues to struggle to
adjust to civilian life between his deployments, with nightmares and loud noises startling him.
For example, after Taya gave birth to their second child, he visits her in the hospital and she
begins to cry, he becomes increasingly agitated, screaming at the nurse. He again gets into an
argument with his wife about how he is missing his childrens lives and he argues that by
protecting his country, he is protecting his family. They fight about him returning to war, and she
says if he leaves again, she will not be waiting for him when he returns again, but he deploys
anyway. After he returned from his next deployment, they have a family barbecue. Kyle stays
inside avoiding the party, but Taya finally gets him to come outside. He sees a dog grab the collar
of a boy and tugging at it and Kyle suddenly rips off his belt and grabs the dog as if he is going

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to beat or strangle it. His wife, family, and friends look at him like they are scared of him and he
is crazy (American).
The movie then shows Kyle start to make improvements while working through his
PTSD. Kyle agrees to go to a support group of disabled veterans where the men tell their stories.
Kyle decides to take some of the men to a shooting range to teach them to shoot sniper rifles.
Kyle finally starts to become himself again, and connect with his family. He continues to work
with the veterans when a Marines mom reached out to him, asking him to help her son who has
been struggling since his return. In the final credits of the movie, it reveals that the troubled
marine struggling with PTSD killed Chris Kyle (American).
This portrayal of the everyday life of a veteran with PTSD in American Sniper is much
more realistic and entwines the emotional roller coaster a family endures with a wounded soldier.
It shows America the reason why PTSD is a reality post war and empathizes with both the
soldier and the family in their struggles to overcome PTSD. The movie American Sniper left the
audience with deep sadness for the lost soldiers and impassioned to help heal them. The fact that
this movie is based on a true story makes it much more relatable and impacts the audience much
more. It doesnt include dramatic acts of violence or inaccurate symptoms such as returning to
the traumatic experience which caused PTSD like in The Deer Hunter to make the movie more
entertaining; instead it is authentic to the mental illness and the story of Chris Kyle. Even though
a soldier with PTSD kills Chris Kyle, Chris had made progress, and was starting to live a normal
life again. He found a way to cope with his PTSD and was starting to regain a positive outlook
on life even helping other veterans with PTSD.

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American Sniper created so much buzz it started a conversation all throughout America.
This movie is so popular because Americans like a hero, and Chris Kyle is undoubtedly a hero
considering he took out 160 enemy soldiers and terrorists. He was not only seen as a hero, but he
was relatable and was portrayed as a real person. This is one of the biggest differences between
Rambo in First Blood and Chris Kyle in American Sniper. Rambo was also seen as a hero, but he
was not depicted as a real person and was in no way relatable to the audience. American Sniper
became the top grossing war film of all time. It brought in about $250 million at the U.S. box
office alone and broke the record for a Super Bowl weekend with an almost $32 million
domestic haul (Novak). Millions of Americans not only went to see this movie, but many of them
went to see it more than once. American Sniper has even been compared to Passion of the
Christ, sharing the large, loyal, and enthusiastic audience labeled as Christian and patriotic
(Novak).
For years Hollywood has shaped Americas views of PTSD in veterans. Through
inaccurate depictions, exaggerations, dramatization, and the selective symptoms portrayed of
PTSD in movies, Hollywood has created a negative stigma attached to PTSD. It shouldnt be a
surprise that Hollywood inaccurately depicted PTSD in their movies because its certainly not
the first time they got it wrong about relevant topics. For example, when the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) started
attracting attention in the news, Hollywood jumped on board and began producing movies on the
topic. They certainly didnt get it right at first, making HIV/AIDs appear to be an epidemic that
would kill every hemophiliac and homosexual, putting fear in Americans to even associate with
these people. The movie An Early Frost which was released in 1983 portrayed HIV/AIDS as a
death sentence. Fortunately, by 1993 when the movie Philadelphia, starring Denzel Washington

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and Tom Hanks aired, Hollywood began showing some of the more realistic issues with this
disease and reduced the fear Americans had about contracting the disease, similar to the recent
effort to correct Americas views of PTSD.
Hollywood has made a significant effort in recent years with the movies The Hurt Locker
and American Sniper, to make a more realistic and relatable character with PTSD, but there is
still room to improve. It is clear from the statistics collected about PTSD that it is a real problem
and Americans need to support them. As America continues to participate in wars, PTSD will
continue to be an issue in veterans. There is no room for inaccurate depictions of PTSD because
they deserve support, trust, and love to help them through the transition from outside of enemy
lines into their home country. How Americans act towards the veterans with PTSD will influence
how they deal with their mental disorder and if they seek help, or avoid the symptoms. How they
are treated can even be the difference between their life and death.

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Warner Bros., 2015. Film.
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CNN. Cable News Network, 14 Nov. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Brown, Laurel. "Rambo Returns! Sylvester Stallone Confirms He's Busy Making His Fifth
Movie in the Series... and It's Called Last Blood." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers,
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Pictures, 1978. VCR.
"The Deer Hunter." IMDb. IMDb.com, 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
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Anabasis N.V., 1982. VCR.
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"Make The Connection." PTSD. N.p., 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
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2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

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Novak, Jake. "What 'American Sniper' Says about 2016 Election." CNBC. N.p., 02 Feb. 2015.
Web. 24 Apr. 2015.
Philadelphia. Dir. Jonathan Demme. Perf. Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington. TriStar Pictures,
1994. DVD.
Shell Shock. Dir. James Price. Perf. Robert Whitelock, Nina Fog. Pixie Films, 2009. DVD.