Hasan’s Murderous Rampage and His PTSD BS

As someone who has been exposed to high levels of stress in my day along with a working knowledge of what Posttraumatic Stress Disorder actually is, I’m finding it extremely difficult to buy the argument that Nadal Hasan is a victim of PTSD and simply snapped.

In 2003 I was in Las Vegas for a Convention for the Paper Allied-Industrial Chemical and Energy Worker’s International Union Annual Convention when I received a telephone call informing me that there had been a shooting at the plant where I worked and represented. A member of my crew to be exact shot and killed 1 member of management and wounded two others before turning the gun on himself. Luckily, these three innocent victims were the only ones. The gunman in this case had much more ammunition than he expended and he also had additional weapons in his car.

Now I’m not going to get into why he did what he did. But the woman that he killed was one of my primary contacts with management during my day to day representation of my people. So to say I have a working knowledge of what PTSD is I would think is a fair statement.

In addition to my personal experiences, Mrs. Gribbit has been on hiatus from college for a couple of years now. Her field of study? Psychology. Her goal is actually to get her PhD.

I just so happen to have a copy of the DSM-IV-TR[1] right in front of me as I type out this post. 309.81 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is outlined on pages 463 – 468 of the DSM-IV-TR. Strangely, I cannot find anywhere in any of this text about PTSD any qualifier for a diagnosis of PTSD for an individual who did not personally experience trauma.

Hasan’s apologizers would have you believe that simply listening to the stories being told by actual combat veterans are traumatic enough to justify a diagnosis of PTSD and therefore, he is not responsible for causing the deaths of 13 unarmed soldiers and wounding 30 more. A sort of Second Hand PTSD or something.

Beginning on page 467 of the DSM-IV-TR are the Diagnostic Criteria for PTSD…

A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

1. the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others.
2. the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Note: In children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior.

By this definition Hasan doesn’t qualify for diagnosis because he was not faced with a traumatic event that involved acual or threatened death or serious injury until he entered that building and began shooting.

I could go on and on listing the different diagnostic criteria for PTSD but Hasan doesn’t meet a single one of them. And unfortunately for those wishing to make a case of victimhood on the part of this terrorist, there is no such thing as PTSD by proxy or Second Hand PTSD.

What it actually comes down to is fear. Fear on the part of those wishing to find a medical reason for Hasan’s actions rather than taking the man at his own word. Or should I say words.

Eye witnesses (see also victims) of Hasan’s rampage have reported that Hasan yelled, “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) as he began his slaughter. Point one for terrorist attack.

There were webpostings about his convoluted attempts at making a case that suicide bombers were like heroic soldiers who throw themselves on grenades to save others. There are accounts of his praising a murderous attack on a Arkansas Recruiting Station by an Islamic extremist. And now the feds are looking into possible financial contributions to the Jihad sent to Pakistan. Points 2, 3, & 4 for terrorist attack.

Sorry folks. This isn’t a case of someone who snapped from stress. This is a case of home grown terrorism because this government and our fellow citizens are too afraid to stand up for the truth.

Hasan is a life-long follower of Muhammad. A warlord and pedophile who in an intoxicated state had some sort of revelation from “Allah”. This is an ideology which preaches evangelicalism through the point of a sword. If you are not a believer in Islam, you are an infidel worthy of being beheaded.

Most religions of the world are peaceful. I don’t agree with most of them but they don’t preach death and destruction in the name of God. Only Islam does.

At a time where we are all hypersensitive and afraid to offend, Muslims treat women like cattle. They are intolerant of everybody and have a desire to dominate the world. They are stuck in an 8th century mentality of barbarism.

As the news agencies are walking on eggshells avoiding calling this man what he truly is, remember one thing. He is a follower of the religion of death and destruction. Life means very little to him. In his mind this wasn’t PTSD it was war – jihad – whether ordered by Osama bin Laden directly or not the effect is the same. There are 13 fewer infidels ready for battle in Afghanistan and/or Iraq.

This wasn’t a mental problem this was an anger problem and an indoctrination problem. Although he was a doctor, a psychiatrist, he was weak-minded individual who believed the lies of the pedophile and warlord muhammad.

After he’s hung he should be immediately cremated. Anyone who knows anything about Islam will understand what that would mean.

SUPPLEMENTAL

For the benefit for any of you who wish to know more about PTSD but do not have the ability to access a DSM-IV-TR, I am including the rest of the diagnostic criteria found on page 468 of the DSM-IV-TR:

B. The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

1. recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. Note: In young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.
2. recurrent distressing dreams of the event. Note: In children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.
3. acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur of awakening or when intoxicated). Note: In young children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.
4. intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event
5. physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma, as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

1. efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma
2. efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma
3. inability to recall an important aspect of trauma
4. markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities
5. feeling of detachment or estrangement from others
6. restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings)
7. sense of foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following:

1. difficulty falling or staying asleep
2. irritability or outbursts of anger
3. difficulty concentrating
4. hypervigilance
5. exaggerated startle response

E. Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in Criteria B, C, and D) is more that 1 month.

F. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Specify if:

Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than 3 months
Chronic: if suration of symptoms is 3 months or more

Specify if:

With Delayed Onset: if onset of symptoms is at least 6 months after the stressor.

Again – I fail to see how Hasan qualifies for this diagnosis.

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1. DSM-IV-TR – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition Text Revision (Full Version). Published by the American Psychiatric Association ©2000 [↩]