Dr. Phil Calls Vets With PTSD ‘Monsters’ and ‘Damaged Goods’

Dr. Phil featured a segment on his April 19th show titled “From Heroes To Monsters”, which talked about the issue of veterans with PTSD and their families that have to deal with the trauma of them coming home.

The summary of the Dr. Phil episode, which featured wives of the PTSD veterans details the episode as, “Dr. Phil delves into Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and how it can destroy families, dismantle marriages and leave its victims reliving a nightmare. You don’t have to be a soldier at war to suffer from PTSD.”

The Dr. Phil preview of the show goes to show the families crying over the violent PTSD episodes, with a voice over saying the words “damaged goods” in reference to these soldiers that are coming back disabled from the turmoil of war.

One of Dr. Phil’s guests that appears during this special is Matt, a veteran who suffers from PTSD, and he speaks about his horrific experience in Afghanistan, having stabbed an enemy soldier repeatedly in the face. He also goes on to say that he saw “lots” of innocent children were killed. Dr. Phil also features Duane, another PTSD soldier who beats his wife Heather. Another soldier that Dr. Phil featured on the show set his wife on fire.

Of course, the only common link between all the stories featured in this “From Heroes To Monsters” special is the violent nature of these soldiers, putting a giant stereotype on people who deal with PTSD. A recent study uncovered by The Washington Post’s David Browne says that the link between PTSD and violence is weak, “Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury can increase a person’s anger and hostility and diminish his or her self-control. But the link between those disorders and outright violent behavior is weak and hard to pin down with certainty.”

With that said, it’s easy to deduce that Dr. Phil may just be exploiting yet another popular hot topic to pull in viewers. What do you think?