Former presidential candidate Ron Paul just put the most ghastly thing on Twitter earlier today. In response to the murder of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle at the hands of another Iraq War veteran dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Eddie Routh, Paul tweeted:
“Chris Kyle’s death seems to confirm that ‘he who lives by the sword dies by the sword. Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn’t make sense.”
Chris Kyle is an American hero who was trying to help a fellow soldier deal with PTSD. For Ron Paul to say this is horrifying to me.
I understand that Paul was against the war in Iraq but that doesn’t make Chris Kyle any less a hero. And Paul is the same man who called Bradley Manning, who leaked classified information to Wikileaks, a “true patriot.”
Ron Paul has a screw loose. Maybe a couple of ’em.
February 4, 2013 at 9:30 pm
"Ron Paul has a screw loose." Dog bites man. Sun rises in East.
No news here. Paul (as too many Libertarians) has been semi-rational in his public claims for years.
February 4, 2013 at 11:24 pm
"Semi" rational? Semi means half.
I think you mean unciarational (one-twelfth).
February 5, 2013 at 1:51 pm
While the tone is indeed off-putting and imbecilic, is his point valid? As a doctor, does he have a standing in saying that the decision to take someone with PTSD shooting is moronic a true assessment? I think so. I sure as a heck wouldn't do it. Does that take away from Mr. Kyle's heroism, if he did something stupid? No, and it doesn't take away from the truth of Ron Paul's claim, even if he said it in a callous and stupefying way.
February 5, 2013 at 8:55 pm
While the tone is indeed off-putting and imbecilic, is his point valid?
No, it's not.
It's called "exposure therapy." It's so basic that the DOD page about PTSD mentions it.
It's a really basic advancement of the "when you fall off, get up back on" theory of learning.
Ron Paul is, at best, a pompous ass who should've done some basic research and then ask himself "is this a moronic abuse of a sad event to promote my politics?"
February 5, 2013 at 8:58 pm
Quote from the VA PTSD Prolonged Exposure site:
After a traumatic event, many individuals experience distress and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This distress may be highest when dealing with memories, thoughts, feelings, and situations that are related to the trauma. Exposure therapy is a type of therapy that helps you decrease distress about your trauma. This therapy works by helping you approach trauma-related thoughts, feelings, and situations that you have been avoiding due to the distress they cause. Repeated exposure to these thoughts, feelings, and situations helps reduce the power they have to cause distress.
February 6, 2013 at 12:17 am
Ok…A) given that this is put out by the DOD about PTSD, I don't know that I really consider it an objective opinion. B) I understand the coping mechanism of 'reliving' thoughts, feelings, and situations….but really loaded guns is a part of the situation? This is reliving, I don't think they needed to bring in Taliban insurgents to make it an authentic scenario, and I don't think they needed to use live rounds to make it authentic either.
February 6, 2013 at 12:41 am
A) 1) Beats the heck out of an isolationist making political hay from the death of someone who was following established treatments 2) beats someone that admits they have nothing at all to go off of beyond their own emotions.
B) 1) The information on the shooting I read indicated that the shooter took someone else's gun, 2) the trauma likely had more to do with holding and firing a loaded weapon.
Shockingly, some people think that ability to fire a weapon without flashbacks or fear is a rather important step in recovery, especially when that recover is their own. Veterans frequently take joy in exercising their second amendment rights, and do not wish to be hamstrung by emotional trauma.
February 6, 2013 at 12:50 am
Speaking of basic research, it's used for assault victim PTSD so much that new therapies are compared against it, and it's a decades old, established and known effective treatment.
If you've got a bias against the VA, you could try a basic internet search to see if it's, oh, a decades old treatment that has a high rate of effectiveness….
February 6, 2013 at 12:58 am
I'd think it would be a pretty basic step for a Catholic or even just someone familiar with traditional manners– but, when suggesting someone has responsibility for their own murder, one should make VERY sure that one is not slandering the dead out of ignorance of a common treatment.
February 6, 2013 at 2:02 am
Also, Chris, Ron Paul is an OB/GYN, not a psychiatrist, so his medical opinion carries no more weight than that of a moderately well-informed layman.