Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.
This is a causal claim. The writer implies that the longer you are around someone with PTSD the more likely you are to “catch” if from them. This also implies that PTSD is in fact contagious. However can it actually be proven that the symptoms of PTSD can be spread from one person to another.
in soldiers, the incidence of PTSD goes up with the number of tours and amount of combat experienced.
The author seems to try to make a factual claim. And it may be, but he or she does not back up the claim with any numbers or studies to prove so. Without proof makes it seem more like an opinion. It really is a causal claim, for instance the more tours soldiers have the more likelihood of PTSD occurrence. Also the use of the word soldier here is misleading. Is the author generalizing all military members as soldiers, or just speaking about army members. For example Marines are marines, Air Force are Airmen, Navy are Sailors, and Army are soldiers. Is it just soldiers that have increase PTSD based on numbers of tours and combat situations or is it all military members. This also falls in the category of a numerical and comparative claims.
This PTSD picture is worse than some, but much better, Brannan knows, than those that have devolved into drug addiction and rehab stints and relapses.
The author uses a comparative claim here. She compares one PTSD picture to another. implying there a various different levels of PTSD. Just because one person uses drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism doesn’t make his or her PTSD worse than another.
Counterintuitive 