Category: Claims Analysis

PTSD Claims – Pinkpineapples23

“But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenalinesharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers.”

  • This is a categorical claim because she named the “skills” as examples, when they are actually symptoms of PTSD. Which could also make this a categorical claim.

 

“He’s on of 103,200, or 228,875, or 336,00 Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and came back with PTSD, depending on whom you ask, and one of 115,00 to 456,00 with traumatic brain injury.”

  • This a factual claim. The author provides the number of Americans who served that came back with PTSD. This can also be an Evaluative claim because even though she states how many Americans served she goes on and says, “Depending on whom you ask.” That means that some would agree, and some wouldn’t.

 

“Imagine there’s a murderer in your house. And it is dark outside, and the electricity is out. Imagine your nervous system spiking, readying you as you feel your muscles, the alertness shooting around inside your skull. And then imagine feeling like that all time.”

  • This is a Causal claim. It tells the effect of if there was a murder in your house and how your body would be feeling at the moment. It would also be a categorical claim, the author says, “Imagine feeling like that all time.” Which gives off the way people with PTSD feel like at times.

 

“Hypervigilance sounds innocuous, but it is in fact exhaustingly distressing, a conditioned response to life-threatening situations.”

  • This is a causal claim. It shows the cause and effect, the life-threating situations would be the cause and the hypervigilance which is exhaustingly distressing.

PTSD Claims- PeterBomersbach

“Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.”

– This is an evaluative claim because whoever is narrating the situation just assumed that  Brannan would catch the same symptoms as Caleb since he has been home a while. The evaluations of Brannan catching symptoms from Caleb could be completely wrong.

“The house, in a subdivision a little removed from one of many shopping centers in a small town in the southwest corner of Alabama, is often quiet as a morgue.”

– This is a Factual claim because evidence proves that the house is very quite often due to the distance it is away from one of the many shopping centers.

“When a sound erupts—Caleb screaming at Brannan because she’s just woken him up from a nightmare, after making sure she’s at least an arm’s length away in case he wakes up swinging—the ensuing silence seems even denser.”

– This is a casual claim because it is a cause and effect. The cause is Brennan wakeing up from a nightmare screaming and the effect is Caleb screaming at Brennan due to her waking him up.

“Their German shepherd, a service dog trained to help veterans with PTSD, is ready to alert Caleb to triggers by barking, or to calm him by jumping onto his chest. 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.”

– This is a factual claim because the dog is trained to bark or jump on Caleb’s chest when the German Sherpard senses something.

 

PTSD Claims – muggastackz

Brannan Vines has never been to war, but her husband, Caleb, was sent to Iraq twice, where he served in the infantry as a designated marksman. He’s one of 103,200, or 228,875, or 336,000 Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and came back with PTSD, depending on whom you ask, and one of 115,000 to 456,000 with traumatic brain injury.

  1. This is a quantitative claim. These numbers don’t reflect back on Caleb having PTSD. There isn’t enough evidence to prove that he is one of the men who have from serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
  2. These numbers jump from one to another. What makes each number different from the next? The statistical data doesn’t make sense to use as evidence to prove that PTSD is contagious.

Imagine your nervous system spiking, readying you as you feel your way along the walls, the sensitivity of your hearing, the tautness in your muscles, the alertness shooting around inside your skull. And then imagine feeling like that all the time.

3. This is a factual claim. The author is trying to show the effects of how PTSD works and what it’s like to live with PTSD. She wants the reader to understand the symptoms of what Caleb deals with every day.

4. This claim could be beneficial when evaluating if PTSD is contagious or not. This piece of writing could also be helpful when trying to get others who don’t have PTSD to see what someone who is diagnosed with PTSD.

She has not, unlike military wives she advises, ever been beat up. Nor jumped out of her own bed when she got touched in the middle of the night for fear of being raped, again.

5. This is a comparative claim. She groups herself with other military housewives. Some of these military housewives may also be experiencing their spouses PTSD like Brannan does.

6. She explains that she hasn’t been abused or beaten up by her husband and has never felt scared to be around him.

You can’t see Caleb’s other wound, either. It’s called traumatic brain injury, or TBI, from multiple concussions. In two tours, he was in at least 20 explosions—IEDs, vehicle-borne IEDs, RPGs.

7.  This is a definition claim. This explains what a traumatic brain injury and how they are found upon which is due to multiple concussions.

8. This is also a Numerical Claim. “In two hours, he was in at least 20 explosions.”  This claim shows the number of explosions in a certain amount of time.

PTSD Claims – jokerthefool

It’s hard to say, with the lack of definitive tests for the former, undertesting for the latter, underreporting, under or over-misdiagnosing of both

  • This is a casual claim
  • She says that we as a society lack the means to have a definite number of people returning from the war with trauma.
  • The way she states it is in a negative manner, suggesting we should have a method of some kind to get a definite answer.

Now, he’s rounder, heavier, bearded, and long-haired, obviously tough even if he weren’t prone to wearing a COMBAT INFANTRYMAN cap, but still not the guy you picture when you see his “Disabled Veteran” license plates.

  • This is an evaluative claim
  • She says that this isn’t the guy “you” would picture. And its true because she playing upon the fact that most of us have a preconceived image of what a “disabled veteran” looks like.
  • She does this to show a point that PTSD and symptoms of it aren’t necessarily visible. It’s not something that only happens to people we see as “disabled veterans” in our minds

,the British Ministry of Defence pardoned some 300 soldiers who had been executed for cowardice and desertion during World War I, having concluded that many were probably just crippled by PTSD.

  • This is a numerical claim
  • This claim relies on the number 300 to help illustrate the lack of respect of people with PTSD due to misdiagnosing and lack of understanding.
  • This point does an adequate job of conveying just how many people can effected by the lack of understanding of PTSD

The result of a malfunctioning nervous system that fails to normalize after trauma and instead perpetrates memories and misfires life-or-death stress, for no practical reason, it comes in a couple of varieties, various complexities,

  • This is a definition claim
  • This claim is kind of a sneaky way to define what PTSD without saying “PTSD is…”
  • It helps the author support how complex PTSD and how its understandable why its tricky to diagnose

PTSD Claims- veleze22

“Brannon Vines has never been to war. But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers.”

 

  1. This is a categorical claim because she named several examples of obvious PTSD symptoms but referred to them as “skills”.
  2. These are not skills. They are symptoms of PTSD.

 

“He’s one of the 103,200, or 228,875, or 336,000 Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and came back with PTSD, depending on whom you ask, and one of 115,000 to 456,000 with traumatic brain injury.”

 

  1. This is a factual claim because the conditions do exist beyond doubt, hundreds of thousands of Americans who fought have been diagnosed after coming back.
  2. It has been proven that PTSD is commonly found in soldiers after battle.

 

“And as slippery as all that is, even less understood is the collateral damage, to families, to schools, to society—emotional and fiscal costs borne long after the war is over.”

 

  1. This is a causal claim because the author is telling the consequences a person with PTSD can bring to the environment.
  2. More information could have been provided but we get the point of what PTSD can cause.

 

“The house, in a subdivision a little removed from one of many shopping centers in a small town in the southwest corner of Alabama, is often quiet as a morgue. You can hear the cat padding around.”

 

  1. This is an analogy claim because the silence in the house is being compared to a morgue. It’s so silent you can hear the cat moving.
  2. Silence is a negative effect for people with PTSD. All the surrounding sounds trigger the person all at the same time.

 

End of one hour

 

PTSD Claims- 3g

“Even doctors can’t say for sure exactly why he has flashbacks, why he could be standing in a bookstore when all of a sudden he’s sure he’s in Ramadi, the pictures in his brain disorienting him among the stacks, which could turn from stacks to rows of rooftops that need to be scanned for snipers.”

-This is an evaluative claim as it looks into the severity and the mysteriousness of Caleb’s condition. They are insinuating that his condition is much more severe and un-comprehendible than the majority of people who suffer from PTSD.

“Some hypotheses for why PTSD only tortures some trauma victims blame it on unhappily coded proteins, or a misbehaving amygdala.”

-This is a factual claim because it states a scientific theory or hypothesis to explain the cause of PTSD and does not make any innuendos from personal opinions or beliefs.

“She certainly looks like a normal kid when she comes down from her room dressed for tap class. In a black leotard, pink tights, and shiny black tap shoes, she looks sweet as pie.”

-This is a comparative claim, in this claim, Katie is being compared to a normal, happy child rather than seeing the mental trauma that she endures.

“Vets make up 7 percent of the United States, they account for 20 percent of its suicides—or that children and teenagers of a parent who’s committed suicide are three times more likely to kill themselves,”

-This is a factual claim because it again states numerical data that is backed by studies and is not based on opinion. This claim remarks on the fact that veterans have an astronomically high suicide rate, and that their conditions even effect their families.

 

PTSD Claims- ivonid12

  1. “He’s one of 103,200, or 228,875, or 336,000 Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and came back with PTSD, depending on whom you ask, and one of 115,000 to 456,000 with traumatic brain injury.”

This is a factual claim, as the author uses direct evidence to show who they are talking about with a statistic to explain their past. While not every Iraq or Afghanistan War Veteran has PTSD, the man we are talking about does. He also is one with a traumatic brain injury.

2. “Brannan Vines has never been to war. But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers.”

This is a categorical claim to start off the article. While the person the article is mentioning here doesn’t have PTSD herself, the article uses a categorical claim to explain how she developed PTSD like symptoms. It also explains every symptom of a person who suffers from PTSD in the article, such as hyper awareness, and quick reflexes.

3.  “Different studies of the children of American World War II, Korea, and Vietnam vets with PTSD have turned up different results: “45 percent” of kids in one small study “reported significant PTSD signs”; “83 percent reported elevated hostility scores.”

This, once again, is a factual as it uses actual statistics to prove what was previously stated. The example here would be that 45% of those who were children to WW2 or Korean War vets showed signs of PTSD while 83% showed signs of hostility.

4.  “We await the results of the 20-year, 10,000-family-strong study of impacts on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ kin, the largest of its kind ever conducted, that just got under way.”

This is a numerical claim, as it claims a number of how many families have provided help for the research into war families  with PTSD. The article claims around 10,000 families have helped create better research on the topic of PTSD.

5.  “That was the impetus for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program, which since 2005 has added 70 therapists to military installations around the country.”

Another factual and numerical claim, as it gives a number to how many therapists have been added to the military since 2005. The claim states over 70 have been added since 2005.

6. “She sleeps a maximum of five hours a night, keeps herself going with fast food and energy drinks, gets Katie to and from school and to tap dance and art, where Katie produces some startlingly impressive canvases, bright swirling shapes bisected by and intersected with other swaths of color, bold, intricate.”

This is both a categorical claim and a factual  claim as it states a fact on the sleep schedule of who the article is talking about, and states the certain qualities of her current life style. It is a fact that this is currently how this person’s life is going, and it is categorical, stating that she basically lives off fast food,  energy drinks, and no sleep.

1 hour

PTSD Claims – CarsonWentz11

(1)  Imagine there’s a murderer in your house. And it is dark outside, and the electricity is out. Imagine your nervous system spiking, readying you as you feel your way along the walls, the sensitivity of your hearing, the tautness in your muscles, the alertness shooting around inside your skull. And then imagine feeling like that all the time.

-This whole section is a long analogy claim, along as a categorical claim.  The author lists the symptoms of PTSD that Caleb Vines faces because of his mental illness.  Besides just listing his symptoms, the author compares his symptoms to the nervous and scared feelings one would get at a murder house.

(2)He’s one of 103,200, or 228,875, or 336,000 Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and came back with PTSD, depending on whom you ask, and one of 115,000 to 456,000 with traumatic brain injury. 

-The author uses a numerical claims when he mentions the amount of soldiers who came back with PTSD and TBI, who served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

-When the author states “depending on who you ask,” it means that the definition of TBI is not exact and doctors may have different diagnoses for it.

(3) Even doctors can’t say for sure exactly why he has flashbacks, why he could be standing in a bookstore when all of a sudden he’s sure he’s in Ramadi, the pictures in his brain disorienting him among the stacks, which could turn from stacks to rows of rooftops that need to be scanned for snipers.

-This quote is a causal claim.  Even though the quote states that the doctors don’t know the exact reason for these flashbacks, we do know that the cause is this mental illness called PTSD.

(4) The divorce rate was twice as high for vets with PTSD as for those without. Vietnam vets with severe PTSD are 69 percent more likely to have their marriages fail than other vets.

-These two sentences are factual and causal claims.  These facts are used by the author to show the effects that PTSD causes in marriage relationships.

(5) The VA also endorses eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), which is based on the theory that memories of traumatic events are, in effect, improperly stored, and tries to refile them by discussing those memories while providing visual or auditory stimulus. 

-This quote is a definition and factual claim.  The author mentions (EMDR) and follows it with a factual definition of what the therapy is.

(6) Of the soldiers coming home with PTSD now, he says, “You need time. You need time, and perspective.”

-The use of the word “need” makes this a proposal claim that soldiers returning with PTSD need time and perspective.

PTSD Claims- Flowers3399

But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers.

  • This is a categorical claim.
  • It is listing the symptoms that come along with PTSD.
  • The symptoms itself belong to category themselves.  

Brannan Vines has never been to war.

  • This is a definition claim
  • It is defining that Brannan has never been to war.

He’s one of 103,200, or 228,875, or 336,000 Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and came back with PTSD

  • This is a factual claim.
  • It is stating the number of veterans who come back with PTSD.
  • The numbers are not able to be disputed.

Hypervigilance sounds innocuous, but it is in fact exhaustingly distressing, a conditioned response to life-threatening situations.

  • This is a causal claim.
  • The claim is able to be seen as a cause and effect.
  • Hypervigilance would be the effect and a life-threating situation would be the cause.  

Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.

  • This is a causal claim.
  • In a way, it can be read as having a cause and effect.
  • Caleb being home for a while has allowed for his wife to have similar symptoms which would be the effect.

PTSD claims – roc050

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.