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Oct 30, 2019, 11:38 PM
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Member Since: Oct 2019
Location: You'll never know
Posts: 940
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Dear Administration and Moderators:
I'm requesting a MST PTSD Subforum Request under the PTSD Forum.
The rationale is that there's a "Combat PTSD" Subforum but no "MST PTSD" forum. Those two disorders are handled differently at the VA, and they are categorized differently for service-connected disabilities. Furthermore, "CPTSD" and "PTSD" in general do not always cover the specific dealings of military sexual trauma (MST), which includes career-related losses, adulthood traumas (as opposed to childhood traumas), PTSD treatments offered to veterans, males who have experienced MST PTSD, females who have experienced MST PTSD, and transgender or other non-cisgendered-identified persons in the military who have experienced MST PTSD.
At the VA, they specifically distinguish between MST PTSD and COMBAT PTSD. There are also other forms of PTSD at the VA, but such are not discussed or addressed that frequently.
Having a specific forum for MST PTSD will best support us veterans, myself included, who have dealt with feelings of betrayal as adults, losses related to careers and reputation, homecoming issues related to feelings of shame, loss of culture in the military we were so proud to serve, misdiagnoses for those who received less than honorable discharges, moral injuries affiliated with secrecy, and those like me who were honorably discharged without any records of mental disorders until much later when the effects of MST PTSD sinked in. I'm sure there are more military-specific issues that can be discussed in a forum for MST survivors, but I wanted to paint a picture of the primary benfits of support we could offer one another.
Additionally, for us veterans, we consider the military our "fictive kin," or "family." But for us who have experienced MST, specifically, we sometimes feel disconnected from that "family." Culturally speaking, a forum for MST PTSD would help us veterans to feel supported and reconnected to our "family." Unlike COMBAT PTSD, we aren't praised for our heroic deeds in surviving MST PTSD; instead, we are sometimes shunned for reporting it, told we are "less than," etc. I've met many fellow veterans in my day, and although many combat veterans have been wonderful supports to me, there were a few who were outright rude and mean to me. It's important to discuss those issues, too, IMHO.
That expressed, can you deliberate and consider whether or not an MST PTSD subforum would be helpful for us?
Thank you for your time and consideration. 
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