Are you calling me a white trash heathen? LOL. 
What soldiers see in the line of duty must be truly horrifying to witness and relive, and the diagnosis of PTSD is warranted.
I guess my point is that nearly every human being will witness something shocking, scary, and traumatic at some point in life. If someone chooses to use that as a crutch for the rest of their life is up to them. DUmmies seem to think that having a hangnail should qualify for a PTSD diagnosis.
Also, if you notice, most people who have PTSD don't talk about it very much.
You're right, it all depends on how the event effects the individual. Some people are more resilient than others and can just shrug it off. Some people don't and experience flashbacks or nightmares or insomnia. It really all depends on the person.
The difference, as I see, from a military standpoint is the nature of the stress. Since Vietnam, we don't really have a "front line" anymore: there's a real threat of constant danger all the time, no matter where you are in theater. That level of stress starts to fray the nerves after awhile. Then, after a tour, you rotate home knowing that you can rotate back in country in x months. That doesn't really allow for a proper decompression. That's why I think military PTSD should be differentiated from other diagnoses.
Sure, you're going to be traumatized if you see your mother shot in front of you. You're also going to be traumatized if you grow up in a household where the abusive step-fathers rotate in and out on a regular basis and you don't know where your next meal is coming from. What each person does to work through that determines how healthy or unhealthy that individual is going to be.
And you're right - real people suffering from PTSD don't talk about it much - it's embarrassing. It doesn't need to be but it is.
