Section 4

“Granted, diagnosing PTSD is a tricky thing.”

This is an Ethical claim, being that the process of diagnosing PTSD can be difficult

“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, has causes ranging from one lightning-fast event to drawn-out terrors or patterns of abuse”

This is a combination of Definition, and Factual claim. The sentence begins by defining what PTSD is and how one can get this mental disorder, the factual aspect is how the scientific explanation of one having PTSD is by going through a traumatic event where the nervous system and brain fail to comprehend/calm down creating ripples in the brain where anything that resembles the event will cause the person to experience an episode.

“in soldiers, the incidence of PTSD goes up with the number of tours and amount of combat experienced.”

This Quantitative claim states that the increase in PTSD diagnosis correlates to the number of times soldiers go on tours and experience combat.

“Doctors have to go on hunches and symptomology rather than definitive evidence.”

The word “have” makes this sentence a Recommendation/Proposal claim that doctors rely on hunches making the reader think that these scientists could be doing a poor job of diagnosing

“the fact that the science hasn’t fully caught up with the suffering, that Caleb can’t point to something provably, biologically ruining his life, just makes him feel worse. It’s invalidating.”

The keywords such as “suffering … ruining his life … feel worse … invalidating” lead towards the Ethical/Moral claim, creating an opportunity for the reader to have empathy for Caleb; who is going through PTSD and science can’t help him.

“Now if you’re knocked unconscious, or have double vision, or exhibit other signs of a brain injury, you have to rest for a certain period of time, but that rule didn’t go into effect in theater until 2010, after Caleb was already out of the service.”

This is a combination of Evaluative, Illustrative, and Ethical/Moral claims. After being diagnosed with PTSD, a ruling had been passed to prevent injuries or creating scary events, but it had already been too late for Caleb since the ruling got passed down after his service, this illustrates to the reader that if the ruling had been created earlier Caleb would suffer less. As a reader it makes you wish you could help and fight for those who suffer from PTSD and think of ways to prevent any more people from being affected by traumatic events.