By Anu Bhagwati
Anu is a former Marine Corps Captain and SWAN’s first Executive Director.
Dear Friends of SWAN,
Our efforts to hold military leadership accountable for rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment in the ranks are making significant headway both in terms of litigation and legislative reform. However, bias against victims and a desire to sweep incidents under the rug remain a continued threat to victims and an obstacle to institutional progress.
I want to talk to you today about the issue of Personality Disorders. In recent weeks, SWAN has been hearing from increasing numbers of active duty women and men whose careers have ended after reporting their rapes and assaults. In these cases, servicemembers have been sexually assaulted, and then almost immediately after reporting their attacks, have been diagnosed by military medical providers with a “Personality Disorder.”
Why should we care? Personality Disorders make one ineligible for military service as well as veterans’ benefits. Rape and assault survivors who are diagnosed with this condition are then routinely discharged from service. Their careers end practically overnight.
What I want to emphasize here is that Personality Disorders are pre-existing conditions that do not appear out of the blue. As we have seen with combat veterans, sexual assault survivors are often times misdiagnosed with Personality Disorder, instead of being properly diagnosed with PTSD or another medical condition that accurately reflects their symptoms.
Let’s be clear. In the cases we are talking about, at both Military Academies and throughout the military itself, these are not diagnoses that correlate with the facts of a servicemember’s military or medical record. In fact, all evidence suggests in these cases that the diagnosis of a Personality Disorder is meted out to a military sexual assault survivor as retaliation. It appears to be a way for the military to get rid of troops who are simply reporting a violent crime committed by a fellow servicemember.
SWAN is working with legislators to ensure that the military will never again be able to get rid of sexual assault survivors as if they are dead weight. But we need your help. If you would be so kind as to forward these questions to your networks, so that we can properly examine and identify cases of negligence, we would be truly grateful:
- Are you a veteran who suffered a sexual assault while in the military and was subsequently diagnosed with a Personality Disorder by military medical personnel and discharged because of it?
- Do you consider your diagnosis itself to be a form of retaliation related to your sexual assault?
- Have you been denied VA benefits because of this diagnosis?
- Have you unsuccessfully attempted to have this diagnosis changed or removed from your records by consulting with another military doctor, a VA doctor, or a private mental health provider?
- Have you successfully had the diagnosis removed from your records and still had your disability claim denied by the VA even though you have another diagnosis (such as PTSD) that is related to military sexual assault?
If you answered YES to the first question AND any subsequent questions, please contact us at peersupport@servicewomen.org with your story.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Anu Bhagwati
Executive Director, Service Women’s Action Network
(Photo by Leah Hogsten)
I am one of the female service members this has happened to. I’ve been fighting the personality discharge for 8 years in November. Today I saw a message from Joshua Kors who shared the link for this, I’ve been in contact with him for some time about my story trying to get help with this. The DoD is coming after me for over $6k. Basically they want me to pay them because I was wrongfully discharged under personality disorder after reporting an NCO for sexual assault. Today I am diagnosed with PTSD and have been determined unemployable by VA. They have directly linked my PTSD to what happened to me while in service and the treatment I received from my chain of command afterward. I even tried to get a congressional investigation done and the military went and questioned my former first sergeant who shredded my report, he is now a sgt major, and he told them he had no recollection of anything. This kind of thing does happen and it should not be tolerated period.
An interesting idea, but one without any evidence that it is happening. Only a psychologist or psychiatrist can diagnose a personality disorder, and it must be justified based on established criteria. Only the commanding officer can determine that a service member has “failed to adapt”. Both are required to separate a Member. To inappropriately separate an assault victim this way would require a conspiracy among the doctors and CO on behalf of the assailant. This seems unlikely. However, Borderline Personality Disorder (the personality disorder most often cited as a reason for separation, since it also is associated with repeated suicide attempts), is, unfortunately associated (thought to be caused) by a history of childhood abuse, particularly sexual abuse.
That’s is exactly what my LOD report stated. “Failure to Adapt” “Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood Only” I was abused (sexually assaulted raped for 6 months) before I actually had a breakdown on my wedding anniversary and my COC took action. That was my LOD. I wasn’t about to be befowled on my anniversary and I knew he was going to try and entrap me then. It has been ver a year and I am still seeing a psychiatrist/psychologist biweekly. My case is still awaiting prosecution, as of now it is difficult for me to try to recall each and every event. I am not able to leave my home and have inquired with the Army National Guard to financially compensate for the crime done against me while deployed to Aghanistan and the ilnesses I have acquired from that. The “swept my requests under the rug” until my ETS time which was this past Aug. Now the Army National Guard claims no responsibility for their actions. The acice component has taken over my case. I hate the National Guard and all who enlist with them. They do not care about their Soldiers.
Stacy,
I personally understand. Can you say which state? I am wondering if it is the same as mine?
Susan
As a child I was a victim of sexual molestation and ended up in “the system”. Over multiple moves I was assaulted several times by various people (mostly men). At first I reported the incidents to other adults in authority. I was rarely believed, and was diagnosed with a personality disorder, among other things. In my late teens I heard back from people about several of the men I had attempted to shine the light on, and it turned out that other young women had come forward about sexual abuse they experienced at the hands of the same men. It’s an old tactic. If you can’t shut the victim up literally, then make their accusations seem like nonsense or lies to the rest of the world. And of course people are pre-disposed to believe their icons of authority instead of the word of a single victim. If they didn’t, it might mean their whole world view, perhaps even their source of support and structure could crumble under their feet. Kudos to you for the work you’re doing. It’s tough, but please don’t give up. And thank you for blogging visibly about it.