Незважаючи на існування ефективних методів лікування посттравматичного стресового
розладу (ПТСР), багато ветеранів АТО та ООС не звертаються по допомогу через стигму ПТСР,
наявну в українському суспільстві. Метод критичного дискурс-аналізу було застосовано
для з’ясування того, які дискурси про ПТСР наявні в українських медіа. Було виявлено, що дискурси,
поширені серед різних учасників надання допомоги ветеранам, по-різному визначають те, чим
прийнято вважати ПТСР у ветеранів АТО та ООС в Україні.
The war in Eastern Ukraine has been happening for more than five years. Many veterans of this conflict
are suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Despite the existence of effective PTSD treatment,
they do not seek help. The main reason for not seeking help is stigma. The most common view is that the
main reason for stigma is the military culture. The military culture is recognized as a discourse in this
article. One of the important ways of studying discourses is media analysis. The method of dispositive
analysis by Siegfried Jäger and Florentine Maier, which is a type of critical discourse analysis, was used to
examine discourses about PTSD among veterans of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) and Joint Forces
Operation (JFO) on the news website Censor.net. A thematic analysis of 46 articles from this website, which
contain at least one mention of the word ‘PTSD’, was conducted. This examination was enhanced by a
rhetoric review of the articles which were typical for the most frequent themes emerged in the data. The
results suggest that there are at least three ways of understanding PTSD in Ukrainian society. PTSD as a
way of understanding and explaining all the war and postwar experience among veterans; PTSD as a way
how volunteers and other people who help veterans treat veterans; and as a complex phenomenon as it is
understood by foreign and Ukrainian mental health professionals. All these attempts to understand the
essence of PTSD may define how it will be treated in Ukrainian society. For veterans, PTSD is a state of
mind and a way how they feel about the political situation in Ukraine. With such a mindset, they will
unlikely seek help. For volunteers, it is a condition of all veterans who return from war. From this point of
view, all veterans must pass rehabilitation. For mental health professionals, PTSD is a unique war experience,
and this view also differs from the way how veterans feel about and experience PTSD.
