Rep. McDermott recalled a story where a former patient contacted him 40 years after seeing McDermott, when he was a military psychiatrist in Long Beach, California.
The man was still suffering from the long-term effects of post traumatic stress disorder after service in Vietnam. When he saw McDermott, the PTSD diagnosis did not exist, but the man -- 40 years on -- was still having terrible nightmares. The man was trying to seek help from the Veterans' Administration for this, but he couldn't, since the diagnosis in 1968 was not noted. McDermott had not diagnosed the man with mental illness for fear that the diagnosis would follow him and prevent life opportunities.
"I realized, then, that I was fighting stigma," McDermott said.
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