A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
Without dedicated soldiers we could not enjoy the freedoms and way of life that we experience today. They lead on when all seems to be the contrary and the insurmountable becomes their triumphs. Testaments to the Corp, the Queen of Battle and to moral imperatives most will never understand.
That does not mean that there will be no conflicts, just that more will see their struggles as a way to grow instead of digress. For the veteran or soldier whose mind has been compartmentalized from complex PTSD, recovery can take years. I had to learn coping skills to deal with my mind wanting to constantly shut down, zone out or detach from emotions, people and life in general. By becoming aware of this automatic emotional response I can generally reverse the effects most of the time, unless I have been experiencing severe stress which I do not always realize.
In a combat environment overcoming the initial emotional crisis takes an ability to close off our humanity to engage in combat. We must develop a combat-values system with a preset conditional internal guidance system pre-programmed to engage within the “troop-organism.” Being removed from the protective feeling that this state of mind, the troop can develop a deep feeling of loss and guilt combined with a profound solitary disengagement from others who they now cannot identify with. Going from a deep sense of belonging and protection the troop gets the feeling of facing the world alone.
Some of our soldiers become stuck in this combat-mind state, and they seek behavior reminiscent of that combat edge, usually without realizing why. The combat-mind is one of survival and instantaneous decision making without much consideration to consequences. In society individuals stuck in this dysfunctional mode can find themselves having to deal with serious consequences.
None of this is an excuse for his behavior, but a foray into my behavior and an understanding of my actions. Thinking patterns and processes underlying our everyday activities and greatly influence our beliefs and emotional states. If we cannot examine them we will be led by them. By constantly challenging our beliefs we can become free from the rigid ideological military indoctrination and can engage in a meaningful exchange within our communities.
This is the beginning of a mental health epidemic for our Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans. Check out my blog as it chronicles my journey with PTSD and its effects on my life as it relates to what will be coming for our veterans coming home. We will see more of our veterans succumb to addiction, put in prison, commit suicide, or institutionalized, all a growing national trend that we need to face and overcome.
(9) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
![[UPDATE] The “Face” of Military Dating Scams – The Wall of Shame](http://militarygear.com/asp/wp-content/themes/LondonLive/thumb.php?src=http://militarygear.com/asp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/2.jpg&w=53&h=41&zc=1&q=100)
Anatomy of a Military Dating Scam
Lisa: I also met him on Are You Interested... and got the poems :-) If
Some Soldier's Mom
I do not doubt for a moment that there will be many soldiers who will suffer from some level of Post Traumatic Stress and some — but a much smaller number — will even suffer from a form so severe as to be characterized as a Disorder. However, so long as the services, soldiers (et al.) and their families are educated and remain vigilant — and access to care and level of care are funded, researched and developed (as to new treatments), we should be able to stave off any “epidemic”.
The oft-quoted Rand study (when quoted correctly) states that about 20% of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans will experience symptoms of PTSD. However, the same study says that about 3% will actually suffer from [full-blown] PTSD. And, yes, 3% of a million vets is a big number, but it is less than the 20% used casually by some.
SSgtJ
Some Soldier’s Mom, first, thank you for your ‘service’. The parents and loved ones of our service members serve in many ways that others do not understand.
You are quite correct. The numbers are often quoted way out of contect. Seems almost as if it is for political purposes, but it might just be for the shock value to try to get people to pay attention.
After living with my own PTSD, and working with hundreds of fellow veterans for over 40 years, I can honesty say that we as a nation can have a major impact on how many of those with symptoms actually develope the disorder.
Everyone knows that you can not effectively treat the individual unless you treat his/her environment. Instead of treating our veterans as the warriors they are (not heros and not villians), they are used as pawns by the media and the politicans.
Roman General
Just because a person does not have a diagnosis does not mean they do not have PTSD. If they have the symptoms they probably have PTSD.
Only around 60,000 soldiers and veterans have been diagnosed as having PTSD. Rand has also indicated that as many as 300,000 may have PTSD or other psychiatric disorders as a result of combat, around 18%. This does not include the late onset of PTSD, which I include in my totals which would bring the totals even higher. Many Vietnam veterans developed PTSD 2 to 20 years later.
If you would like I could attach the research to confirm that I am not try to exaggerate or inflame the numbers as a way to use anyone or casually throw numbers around.
Roman General
“[O]f the 1.64 million service members who had been deployed for OEF/OIF as of October 2007, we estimate that approximately 300,000 individuals currently suffer from PTSD or major depression and that 320,000 individuals experienced a probable TBI during deployment” (Rand, 2008, p. xxi).
I do believe that I was quoting the correct information.
SSgtJ
RG, I respect you massive work that you are putting into the research and education about PTSD in our veterans. Thank you.
Can you explain what you mean by the comment “we can become free from the rigid ideological military indoctrination”?
Roman General
And I respect your being a career soldier and thank you for your service. Welcome home brother.
With your being a career soldier,I understand that you probably took the military for what it was; a job, duty and an honor to serve, as most of the men and women in uniform.
Military indoctrination began after our military campaigns in Europe. Most of these combat veterans where drafted, trained and then sent to combat and afterward returned home to their life. After WWII, the military understood that they needed to have higher firing rates from their military if they were going to fight wars with smaller numbers of soldiers, as in Vietnam, so they ramped up the training to condition soldiers to become warriors and have little to no resistance to killing in combat. Firing rates increased in Vietnam to 90% and in Iraq and Afghanistan the firing rates were up to 95%. Additionally 68% of our soldiers in Iraq have engaged the enemy in firefights.
For the soldiers who has yet to fully form an identity this can become troublesome, as they would be predisposed to develop a warrior persona. Identifying as a warrior above all else, although an outstanding soldier in combat, this state of being puts the soldier at risk when retuning home. They have had the military training on how to be the best solder they can be, but on the return home they can no longer function as a member of society.
This is what happened to me, I was always looking for a fight, argument or some kind conflict. I am speaking of the 3% that Some Soldiers Mom was referring to, the chronically affected veteran or soldier who have been stricken with Complex-PTSD.
Support for my arguments are contained in my most recent paper.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Dissociation and Other Considerations
SSgtJ
No, I am not a career soldier.
I am sure that you have good documentation to show that this training change happened, but I can’t confirm it with any of my contacts. My WWII Marines and my current Marines report that training has been pretty much the same for the past 60 years.
Don’t want to argue with you. Just wanted to know where you are coming from.
SSgtJ
RG, like you, I like to look at both sides of anything.
Some are saying that our curent Veterans are actually responsible for LESS homocides than the population at large if you consider the demographics of the population.
You have certainly done more accademic research then I have so I ask you if these numbers incorrect?
Here is a link to some reseach on the subject.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30285
You may not agree with everything the author presents, but I am just asking about the research numbers.
Roman General
SSgtJ,
I would say that most of the data that I perused does match to what I have researched without double checking, of course. What this site does not take into account though is the maturing aspect of systemic societal problems. The crime data correlated with single mothers took decades to bloom to such proportions. Also, what the author does not say is that most of the policies that contributed to the plight of the single mother and their offspring sprung from the governmental policy of the 70′s through the 90′s.
Here are some troubling reports from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 1994, indicating the rise in the prison population from 1980 to 1994. Also we have here, Prisoners in 2007 indicating almost 1.6 million people in prison. Finally we have the report Veterans in State and Federal Prison, 2004, showing that in 1986 (20 years after the Vietnam War) a full 20% (approx 110,000) of the prison population were veterans and in 2004 this percentage had went down to 10%, which is misleading because our prison population increased to 2,267,787 and we locked away 226,778 of our veterans.
Twenty years after the Vietnam War saw a disproportionate number of our veterans put behind bars, as late as 2004 the percentage of Vietnam veterans rang in at 39% of the total of veterans and a full 57% of all veterans were serving time for violent offenses. As we can see our nation dismissing our veterans psychological issues from Vietnam was devastating and we still face those problems today. I fear with our nation dismissing the scale of the problem we face today will lead to another massive psychological conundrum of the future for our modern veterans.
We see that our country has a history of dismissing the veteran and attempting to parlay our problems as of our own making. It was just recently that after 17 years the US finally admitted that the Gulf War Syndrome is real and was likely caused by insecticides and an experimental drug that I myself was forced to take. Why would anyone actually believe the government today when they say all is well, no need to worry, we have it all under control?