"I used to like driving..."

Back From War, Fear and Danger Fill Driver’s Seat

I don't know one veteran that doesn't experience some kind of hyper-vigilance when certain things are observed while driving. Even if you don't notice it as a civilian, most veterans take notice of boxes and trash, potholes, dead animals, and anything hanging on a bridge that crosses the road they are driving under... because that is where IEDs were hidden (among other places).

Concern raised about meds and PTSD in vets

Same old problems it seems...


See also:

The Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Celexa, Effexor, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan, Restoril, Xanax, Adderall, Ritalin, Haldol, Risperdal... WAR

America's Medicated Army

28 Potential Suicides in August

One more reason why endless war is not a good idea.

Stigma of PTSD is costing U.S. lives

I couldn't agree with this op-ed more.

Clay Hunt

"He thought the world was supposed to be a better place than it is, and he lived every day of his life thinking, perhaps naively, that his efforts could make the world be what he thought it should be," Wood said.

When Hunt woke up every day and his efforts seemed in vain, that made him more depressed, Wood said.

GEN Carter Ham

I'm happy to see that he could seek help. The question is can lower ranking Officers and NCOs successfully do the same and keep their careers?

The Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Celexa, Effexor, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan, Restoril, Xanax, Adderall, Ritalin, Haldol, Risperdal... WAR

V.A. Easing Rules for Users of Medical Marijuana

This is not surprising given that both the military and the VA hand out stronger drugs than marijuana on a daily basis. Just drug those veterans up, send them to the VA clinic, and keep them out of sight from the general population of America.

Happy Memorial Day...

...here are some drugs.

Feeling Warehoused in Army Trauma Care Units

This is a spectacular article detailing the Army's ongoing problems. Here is an excerpt:

For many soldiers, they have become warehouses of despair, where damaged men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription pills and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers. Because of their wounds, soldiers in Warrior Transition Units are particularly vulnerable to depression and addiction, but many soldiers from Fort Carson’s unit say their treatment there has made their suffering worse.

This overmedication seems remarkably similiar to what I wrote about almost two years ago in June 2008:America's Medicated Army

Military Suicides Up Among Soldiers in Repeat Army Tours

This is not surprising since servicemembers are never given any time to get used to "normal" life before returning to the war zone, divorce rates are through the roof, and when war veterans leave the service they can't even find a job. They are pushed away from the non-draft "these wars don't affect me" society, a society that owes them everything, but gives them nothing, after dreaming non-stop, sometimes for years, of the great world they were to return to after serving in war. The let-down is depressing for any veteran. It is no wonder they would rather leave this world than continue in it. Below is a painting by Van Gogh, finished days before he shot himself; his last words were "the sadness will last forever."

On the Threshold of Eternity (1882)

Vincent Van Gogh

Women Warriors

Mental Stress Training Is Planned for Soldiers

I served under COL Williams and he is the perfect person to be charged with implementing this program. COL Williams is one of the few field grade officers that "got it." He cared about the development of his junior officers and genuinely cared about Soldiers' problems and the welfare of their families. He encouraged single junior officers to coach high school football, be involved with the community, and to have fun. He tried to show Soldiers that the Army can be fun when you are in garrison and not being shot at... the Army truly is a family. The former West Point football player moonlighted as a dance instructor and taught Justin Timberlake and hundreds of Army Officers how to dance. In sum, he built a spectacular team and it was an honor to serve under his command. Hopefully, he will be promoted after implementing this program. Soldiers will open up to him because of his personality and he will listen to their suggestions. There is hope for the Army afterall...

War’s Psychic Toll

Brilliant piece by Bob Herbert. I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Because we have chosen not to share the sacrifices of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrible burden of these conflicts is being shouldered by an obscenely small portion of the population. Since this warrior class is so small, the same troops have to be sent into the war zones for tour after harrowing tour.

As the tours mount up, so do the mental health problems. Combat is crazy-making to start with. Multiple tours are recipes for complete meltdowns.

Recent attempts by the military to deal with some of the most egregious aspects of its deployment policies have amounted to much too little, much too late. The RAND study found that approximately 300,000 men and women who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan were already suffering from P.T.S.D. or major depression. That’s nearly one in every five returning veterans.

The mass-produced tragedies of war go far beyond combat deaths. Behind the abstract wall of RAND’s statistics is the immense real-life suffering of very real people. The toll includes the victims of violence and drunkenness and broken homes and suicides. Most of the stories never make their way into print. The public that professes such admiration and support for our fighting men and women are not interested.

We’re brutally and cold-bloodedly sacrificing the psychological well-being of these men and women, which should be a scandal. If these wars are so important to our national security, we should all be engaging in some form of serious sacrifice, and many more of us should be serving.

But the country soothes its conscience and tamps down its guilt with the cowardly invocation: “Oh, they’re volunteers. They knew what they were getting into.”

When PTSD Comes Marching Home

Rivers Pitt concludes, that "any nation that cannot properly care for their veterans has no business making new ones. These, our newest generation of scarred soldiers, deserve far better than what they have received from the government and the nation they swore to defend. We sent them over there, and now they are marching home, some of them with Hell itself in their minds and hearts. They can, and must, be helped and healed. We must get them out of Iraq, get them out of Afghanistan, get them home and get them well. They deserve nothing less from us, and it is the very least we can do for them."

See also:
Clinic Shootings Highlight Mental Health Challenges for Military

-"nearly 30,000 [Soldiers] are on their third or fourth tour"

-"more than 27 percent of the NCOs surveyed on their third or fourth deployment reported depression, anxiety or acute stress"

-"overall, the Army's suicide rate reached a record level in 2008, surpassing 20 percent and exceeding that for the U.S. population"

The Primacy of Healing: Politics and Combat Stress in America

In my mind, the pertinent points are somehwat buried in the piece.

The trouble with combat stress (and the traumatic accounts that go with it) is its tendency to call into question the morality of military action. Regardless of the policies, the objectives, or the administrations that enact them, war's essence is challenged outright by the mere existence of combat stress. Upon witnessing the sundered consciousnesses of so many returning veterans and hearing about all the horrible things they endured and committed, one finds it difficult not to conclude that the battlefield must truly be a horrible place. Of course, the justness of war is not defined by its casualties alone, but when the moral compasses of young soldiers are spun to the point where they find it difficult to bear their own skins (as we've seen expressed in the record suicides of late), it leads to a natural suspicion about the moral direction of the war overall. And that is precisely the problem. Like it or not, combat stress is, in its own way, a political statement. It is a silent judgment of war (and of society), and that is why the understanding and treatment of it remain perpetually stifled...
All the while that this effort to segregate the veterans from their wars goes on, the very same veterans will be searching for meaning behind their war experiences, and they will inevitably reach politics because, as Karl Von Clausewitz notoriously points out, "war is the continuation of politics by other means." Whatever conclusions veterans arrive at in the aftermath, one can be sure they will be politically charged. To deny the ruminations of veterans on the grounds of "nonpartisanship" is, for one thing, to ignore the old adage that silence is consent; and for another, it is to prohibit those veterans from processing a major element of their torment. On the other hand, to embrace their political outbursts too fervently or to focus too narrowly on the partisan weight of their every word is to lose sight of the central process underway. That is what is happening now across the country.

Homeless Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans

Perhaps DoD will attempt to fix the problem in classifying veterans' disabilities when they leave the service. Instead of giving them a lower rating so they don't qualify for a retirement check and Tricare, perhaps they should... instead of just pushing them off onto the VA. "Oh the VA will take care of them," they think to themselves. Isn't the VA the same department that employs program coordinators that request staff refrain from diagnosing PTSD as much as they have been?

So if many veterans are receiving inadequate care and inaccurate mental health diagnoses perhaps this is a contributing factor towards a large homeless veterans population?! Just think of when in 30 years all of the veterans that have undiagnosed Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) start feeling the effects of all of the concussions that went unreported from IED attacks they experienced... we will have a crop of "punch drunk" homeless veterans on our hands.

This situation is occurring because the military industrial complex collectively said, "Hey, these vets chose to join and are looking for a handout... they should have just stayed in the military and done their 20 years. I did it, they should have too. None of those vets even go to college anyway, why should we support a new G.I. Bill? These vets going to the VA don't really have anything wrong with them. Screw them, their future career prospects, their mental health, and general well-being. Oh yeah, and no I don't have any money for a homeless vet. On another note, did I tell you that Northrop Grumman is making a new KC-45 Fuel Tanker for the Air Force? We NEED that fuel tanker NOW!!! Also, the ballistic missile defense shield just needs a trillion or so more dollars to be functional!!! Oh, did I tell you that right now I'm on (INSERT RETIRED GENERAL'S NAME HERE)'s team working on a new weapon system for (INSERT DEFENSE CONTRACTING COMPANY HERE) that should be ready by 2100 that can cripple the enemy using mind bullets - all without any collateral damage! By the way, do you want to go to the Army-Navy Club and get a round of golf in this weekend?"

America's Medicated Army

This article sums a problem with the ongoing conflict that noone thinks about on an everyday basis except maybe employers, who, in my opinion, are less inclined to hire war veterans because of the "crazy" stigma attached to them. "We can't hire him, he just got back from (insert America's current war - previously Vietnam, today Iraq/Afghanistan)." This is not a new phenomenon, but medicating the troops by the service itself so that they can continue to fight two draft-less wars is. Previously, troops would medicate themselves to deal with PTSD and anxiety disorders:

Here is an excerpt from "America's Medicated Army":

Nearly 30% of troops on their third deployment suffer from serious mental-health problems, a top Army psychiatrist told Congress in March. The doctor, Colonel Charles Hoge, added that recent research has shown the current 12 months between combat tours "is insufficient time" for soldiers "to reset" and recover from the stress of a combat tour before heading back to war.

Many are going on their third tour now... some their fourth and fifth. Add this to understrength units deploying, troops suffering from PTSD and anxiety disorders being medicated to continue to deploy, 3,000 captains leaving the Army, and a lack of field grade leadership seems to indicate an Army in crisis.

Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery

This was just released and I have not had a chance to read it (498 pages). This report is available for free download from RAND here.

Nearby Firing Ranges Complicate Soldiers' Recovery from Stress

This is as unbelievable to me as the VA psychologist who urged her staff to refrain from diagnosing PTSD in favor of adjustment disorder (See VA psychologist to staff: don't diagnose PTSD) and members of Congress voting against the "The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act" (Senate vote by member; House vote by member).