God, the Army, and PTSD

[midcan5]

I was watching the World War II series on the History channel and a soldier mentioned how the war cost him his faith. It has always surprised me how people can view the horror of the world and still have faith. Consider only the Holocaust or even Shock and Awe.

'Is religion an obstacle to treatment?' Tara McKelvey

"During the Iraq war, however, the great difficulty veterans experienced in getting psychiatric care—greater than before—was not a product of cost-cutting, but of conviction: many Bush administration officials believed that soldiers who supported the war would not face psychological problems, and if they did, they would find comfort in faith. In a resigned tone, one prominent researcher who worked for the VA, and asked that he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press, explained that high-ranking officials believed that “Jesus fixes everything.” Benimoff and the others who returned with devastating psychological injuries found a faith-based bureau within the VA. At veterans’ hospitals, chaplains were conducting spirituality assessments of patients."

Boston Review — Tara McKelvey: God, the Army, and PTSD

 

[Si modo]

Some also find their faith in combat.

 

[waltky]

New eyes take a fresh look at PTSD...

Ex-Army nurse on a quest for more research on PTSD treatment
April 6, 2013 — Retired Lt. Col. Linda Fletcher, a 22-year veteran of the Army Nurse Corps, thinks it’s time to ask different questions about post-traumatic stress disorder that afflicts many returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

What if the medical diagnostic definition of PTSD is not comprehensive enough? What if, as a result, current treatments that have been used since World War II have limited success? Fletcher, who now lives in Long Lake Township, has spent the last six years researching PTSD and treatments on her own. She will teach a two-session Northwestern Michigan College extended education class later this month. PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying and/or tragic event — war, combat, catastrophe and abuse of all kinds. Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety and uncontrollable thoughts about the event. Timely diagnosis and effective treatment have become a major national concern. Statistics tell why.

A U.S. military veteran commits suicide every 65 minutes, on average, according to the most recent Department of Veterans Affairs study. About 22 veterans committed suicide each day in 2010. Nearly 30 percent of the veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD and 50 percent of those with PTSD do not seek treatment. Female veterans are particularly likely to suffer from mental health issues. According to the VA, about one in five female veterans have post-traumatic stress related to "military sexual trauma," a catch-all category that includes everything from sexual harassment to rape.

Fletcher said she is concerned about the long-term effect PTSD will have on the vets, their families and American society. “What we are doing doesn’t work,” she said. “ We’re still treating people from World War II and Vietnam. It’s incredibly expensive and there is a lot of collateral damage — drug and alcohol abuse, inability to hold a job, homelessness, suicide, fractured homes. All of this drains on the resources of society. It’s a huge problem and it’s just getting bigger.”

She thinks the current medical definition of PTSD fails to cover the full range of dissociative symptoms veterans suffer. It also does not address psychological/spiritual symptoms such as deep shame, guilt and rage that can come out of combat experiences. PTSD is defined as an “anxiety disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association and used by Veterans Administration doctors to diagnose returning soldiers. “There is increasing reference in national and international reference to broadening the PTSD definition to encompass the dissociative aspects of post-traumatic stress,” Fletcher said.

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[whitehall]

Count on hate filled lefties to focus on the negative. If you stayed for the entire WW2 series you would have found that a lot of Soldiers find their faith under combat conditions. As they said in the first war to end all wars "there are no atheists in the trenches". Of course there were some fakers like Al Gore who couldn't take the the pressure of the typewriter corps in Vietnam and went to the Chaplain to get an early out.

 

[Katzndogz]

What is it that has happened to men to make them the way they are? At one time war was really war, hand to hand combat with swords, spears, axes and morning stars. After the victory the men went home, took care of their families, worked and raised their children to be relatively decent human beings. Today, men push a button and kill small numbers of individuals from hundreds if not thousands of miles away. They go home have to take drugs and drink, they beat their wives and children, kick the dog and claim they have PTSD. How did they get so weak? At the battle of Agincourt 6,000 English slaughtered 36,000 French in hand to hand combat. That's cutting off limbs personally, bashing in heads personally. No PTSD, the farmers went back to farming. The shopkeepers went back to keeping shops. Again, what the hell happened to men?

 

[9thIDdoc]

What is it that has happened to men to make them the way they are? At one time war was really war, hand to hand combat with swords, spears, axes and morning stars. After the victory the men went home, took care of their families, worked and raised their children to be relatively decent human beings. Today, men push a button and kill small numbers of individuals from hundreds if not thousands of miles away. They go home have to take drugs and drink, they beat their wives and children, kick the dog and claim they have PTSD. How did they get so weak? At the battle of Agincourt 6,000 English slaughtered 36,000 French in hand to hand combat. That's cutting off limbs personally, bashing in heads personally. No PTSD, the farmers went back to farming. The shopkeepers went back to keeping shops. Again, what the hell happened to men?

Bullshit. I was a medic with a Mech. Infantry Bn. And most of our fighting took place within archery range. And you are very much mistaken if you think modern weapons are any less brutal than any that came before. If you understood the first thing about PTSD you would know that it is a disorder that has been around as long as people have been waging war.
If you want to accuse someone of being "weak" why not do it to their face? I suspect you might reconsider your opinion. Assholes like you spewing bullshit are a reason that some who need help try to get by without it. You do your little bit to keep the suicide numbers high. Congratulations. It's easy to talk about combat when the most violent thing you've ever had to do was assault a little ball with a club. Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk.

 

[waltky]

Gov't. givin' PTSD veterans the run-around...

PTSD review patients struggle to amend records
September 8, 2013 Aaron Ostrum and his wife thought they got a blessing early last year when the Army reconsidered the former soldier’s mental health records and changed his diagnosis to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The couple believed the adjusted diagnosis more accurately reflected the psychological toll of his experiences inspecting mass graves in Bosnia and serving on security details in Baghdad. They expected the PTSD diagnosis would get him better care and more money in monthly disability benefits to support his family. A year and a half later, they have the PTSD diagnosis in hand, but they’re still struggling to get the Army to follow through with changes to his service records and retirement benefits. “What else do they want? I don’t understand,” the former Washington National Guard specialist said in an interview at his Pierce County house.

Ostrum, 35, was one of more than 400 military service members and veterans called back to Madigan Army Medical Center in early 2012 amid concerns that doctors there had improperly diagnosed PTSD in such a way that soldiers received fewer benefits than they deserved. Patients met with doctors from other hospitals in what the Army called a fusion cell at Madigan. Of that group, 158 left the process with new diagnoses for service-connected PTSD. The Army says 13 of them still have unresolved cases in terms of diagnoses or final adjustments to their retirement benefits.

If they were still in uniform, the Army was able to get patients immediate care and make adjustments to their service records, a spokesman for the Western Regional Medical Command said. But veterans such as Ostrum who had retired before going to the hospital for their reviews had more trouble. They were given a memorandum on how to have the Army update their service records and then left to figure out the next steps on their own.

Help from D.C.

 

[editec]

I'm of the opinion that about half the world suffers from PTSD.

It isn't just something one gets in combat.

It is exactly what is is called: post-TRAUMATIC stress disorder.

I think a whole lot of non-combat related DEPRESSION in civilians is also PTSD.

Every HATIAN I ever met had it and most of the children of the very poor had symptoms of it, too.

Victims of long term domestic violence often have it, abused children have it etc etc.

 

[waltky]

Mefloquine & PTSD...

Federal officials issue strong new warning about anti-malaria drug
August 2, 2013 — Federal drug officials have issued a strong new warning about a controversial anti-malaria medication once routinely given to U.S. troops, some of whom say it damaged them permanently.

The Food and Drug Administration ordered manufacturers of mefloquine hydrochloride to give the medicine a black box label, the agency's strongest warning, reserved for drugs with significant risks of serious side effects. The FDA said that some neurological and psychiatric side effects can last for months or years after a patient stops taking the drug. The medication was approved by the FDA in 1989 under the brand name Larium and quickly became a leading drug for preventing and treating malaria — among travelers and the military. While other drugs must be taken daily, one tablet a week of mefloquine offers protection against the sometimes-deadly mosquito-borne parasite, including against strains that are resistant to other medications.

But the drug has long carried warnings tying it to dizziness, seizures, insomnia, anxiety, depression and strange dreams. One clinical trial found that 29% of travelers who took mefloquine experienced at least one of those side effects. There is also evidence suggesting a link to violent behavior, including suicide. Amid growing concerns, the drug fell out of favor over the last decade. Roche, its original manufacturer, stopped selling Larium in the U.S. in 2008. The generic versions still on the market accounted for 226,000 of the 5.4 million U.S. prescriptions for anti-malaria drugs last year, according to IMS Health, which tracks drug trends.

Marines with Ground Combat Element, Security Cooperation Task Force Africa Partnership Station 2011 take doxycycline in accordance with a weekly dosage of mefloquine to prevent the spread of malaria.

The Pentagon, which used the drug widely in Somalia and during the early years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, offered little explanation when it began scaling back its reliance on mefloquine and eventually recommended that the drug be used only as a third choice. Military officials continued to dismiss the claims of veterans who insisted that the side effects could be long-lasting. The new FDA warning provided those veterans a sense of validation. "I almost fell out of my chair when [the news] was forwarded to me," said Greg Alderete, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who blames his chronic balance and memory problems on the drug, which he took while serving in Somalia in 1993.

Alderete said that in 2008 he started to suspect mefloquine after connecting with other veterans of Somalia who were experiencing similar symptoms. He eventually helped launch a Facebook group, Veterans Against Larium, which now has more than 1,100 members. He said most served in Somalia, but the group has also attracted veterans from other wars. Alderete acknowledged that his depression, anger and anxiety could be the result of post-traumatic stress disorder, with which he was diagnosed. But his chronic dizziness and nausea and an inability to remember words are less easily explained. "There was a big gray zone," he said. "I'm not sure where mefloquine begins and PTSD ends."

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See also:

Medal of Honor recipient offers advice to troops about PTSD and surviving war
April 23, 2014 WASHINGTON — Former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White, who will be awarded the Medal of Honor next month, said troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder shouldn’t suffer in silence.

“There’s no shame in going and getting help,” White, who was diagnosed with PTSD before he left the military, said at a news conference Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C. The first thing that servicemembers with symptoms of PTSD need to do is reach out and get help, he said. “These servicemembers need to realize that they went to war and they made it back, but they might have some scars remaining. Reach out to your chain of command, and they will help you get the treatment that you need. If I can do it … then there’s no reason they can’t as well.”

Sgt. Kyle J. White will receive the Medal of Honor on May 13, 2014.

He said getting troops to come forward and tell people they’re suffering is perhaps the biggest challenge to tackling the mental health issues that many combat veterans face. The treatment and assistance programs are out there, he said. “But I think it’s just those first steps — that servicemember who needs help coming forward and actually admitting, ‘Hey, I need to go see somebody’ — that’s the issue that needs to be addressed, I believe.” White, 27, will receive the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest award for military valor — for his actions during a dismounted movement in mountainous terrain in Aranas, Afghanistan, on Nov. 9, 2007.

White was serving as a Platoon Radio Telephone Operator assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, when his team of U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers were set up and ambushed by a much larger, more heavily armed Taliban force after a meeting with Afghan villagers. During a marathon battle, he exposed himself to heavy enemy fire and risked his life numerous times to help his wounded comrades. By the time the fight in Aranas ended, six U.S. servicemembers had been killed. White paid tribute to his fallen comrades at the news conference.

MORE

 

[whitehall]

I was watching the World War II series on the History channel and a soldier mentioned how the war cost him his faith. It has always surprised me how people can view the horror of the world and still have faith. Consider only the Holocaust or even Shock and Awe.

'Is religion an obstacle to treatment?' Tara McKelvey

"During the Iraq war, however, the great difficulty veterans experienced in getting psychiatric care—greater than before—was not a product of cost-cutting, but of conviction: many Bush administration officials believed that soldiers who supported the war would not face psychological problems, and if they did, they would find comfort in faith. In a resigned tone, one prominent researcher who worked for the VA, and asked that he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press, explained that high-ranking officials believed that “Jesus fixes everything.” Benimoff and the others who returned with devastating psychological injuries found a faith-based bureau within the VA. At veterans’ hospitals, chaplains were conducting spirituality assessments of patients."

Boston Review — Tara McKelvey: God, the Army, and PTSD

"The war cost him his faith?? Al gore allegedly found his faith in Vietnam and promised the Chaplain that he would become a priest if only he could get out of the dangerous typewriter corps.

 

[Moonglow]

I was watching the World War II series on the History channel and a soldier mentioned how the war cost him his faith. It has always surprised me how people can view the horror of the world and still have faith. Consider only the Holocaust or even Shock and Awe.

'Is religion an obstacle to treatment?' Tara McKelvey

"During the Iraq war, however, the great difficulty veterans experienced in getting psychiatric care—greater than before—was not a product of cost-cutting, but of conviction: many Bush administration officials believed that soldiers who supported the war would not face psychological problems, and if they did, they would find comfort in faith. In a resigned tone, one prominent researcher who worked for the VA, and asked that he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press, explained that high-ranking officials believed that “Jesus fixes everything.” Benimoff and the others who returned with devastating psychological injuries found a faith-based bureau within the VA. At veterans’ hospitals, chaplains were conducting spirituality assessments of patients."

Boston Review — Tara McKelvey: God, the Army, and PTSD

"The war cost him his faith?? Al gore allegedly found his faith in Vietnam and promised the Chaplain that he would become a priest if only he could get out of the dangerous typewriter corps.

 

[Moonglow]

Count on hate filled lefties to focus on the negative. If you stayed for the entire WW2 series you would have found that a lot of Soldiers find their faith under combat conditions. As they said in the first war to end all wars "there are no atheists in the trenches". Of course there were some fakers like Al Gore who couldn't take the the pressure of the typewriter corps in Vietnam and went to the Chaplain to get an early out.

No lefties, just you two, negative Nelly's.

"The war cost him his faith?? Al gore allegedly found his faith in Vietnam and promised the Chaplain that he would become a priest if only he could get out of the dangerous typewriter corps.

What is it that has happened to men to make them the way they are? At one time war was really war, hand to hand combat with swords, spears, axes and morning stars. After the victory the men went home, took care of their families, worked and raised their children to be relatively decent human beings. Today, men push a button and kill small numbers of individuals from hundreds if not thousands of miles away. They go home have to take drugs and drink, they beat their wives and children, kick the dog and claim they have PTSD. How did they get so weak? At the battle of Agincourt 6,000 English slaughtered 36,000 French in hand to hand combat. That's cutting off limbs personally, bashing in heads personally. No PTSD, the farmers went back to farming. The shopkeepers went back to keeping shops. Again, what the hell happened to men?