PTSD AN ANCIENT ILLNESS

Sunday, May 14, 2006

HARTFORD, Conn. - U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness, a newspaper reported for Sunday editions.

The Hartford Courant, citing records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act and more than 100 interviews of families and military personnel, reported numerous cases in which the military failed to follow its own regulations in screening, treating and evacuating mentally unfit troops from Iraq.

In 1997, Congress ordered the military to assess the mental health of all deploying troops. The newspaper, citing Pentagon statistics, said fewer than 1 in 300 service members were referred to a mental health professional before shipping out for Iraq as of October 2005.

Twenty-two U.S. troops committed suicide in Iraq last year, accounting for nearly one in five of all non-combat deaths and the highest suicide rate since the war started, the newspaper said.

Some service members who committed suicide in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite clear signs of mental distress, sometimes after being prescribed antidepressants with little or no mental health counseling or monitoring, the Courant reported. Those findings conflict with regulations adopted last year by the Army that caution against the use of antidepressants for "extended deployments."

"I can't imagine something more irresponsible than putting a soldier suffering from stress on (antidepressants), when you know these drugs can cause people to become suicidal and homicidal," said Vera Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a New York-based advocacy group. "You're creating chemically activated time bombs."

Although Defense Department standards for enlistment disqualify recruits who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, the military also is redeploying service members to Iraq who fit that criteria, the newspaper said.

"I'm concerned that people who are symptomatic are being sent back. That has not happened before in our country," said Dr. Arthur S. Blank, Jr., a Yale-trained psychiatrist who helped to get post-traumatic stress disorder recognized as a diagnosis after the Vietnam War.

The Army's top mental health expert, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, acknowledged that some deployment practices, such as sending service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome back into combat, have been driven in part by a troop shortage.

"The challenge for us ... is that the Army has a mission to fight. And, as you know, recruiting has been a challenge," she said. "And so we have to weigh the needs of the Army, the needs of the mission, with the soldiers' personal needs."

Ritchie insisted the military works hard to prevent suicides, but said that is a challenge because every soldier has access to a weapon.

Commanders, not medical professionals, have final say over whether a troubled soldier is retained in the war zone. Ritchie and other military officials said they believe most commanders are alert to mental health problems and are open to referring troubled soldiers for treatment.

"Your average commander doesn't want to deal with a whacked-out soldier. But on the other hand, he doesn't want to send a message to his troops that if you act up, he's willing to send you home," said Maj. Andrew Efaw, a judge advocate general officer in the Army Reserves who handled trial defense for soldiers in northern Iraq last year.



I am not sure where this came from. I can only assume it came from a newspaper. It was sent by a group on line. That is the amazing thing about the net. People from all over the world can share information and support. When my husband came back from Vietnam, none of this was even a dream. The problem is that PTSD is still a nightmare. We have not come far enough since the first time man went to war with man.

Ancient people who could have coexisted and helped each other decided to kill instead. Ancient Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians and Romans, each recording the events in their histories and conquering but more they also recorded the price paid by the human mind.

We still have not come to terms with what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It has been known as the warriors lament, shell shock, among many other titles. The end result however, is the same. War never stops being fought after the action is over.

There are mental illnesses which are genetic mutations and often hereditary. And then there is PTSD. This begins with a trauma setting off a chain reaction of emotions, soon changing the chemical balances within the brain. It begins from outside the body. We have yet to recognize "normal mental illness" and accept it. We are miles away from accepting PTSD. I believe it is because deep inside this illness scares us the most. We know that the causes of PTSD require a traumatic event and we can all experience them. From the woman who is raped and becomes repelled by the thought of another person touching her, to the child who was beaten, to the resident of a neighborhood embroiled in gang violence, each can be so traumatized that they too become consumed by the events.

So how is it that in this age of medical advances we still have yet to accept PTSD for what it is? When will we ever learn that each of us are them? We live among people every day, some hardened by their lives, and some made more gentle by their lives. The troops and veterans are no different. Some return hardened to cope with what they went through. Some are so effected by it that they cannot find the peace they so desperately seek. It is those gentle souls who are the most touched by what they were forced to endure.

From the time man began to wage war, this happened and until the day man manages to wage peace it will continue to happen. When Vietnam required all of age to participate in the war, it was not the major issue with the evidence of PTSD and statistical data. It only made it harder for them to deal with along with the feelings of not wanting to be there at all. It was more the issue of the events. We see it repeated in Afghanistan today and more so in Iraq where there are no save zones. There are no safety nets in place and far too few back home.

The question is, what do we do about any of this? We know mankind may long for peace but other things manage to get in the way of the officials who are in the position to make peace. They are not interested in submitting whatever it takes to win peace when they see only the war to win and the enemy to defeat. Until the day we all learn to coexist with each other on this one planet we are destined to repeat the same requirements on the human soul of those we send to do our bidding. It is a price they continue to pay and is continued to be denied. It is time we at least understood that this wound is no more different than a wound to a leg or arm except this wound cannot be seen with your eyes. You have to see it with your own humanity.





Kathie Costos
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