Coping with the stress of war; Many return with mental health disorders

[Rose Siding]

As a Marine sergeant, Tim Weiser had no tolerance for weakness. "I mean, people come up and they're sick, you tell them to suck it up," says Weiser.

A strong man, he was charged with leading others in combat. And in the Battle of Nasiriyah, he saw plenty. "Mortars were so close that, you know, we'd get smacked in the face with mud and dirt," he says.

Weiser and his men survived, but the sergeant who wouldn't tolerate weakness came home from Iraq a broken man. "I was waking up crying. I was waking up just dripping wet with sweat," he says.

Weiser is now one of 8,000 Iraq War veterans receiving counseling through the Veterans Administration. After returning from Iraq, he almost lost his fiancée and control of his life — a high price for trying to be strong. Weiser was depressed, withdrawn, afraid to sleep, and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition that, according to the Army, affects troops returning from Iraq at twice as high a rate as those who served in Afghanistan.

"About 15 to 16 percent of soldiers and Marines who we surveyed had symptoms,” says Army Col. Charles Hoge, M.D., Chief of Psychiatry at Walter Reed Hospital.
...
Why are so many soldiers returning from Iraq suffering from PTSD? Because more troops than in recent wars have seen heavy combat — a predictor, say experts, of how likely they are to suffer from PTSD.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5425543

[pathansen]

1. That is very sad, especially for those who originally went to Afganistan

then were switched over to Iraq and forced to stay longer than
they volunteered to stay.
Together with not getting their medical bills paid for.

[flamingyouth]

2. I cannot imagine what these poor people are going through

I know several veterans from Korea and Vietnam and they have suffered incredible post-traumatic stress since the wars. Just the tiny bit of information we've seen from Iraq looks like hell. This is a tragedy that will affect generations.

[rfkrocks]

3. The cost of war

it is so sad that the majority of this country jumped on this bogus war bandwagon and totally forgot the human consequences of war-I hope they treat these vets well so as to get them to live a healthy life. The natural and probable outcome of war is pain and suffering-this war really has made me ask are americans immune to the lessons of history? Thanks for posting this-we will pay for this war as a society in mentally ill vets-Gulf War One gave us Tim McVeigh and the Washington sniper-what will part 2 ,much worse, give us?

[gratuitous]

4. And when their benefits expire

It'll be up to us good old American taxpayers to foot the bill for continued treatment, and bleeding heart liberal do-gooders providing medical and mental health services at reduced fees for the veterans who can't "suck it up." You don't see Halliburton offering a package deal on its no-bid contracts, do you?

[Bandit]

5. Any person in a high stress situation or job is susceptible to PTSD

Imagine yourself riding the biggest scariest rollercoaster in the world every day for a year and then having to ride the Disney teacup rides. The first ride would be tolerable but if you had to continue to ride the teacups forever on you may enter into a depression. It is even worse than that if you've been in some heavy combat for any length of time.

[Karenina]

6. Coming soon

with or without limbs, eyesight, hearing, accessibility, to a neighborhood near you.

[NeoConsSuck]

7. Not to slight the suffering of the soldiers..

but are there any studies being done on the stress on the Iraqi citizens? I would assume that having bombs flying around you in a grand liberation would leave an emotional scar occasionally.

Whoops, I forgot, ragheads aren't people anyway </sarcasm>

[riverwalker]

8. "why"?

The soldier in F 911 said it best "you can't kill another human being without a part of your soul lost forever". We sent these kids to kill in CIVILIAN areas, huge modern cities, and asked them to fight urban combat with men, children, women, the elderly who were defending their homeland.
If you have a neighbor who had one of those obnoxious "Liberate Iraq" lawn signs last year, knock on their door ask for a couple hundred bucks to start a mental health program for returning vets. Bet a few doors get slammed in your face.

[peacetalksforall]

9. My imagination is powerful and allows me to be empathetic....but I know

that I can never begin to understand the stress they are under. I am furious that these young people can't have what I had - the opportunity to develop in a world that held more promise.

I think constantly about these young kids who are pushed by people who kill to protect fetuses and think nothing of sending our not fully grown kids over to lose something or all of themselves for corporate CEO's and stockholders and their partners in the government, military, banking, the media, and their christian-judeo partnerships.

Have you considered what the psychological impact would be if our military hired professional soldiers only? ONLY? By using our young kids, it is easier for them to create a patriotic environment. If our cabal only used professional soldiers we would be able to concentrate on the innocent Iraqi citizens and what our professional soldiers are doing to them. We would finally be fighting a war that was transparent for what it is - a takeover for a few.

Remember the impact of the napalm damage on Iraqis as shown in the 9-11 documentary and never forget the napalm damage in Vietnam and Cambodia. Imprint it when the CEO's ask us to go to war again - whether it is Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Palestine. Wherever there is a right wing driven war - beware!!!!!!

Then ask yourself - who has the WMD to destroy the young body limbs, organs, immune systems, hopes and futures.


Then, I hope that the sociologists are already busy documenting what has gone on here in case we survive as a world. But what we really need is more documentaries and songs - we need the non-propaganda media of today. We need all the help we can get against the propaganda machine that has been sent to war on us.

We are here to evolve our soul. What's happening? Is this the way we evolve? Burn, bomb, and blow each other up?

Where are the peace leaders? Who in the Senate or the Congress is leading us in peace? Where are our leaders - supporting the war? Supporting the killing? Supporting the bankers? Supporting the patriot act? Supporting honest voting? Supporting the vote? Talking diplomatically? Talking rationally? Talking of the future for everyone, not just for themselves?

[JoFerret]

10. The impact

may well be unprecedented. High proportion of engagement and discharge of weapon. Close combat. Undefined enemy. No clear justification. Recipe for major mental health disaster

[InkAddict]

11. Not just from Iraq

Here's the team that "counseled" the boys at Gitmo to be more effective. The links:


Scroll to Page 5

http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil/jtfgtmo/wire/v04/i3/The%20Wire-v4-i03-27sept03.pdf

http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb04/reduce.html

Here's the orders that BROUGHT IT ON!:

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=1752

General Granted Latitude At Prison


By R. Jeffrey Smith and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 12, 2004; Page A01

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and approved letting senior officials at a Baghdad jail use military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation, and diets of bread and water on detainees whenever they wished, according to newly obtained documents.

The U.S. policy, details of which have not been previously disclosed, was approved in early September, shortly after an Army general sent from Washington completed his inspection of the Abu Ghraib jail and then returned to brief Pentagon officials on his ideas for using military police there to help implement the new high-pressure methods.

The documents obtained by The Washington Post spell out in greater detail than previously known the interrogation tactics Sanchez authorized, and make clear for the first time that, before last October, they could be imposed without first seeking the approval of anyone outside the prison. That gave officers at Abu Ghraib wide latitude in handling detainees.

Unnamed officials at the Florida headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, which has overall military responsibility for Iraq, objected to some of the 32 interrogation tactics approved by Sanchez in September, including the more severe methods that he had said could be used at any time in Abu Ghraib with the consent of the interrogation officer in charge.

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