Pentagon's Advice to Traumatized Veterans: Think Happy Thoughts!

[Better Believe It]

Pentagon's Advice to Traumatized Veterans: Think Happy Thoughts!
By Penny Coleman
December 10, 2009

Hey, all you quitters and whiners: If it’s bad and it hurts, you have to try harder, have faith, and above all, think positive!

Tired of hearing about all those military suicides? It just keeps getting worse and no one seems to have a clue how to stop the horror. Are you feeling news fatigue coming on, with compassion exhaustion and depression close behind? Want to change the channel, scroll down, turn the page?

That, says Martin Seligman, is because you, like too many American soldiers, are leading with negativity. You could instead be using “learned optimism” to dispute your catastrophic interpretation of the events that trouble your soul, the source of your PTSD.

It’s really quite simple. “The idea here is to give people a new vocabulary,” Seligman says.

Seligman chairs the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and he has managed to convince Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen “that it (is) possible to teach soldiers how to properly respond to distress, and help them emerge emotionally stronger” (italics mine).

Seligman calls that “posttraumatic growth.”

Barbara Ehrenreich calls it “pseudoscience and flapadoodle.”

Read the full article at:

http://www.alternet.org/world/144343/pentagon%27s_advice_to_traumatized_veterans%3A_think_happy_thoughts%21

[Blue Owl]

1. And don't forget to re-enlist in our super happy fun war!

We still have a few boxes of George W. Bu$h's magic freedom dust to sprinkle in the middle east!

[robdogbucky]

2. A very big tragedy

is the treatment of our vets:

"May 2008, during a campaign stop in Charleston, West Virginia, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a passionate speech about the inadequate care war veterans had received, particularly those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, under the Bush administration's tenure in office.

- - - "So long as the government fails to do the exams immediately upon redeployment home and then provide prompt treatment when needed, the tragic military and veteran suicide crisis will continue escalating," Sullivan said. "While there may be an Internet web site with an anti-stigma message, there is no multimillion dollar joint DoD-VA television, radio, and print campaign encouraging veterans to seek care. The reason DoD and VA refuse to do this is because such an effort would increase the number of patients flooding into an already overwhelmed system." - - -

Without identifying him by name, Obama cited the case of Grover Cleveland Chapman, a World War II veteran from Greenville, South Carolina, who had been repeatedly denied PTSD benefits by the Department of Veterans Affairs. After his final appeal for treatment was turned down last year, Chapman walked into a VA outpatient clinic, pointed a loaded Smith & Wesson revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger. He was 89 years old..."

...The "program" the general spoke specifically about in hopes of removing the stigma associated with PTSD was simply a questionnaire soldiers fill out as part of the Army's suicide prevention efforts, which Sullivan said falls far short of what needs to be done to treat veterans. Sullivan said he is concerned that, after 12 years, Katz and the military "intentionally confuse a 'medical examination' by a doctor, required by the 1997 Force Health Protection Law, and a 'self screening' performed by a soldier using a pencil and paper without a doctor’s exam."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.php/veterans-category-articles/1508-truthout


Can't emphasize the suffering of these wars by our troops enough. It is not being properly addressed.



Just my dos centavos

robdogbucky

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. The article screams for a song, doesn't it?

Wish I were better at writing lyrics.

Anyone....?

[Better Believe It]

4. Here's one.

http://my.homewithgod.com/heavenlymidis/USA/hail.html

[eShirl]

7. Always look on the bright side of life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Far better selection

thanks

[Odin2005]

5. "Blame the Victim" BS!

[vadawg]

6. kinda stating the obvious in a way, thinking negatively is always bad

not sure why anyone needs some fancy title to tell people that being positive is much better than being negative about all the situations in our lives.. :shrug: