Psychological trauma seen in US soldiers returning from Iraq: report

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041114/ts_alt_afp/us_iraq_health&cid=1506&ncid=1473

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - One in six American soldiers returning from Iraq (news - web sites) is suffering from psychological trauma, and the problem is likely to get worse as more troops return from longer tours.

A study by a US army research institute found that 15.6 percent of Marines and 17.1 percent of soldiers surveyed after they returned from Iraq suffered major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, the Los Angeles Times said.

The disorder, formally identified by the American Psychiatric Association in 1985, is a debilitating change in the brain's chemistry that can include sleep disorders, panic attacks, violent outbursts, and acute anxiety, among other symptoms.

More than 30 percent of US veterans of the Vietnam War were afflicted, plunging tens of thousands into homelessness, addiction, crime and despair.

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[roguevalley]

1. Not surprised. Two and three tours? What can anyone expect. I

am so very sorry for everyone over there, Iraqi and Coalition. Imagine the children growing up in this.

[Astarho]

2. I met one

almost a year ago. I met him in a crystal store and he was with his girlfriend looking for something to stop his nightmares.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

3. The wounds that keep on giving. They should speak at poor high schools.

And tell the kids what war really is, not a video game.

That would put a crimp in the fodder pipeline for the Empire.

How about the trauma of every Iraqi at the the hands of US troops?
No winners here and yet the band plays and flags wave. FUCK.

[stellanoir]

4. Bare in mind that both

Timothy McVeigh and John Allen Mohammed (D.C. sniper) were both Desert Storm vets. We've got some serious trouble brewing if we don't get these folks some real help.

Desert Storm only lasted a mere fraction of the amount of time this disastrously executed conflict has lasted. And our fearless AWOL "War pResident" is denying them both care and benefits.

I feel so badly for them.

Desert Storm syndrome has been totally swept under the carpet.
I met a vet from that conflict at the local General Store in early '03.

He refused to take his anti biological weapons meds and had been thrown in the brig as a result. He said everyone in his unit who had taken the meds were suffering extreme psychological and physical problems. Many of them had kids with birth extreme defects.

I fear another four years of rule under such insensitive incompetants.

The nightmare of Falluja is barely being covered.

Oh but the media has spent 30% of it's time reporting about Laci and Conner and Scott. Not to say that isn't a tragedy but how does it compare with 100,000 deaths of innocent Iraqis and incomprehensible injuries to the survivors? It doesn't at all.

Okay, I'll shut up now.

[DemoTex]

5. WAR (Barret Strong, Norman Whitfield/Edwin Star):

You all know the tune. It ain't much of a tune. It is a chant. It's what you do when you are really pissed off. OK?

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War is something that I despise
For it means destruction of innocent lives
For it means tears in thousands of mothers' eyes
When their sons go out to fight to give their lives

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing

War
It's nothing but a heartbreaker
War
Friend only to the undertaker
War is the enemy of all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind
Handed down from generation to generation
Induction destruction
Who wants to die

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing

War has shattered many young men's dreams
Made them disabled bitter and meanLife is too precious to be fighting wars
each day
War can't give life it can only take it away

War
It's nothing but a heartbreaker
War
Friend only to the undertaker
Peace love and understanding
There must be some place for these things today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord there's gotta be a better way
That's better than
War

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing


ABSOLUTELY-FUCKING-NOTHING. Do you read me out there? Nothing. Ever.

[Sugarbleus]

15. This is an oldie from MY generation...love it still

My radio host plays it every so often...very motivating.

[aquart]

6. And the plans to help them thru it are WHAT?

[DulceDecorum]

7. Ann Coulter said:

To a disabled Vietnam vet:
"People like you caused us to lose that war."---MSNBC

[undergroundpanther]

9. Send Coulter

To Iraq ,and let her cope with it,the bitch.
I am so sick, dammit and I can't smack her sorry ass silly on TV and make her FEEL and become accountable personally for the sick shit she says..
Someday I would hope the bullies in this world get limited and finally get what they've been begging for abusing people for,to be knocked off that silly pediatal when everyone realizes a bullies power is nothing but an empty sound.

[tomreedtoon]

8. Not a vet, but I suffer from PTSD.

It hit me, full force, ten years after a home invasion and robbery. Basically some druggie teens broke into my home, held me at knifepoint, taped me up in my bed, ruined my apartment and stole my car.

I mostly survived immediately, but ten years afterwards, I got the full effects. I'm told this is pretty traditional for a comparatively mild case like mine. For combat vets, it could be quicker.

I also know a non-MD therepist who works with vets at a VA hospital in the Midwest. He is caught in two binds; the government is cutting back on services and caregivers like him, and the more the war news hits the vets at home, the more nervous it makes them.

Basically, all you can do is find your triggering impulse, the thing that starts the PTSD kicking, and avoid it. In my case, I can't stand anything relating to rape, including vampire movies and TV shows. (I have had times I literally want to rub a cheese grater over Anne Rice's face for making vampires - basically serial killers and rapists - into romantic heroes.)

So I don't watch "Buffy." I don't hang around Vampire: The Masquerade role playing games. (I lost some friends when this last one came up.) If something that will trigger my PTSD comes up, I do my best to walk away from it and put it out of my mind.

God knows what will happen to the vets whose cases are much worse than mine - PTSD either makes you manically angry or it makes you emotionally dead and unresponsive - who are getting no help from Bush or his buddies.

[undergroundpanther]

10. I feel for you

I have Did /Ptsd myself
I can't stand gagging,booze breath and rape/torture stuff.
I can't watch alot of TV because some jackases think puke is funny or someything.I mean WHY on earth do they have to make such a show of it for?
Also bars are everywhere.I don't go to parties because of the drunks.I'd love to socialize and have fun but there is always some jerk with booze.

And the rape/torture stuff It's in almost every horror flick,it's on EVERY damn crime show,it's everywhere.

I'm sick of it..Since when did rape/torture become "entertainment" (besides witch burnings,racist hangings or gladiators),When did being sick to the point of losing lunch,become"funny"? When didbeing drunk become "entertainment"? To me being in or around ANY of these things is UNPLEASANT and definately NOT entertainment nor is it funny.It's gross sad scary and well traumatic.. When is nausea ever fun for you? Does anyone you know jump for joy when they get food poisoning hoping they can give thier buddies a laugh by getting sick on them?
When is being hurt and abused ever"fun"? When is it ever"fun" to be so drunk you embarass yourself,blackout, act like a jerk and basically poison yourself to death slowly . I think our culture is crazy and sociopathic if this is what they call "entertainment or funny.
And it's not just my PTSD,I think people are so desensitized they can't feel enough emotionally,to understand why this is not good to glorify these things and label sickness "funny" and abuse'entertainment". If you have ever been sick it's no fun,If you have ever been abused it's not entertaining,if you have ever been harassed by a drunk it's not funny.

[llmart]

14. So true.

The younger generation thinks this stuff is funny. I think it's all tasteless and disgusting. Where does it end? Shows like "Fear Factor" are just plain sick! And yet people all over American watch this junk.

It's why I don't watch TV. I will not be dumbed down to that level.

[undergroundpanther]

18. It's emotional dumbing down

We have plenty of intellecuals who are smart as anything, but they can't feel compassion inside themselves for someone else,They can't feel for another enough to know sarcasm ain't funny sometimes in fact it hurts. They can't empathize enough to give someone else a hug, they can't feel past thier own awkwardness and insecurities to share thier heart with anyone else.
I guess that is why they get drunk,abuse people and think being sick is so funny,they are desensitized thier emotional intellegence is retarded so the only way they feel anything is through shocks.

[sr_pacifica]

22. Younger generation

--words like "bitch slap" and "wife-beater" (for the name of those undershirts. They make me wince. They hit too close to home.

[MarieP]

11. Tom, I can believe PTSD hit you belatedly

My father-in-law was captured by the Germans during WWII, and either killed or badly injured a guard to escape. He also went through buildings to flush out snipers. Two years ago PTSD really hit him. He woke up one night yelling and planted his fist in his wife's face. Scared the crap out of both of them, but fortunately he's getting help from the VA.

So it looks like for a lot of our service people, PTSD might show up quickly...or we could be seeing repercussions of this war for decades to come.

[T Bone]

12. No war is over until the last veteran of it has died

Heard that said somewhere. And the trauma of no war is over until the last veteran of it with PTSD has died?

[sr_pacifica]

25. My father had it from WW II

as well as his own brutal family life. After WW II it was just, come back home, business as usual. My father ended up 5 years after the war having anxiety attacks and depression. The doctors who examined him made no connection whatever with the war, they were so much in denial back then. I think the supposed "baby boomers"---those with war veteran parents---bore the brunt of the effects of the war on their parents. And it will be the same way with the generation being born now to Iraqi veterans. But it may go a little better for them if their parent(s) is able to get treatment.

[sr_pacifica]

21. I have it too as a veteran of domestic abuse

Meds can help with symptoms because PTSD does change brain chemistry. But the bulk of the work is, as you say, in knowing one's triggers and learning ways to support yourself in situations that you know may be occasions for triggering. Either that or avoiding triggers if possible.

Rage attacks, lack of focus, depression, irritability, numbness = broken relationships, battered wives/girlfriends/boyfriends and children, employment problems, workplace problems, disability, loss of potential, underachievement, murder, accidents, manslaughter, drug/alcohol addiction, suicide.

Yep, those who so readily send men and women to war open a big pandora's box on society.

[realcountrymusic]

13. Welll DUH

and what kind of trauma do you suppose they inflicted on little boys and girls in Fallujah and Basra?

Yeah, killing innocent people and "liberating" a country that didn't want you in the first place *should* be cause for a little trauma.

Dammit, I am really pissed off tonight. I should probably stop posting before some DU patriot tears me a new one. We might not win the next election if we don't kiss the ass of the uberpatriotic right .. . hey, wait, we didn't win the last one with a heoric veteran at the helm.

Let's try another tack. Let's call this ersatz patriotic bullshit what it is: proto-fascism. There is nothing sacred about the military or the soldiers to me. The are, now, all volunteers, and what they are doing is a war crime.

RCM

[Sugarbleus]

16. S.Fran area news reported last week, that something over

50% of the "homeless" folks in that area are veterans!!!!!! Even a few new ones from Iraq.

[Ilsa]

17. This is the silent war that (almost) no one wants to admit to fighting.

I've suffered from PPTSD myself after a home invasion and rape. My brother had PTSD and depression after PGW-I. Couldn't handle a loud thunderstorm. There is so much resistance to getting help, and those that want it can't get enough of it.

[lovuian]

19. No One escapes this It just hits some people harder than others

So sad for those GI's Love them all!!!

[Zerex71]

20. Oh well. If they're Bush voters, I hope it haunts them

for the rest of their lives. I don't care how callous it sounds -- people in this damn country need to have something that terrible to make them ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

23. Some of the earliest accounts of PTSD can be found in the first-hand...

...accounts of American Civil War vets writing about their experiences during and after the war. Quite enlightening.

[Corgigal]

24. My stepson best friend came home from Iraq

a few weeks ago. He's 19 years old. My stepson and this guy have been friends for years but he told us that he has changed so much.
He won't play any video games with him. He doesn't really want to watch any movies that they enjoyed a year ago. In fact, my stepson said he's just so passive now. He just sits with him and they chat awhile but nothing more. This kid probably has sensory overload.

We all tried to tell him but they know so much at age 18. This kid is going back to Iraq in a few months.