"When it got really bad, I dumped 5 tons of sand into my basement to remind me of Afghanistan."

[babylonsister]

One Soldier's Tale of How War Drove Him Crazy

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted March 20, 2009.

"When it got really bad, I dumped 5 tons of sand into my basement to remind me of Afghanistan."


"When it got really bad, I dumped 5 tons of sand into my basement to remind me of Afghanistan," Jim told me. "I would just spend the entire day down there in my sandbox, smoking marijuana and working on peace of mind. It made me realize that you can close as many doors as you want, but ghosts walk through walls."

Jim speaks with apparent ease about his war experiences and what they cost him. His stories are punctuated with vivid detail and bemused laughter, mostly at his own expense: How could he have been so naïve ... how could he have failed to see what was going on around him?

He rubs his hands up and down his thighs frequently. It's a kind of nervous gesture that he explains is a result of a spinal injury he sustained in an IED explosion -- his legs still go numb from time to time. "But they don't get numb to the point where I fall down anymore, so I won't complain about progress," he said.

That stoicism is an apt metaphor for the rest of his life, for the experience he shares with so many servicemen and women returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's been almost 30 years since PTSD entered the official lexicon, 30 years in which U.S. combat troops have been continuously deployed in some part of the world or other, churning out a steady stream of psychologically wounded soldiers in need of care. In that time, untold millions have been spent on research, and countless pharmaceutical and therapeutic protocols have been explored.

To what end? In 2008, the Institute of Medicine published the results of a survey -- commissioned by the Department of Veterans Affairs -- of all of the available drug and therapy treatments available for PTSD.

The IOM committee found that "no drugs have adequate data showing efficacy," and it recognized the value of only one therapeutic approach: exposure therapy, a form of psychotherapy requiring a "considerable investment of time, emotion and effort." To that, I would add another requirement: money.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/132510/one_soldier%27s_tale_of_how_war_drove_him_crazy/?page=entire

[polichick]

1. There is only one "cure" - make PEACE, not war. Sad.