Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

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Anonymous — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:37:06 GMT

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Military and Stress « The Sound of EmCeeKhan

Anonymous — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:46:34 GMT

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re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

reeldeeler — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:43:57 GMT

I served in Desert Shield/Desert Storm I, and came back with PTSD. It was not discovered until I was out of the military and really had no recourse. The government needs to anayize all US service personnel coming back from the war zone. It has been almost 19 yrs of hell trying to cope with everyday stress.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

msxd40 — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:12:43 GMT

First of and and most seriously my heart goes out to the families who lost their loved ones. I'm also saddened and shocked, but not taken completely by surprise, given the fact that our troops have had to endure such a long and stupid war and multiple deployments.

I think that perhaps the Brady Campaign should concentrate their efforts on removing these dangerous weapons so that this type of incident cannot happen again! It makes about as much sense as removing them from law abiding citizens.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

jpgeorgia — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:38:18 GMT

I am a Vietnam vet. Back then, the vast majority of soldiers served one tour and they went home. That was possible because there was a draft. Today, all soldiers are volunteers. Two protracted wars mean multiple tours, as many as 5 or 6 for each soldier. I can tell you that ALL soldiers that go to war come back changed -- ALL soldiers. When I left Vietnam, I thought I was unaffected, but after 37 to 38 years, I still have dreams. i don't go around killing people, but I was affected mentally. Everybody was. There is no such thing as a combat soldier coming back unaffected. That's just one tour. But 6 tours!!?? Oh, my God! I would have been a real psycho!

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

OEFOIFVET — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:48:02 GMT

This case will blow wide open, Once the final investigation is done. the guy was arguing with MP's in the parking lot threatening to commit suicide. There solution was to pass him back to his unit. Wrong answer. If somebody is threatening suicide, then you just don't pass him back to the unit. You lock him down and provide 24-hour watch, with professional guidance. Those MP's have blood on their hands.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

airjackie — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:51:52 GMT

Not one person, newspaper or Law Maker said a word when Bush/Cheney ordered Stop Lock and this is the results. Many more soldirs have killed themseelves and others need counciling. Americans love to say " We support our Troops", have the flag out side the house and then put sickers on the car but they really don't care what happens to our troosps. Bush and Cheney never served in the Military so they are clueless. My son and daugher served in the US Military but I would never tell a young person to join the Military because the left over Bush generals are their to work these kids to death. We treat our troops like machines and not humans. Now we'll hear more soldiers dying and we can all give out that fake sorry because left's face it American could care less about the troops.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

gfbum — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:34:47 GMT

Let me correct something airjackie. The last President/VP did not order stop loss. The stop loss policy is written into every contract signed by servicemember when they sign up. It does seem to be a bad idea to have troops do repeated tours in Iraq or Afghanistand, but thousands have done so without killing themselves or fellow military members. The outrage should be rightly directed at those who MURDER their fellow comrades. Did you happen to notice that he had trouble prior to entering the military? Please don't forget that our primary mission is defending the constituition, and not acting as a social welfar system for those with nowhere else to work. Why do you not hold him accountable for what HE has done?

Just s thought

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

Just another Soldier — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:16:19 GMT

This is crap! We are all under stress. We all have the resources available to us. If one chooses not to make the most out of it, then that is not the Army's fault. This guy in cold blood, in a premeditated manner, went BACK to the clininc to inflict harm. He Killed 5 innocent people out of his own anger. We are all stressed, but we dont all go and Kill 5 of our fellow Soldiers. If this guy had been honest with his feelings and taken the most out of the care he was offered, he could have gained a new insight and other resources that were available. everyone wants an excuse when something bad happens. What ever happened to accepting and taking responsibilty for ones actions.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

jenrn05 — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:43:47 GMT

Ok as a nurse who does post reassessment on soldiers returning from active duty through a contracted company that is paid for by the US forces I have seen more soldiers return than I care to count.

Civilians here at home have no idea how these men come back. The mental scars, stress, depression and anxiety is seen in at least 75% of the men and women coming back from active duty. They are referred on to psychologists and further referred onto the VA.

I have no shame in saying that this war has really completely destroyed the men and women coming back. They do not adjust well to civilian life. Sometime coming back to wives/husbands that have left them due to the repeated and long length deployments in this war.

I cannot share specific details on people that have returned, but I have seen men that get reassessed for psych issues who are found to not only be a danger to themselves but also to others. As seen in one high command officer that had to be sent to be seen in a more regulated care facility.

In my opinion, because of what I have seen of the men/women of the armed forces returning. I have vowed to myself to not allow any of my children to get into any armed forces. I see how much these men/women have destroyed lives after duty.

The emphasis of taking your children and taking them from being 'strong to army strong' is a horrible reality when they come back so incredibly for lack of a better term, 'messed up in the head'. They are broken down from the git go and then rebuilt to have 'strength and confidence'. This confidence (especially in mens cases) also leads to a sense of pride that will not allow them to seek help when it is desperately needed, even though we see them when they come home, and refer them. They cannot be forced (unless an obvious danger to themselves or others) to be seen by psychiatrists and all available resources mostly in part as the story says 'the stigma' attached to having to ask for help in any way, especially with mental issues, where it is seen as a weakness. Which means they will more than likely not be redeployed and for some the forces is all they have, and have had in their lives. So it's easier to say. "no I do not have a problem' rather than take the chance of being discharged.

Just my .02 from a perspective that I have seen time and time again with our men and women of the armed forces.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

Kelly Burris — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:55:58 GMT

I am a behavioral scientist and there is only one entity to hold responsible for this and that is NIMH. The way mental health professionals treat patients’ trickles down from the National Institute of Mental Health. In a recent conversation with an NIMH official in regard to depression as the primary symptom for suicide he stated "It is not what we would call a strong risk factor." If depression is “Not a strong risk factor” for suicide will somebody please tell what is? This individual by the way is solely responsible for determining who is going to help the Army in regard to the record setting suicide.

The fundamental issue is NIMH is not asking the questions that will lead to a fix for this problem. If we can agree that someone who is contemplating killing themselves or someone else is emotionally out of control the first question is “What brings about an emotional state?” Let me make addressing this question perfectly clear. What brings an emotional state about from the inside out not from the outside in?

NIMH and every mental health professional needs to stop miring themselves down in ancient Freudian theoretical external observation and get to the core of the problem which is how each human being processes information from the beginning at the very core of the subconscious.

I do not often rant but this is a systemic problem that absolutely must and can be fixed if we start holding our mental health officials accountable and start demanding answers to questions that simply are not being posed in order to fix the problem. It is time that the science we require from every other health entity start being applied to mental health.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

Mwalimu — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:09:51 GMT

Truth told: This war in Iraq is a war we should not have started. When everyone was gung-ho about "targeting Iraq", I knew this sort of thing would happen. I had Les Damnés de la Terre by Franz Fanon (English translation The Wretched of the Earth) which provided a gristly account of the urban warfare in Algeria during the late 50's early 60's, so I knew what we were in for. Yet we constantly re-deploy our troops again, again and again. We need to find a way out of Iraq. The same applies to Afghanistan. If we really want to fight terrorists, we need to free our economy from the tyranny of oil - because it's petrodollars that supply terrorists with their money. We also need to provide effective therapy for all those soldiers who have been traumatized by this war.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

dot2dot — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:45:24 GMT

Did you get that M3SSAG3 now AMERICA? And if you got the message can you please let us Veterans know if you’re ready to understand. 5 Soldiers, 6 Soldiers really because even though we should be outraged at what this young man has done, we can’t be that way right now. Not when 6 families have just been informed that they’ll never get the chance to hug their loved one’s again. More than just 6 lives when you think about, I can’t imagine the total number because I don’t know any of them, I am however related to them in some way shape or form by the Creed that we all take when we join the military and I feel I have a connection with the soldiers that we’ve lost today because I’ve been there so I know what it’s like. That incident that happened today simply reflects all of the similar “incidents” that have once soldiers have gone home. The amount of daily pressure that we are under over there pail in comparison to the amount of pressure we face everyday when we’re at home, but the mental side of the war is something that we’re finding the hardest to get help with and the solider today who took those lives was on his third tour, let me say that again THIRD TOUR, when is enough enough? Three times he’s had to leave his family and if he has kids that’s THREE times that they could not have ever seen him again, You know the saying –“Third time is a charm” well I hate to say it but, yep.

Understand that it takes a lot to do what we’ve done, and there is only so much “self help” that one can do. All this talk about when all the troops will be brought back home…Is the Government ready to assist that many soldiers? I can tell you that from where I’m sitting no one is ready for that, because solider’ like me can’t even get an appointment. We were so AMPED to go to war, two in fact…How prepared are we for when they’re over?

If you disagree with what any of what I had to say, then check the “stats”, somewhere under all of the lies you'll see the facts.

Stop with all the excuses and the shoulda, coulda, woulda enough already! NO MORE EXCUSES

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

Dredd — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:51:45 GMT

This is a symptom of our worst enemy:

http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/05/surge-of-snap-sergeants.html

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

halaluani — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:29:14 GMT

After 16 years in the military exposed to all kinds of behavior from officers, it is not possible that this man did this for the reasons stated by his father (stress from officers). If they called him stupid repeatedly, I doubt this is the first time he's endured this. My money is on the cause being a psychotropic drug that made him aggressive and out of control. He was there a week, long enough for a drug to get into his system. Actually, it's the norm now for more than one drug of these types of drugs to be prescribed. This increases the chances of serious adverse reactions. The antidepressants in particular have a history of causing people to become violent toward others. All the shooting you've heard of in work places and on campuses were done by people who just began a psychotropic drug, were abruptly taken off one or more of these drugs and placed on others, or just abruptly stopped taking more than one psychotropic drug. Wherever there is a shocking event like this you are most likely to find an antidepressant drug. A 16 year vet does not act out from emotional stress. The only concern is that it may be difficult to get the military to be honest about this tragic incident.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

glenbech — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:45:39 GMT

America has lost its innocence. America, it's unfortunate, no longer has the moral authority to tell other countries not to torture our troops and our soldiers. We can't tell them not to. That would mean we are the biggest hipocrates to ever have lived. No, we must "get used to" it that our soldiers will undoubtedly be tortured in the future. If your kids are serving in the military, they will probably be tortured. We allowed it to happen, and did nothing to stop it. We no longer have any moral authority and our word means squat. We are worse than the viet cong. Most of the people at Abu Ghraib and at Guantanamo Bay Cuba had absolutely nothing to do with Terrorism…and, as proof, we let them go willingly and without filing any charges. That was Obama, that did that, I know you're thinking…ah, no it was Bush. Bush willingly let all the "Terrorists" go without even attempting to file charges against them. Now, you have to ask yourself for a minute, were they really Terrorists? I think you know the answer to that. We have all been fooled. We were duped, tricked. I know it is hard to admit when a person is wrong. I went for the longest time and didn't want to admit it either. The fact is we were tricked into fighting two illegal wars and then permitting terrorism/torturing in our good name. American soldiers are left wide open to torture…there is nothing we can do about it…we can't stop it…we will have to just live with it. Thanks to Michael Hayden and George Bush!

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

How About the Truth — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:34:35 GMT

I am a Vietnam veteran. I came home, and about one year later I had problems. I had insomnia, and depression. I knew there was stigma generated from "mental health" so called diagnoses so I did not go from help. AND I WISH I NEVER DID.

Well finally I had a breakdown. I was given a demeaning "diagnosis", and I was treated shabbily by psychs. I have been abused by psychs. Please see the 1999 GAO investigative report on patient abuse in psychiatric hospitals in America. Psychs have abused, and killed significant numbers of children, and adults on psychowards in America. They also attempted to cover it up with devious methods, such as falsifying death reccords. (1999 GAO Investigatory Report on Patient Abuse).

Because of my contrived, and non-scientific "psychodiagnosis" I had trouble holding, and getting a job. MY EXPERIENCE WITH PSYCHS RUINED MY LIFE. The truth in all this is: no one likes to go to a psych, because everyone knows, that it will distroy your life. AND IT DOES. My marriage, my children, my career, and my respect were damaged by psychs.

These troops know that they will be humiliated, and denied respect after going for psych "treatment". They will end up at the caprice of some greey psych professional for a lifetime.

My second point is psychologists are not doctors, they are non-medical psych helpers. Psychologists have absolutely no standing with medicine, or physicians. Its a hoax to include psychologists with any i9ndependent professionals. Psycholgists are simply out for the money.

My third point is the best help for veterams, is their buddys, NOT psychs. Psychs know this but again want the dough. Our generals and our Congress should completely research this issue. And not relie on psych self-serving testimony. Please consider reading Thomas Szass, M.D. "The Myth of Mental Illnesss", and surf to www.antipsychiatry.org. This field has a long history of corruption and fraud.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

How About the Truth — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:35:04 GMT

These troops know that they will be humiliated, and denied respect after going for psych "treatment". They will end up at the caprice of some greey psych professional for a lifetime.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

Trooper101st — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:06:18 GMT

There is no way to console a Soldier, Marine who just witnessed his friends blown to bits...it takes time. There is no enemy to kill, no vengeance, therefore, in our minds, no justice. The VA is overall a competent org., but some places are sh*t holes. As for being captured, well, you KNOW wat ur fate is. I always saved one round for the unthinkable, but that is reality. Barbarity is part of war. As for the Nam vet, his comment may help just one Soldier-but that one will be OK. We are in a war w/out end. A-stan? Needed to go. IRAQ? Ah, thats the one Cheney & Co WANTED. There was no need for it. We will be paying the price for that for decades, just like Vietnam.

re: Combat Stress System to Come Under New Focus

mainermike — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:28:42 GMT

AS I SEE IT, by Mike "Mainer Mike" Brown, The AS I SEE IT Guy.

Psychiatrists can come up with all the treatments that they want, and can put all there efforts into helping soldiers. But the fact remains, once a soldier sees combat, he or she will never be the same. There's only so much treatment can do.

The only way to keep these soldiers mentally healthy is to keep them out of harms way unless absolutely necessary.

With that said, many of the troops in Iraq know full well that it's a lost cause, and we shouldn't have been there in the first place.

That's mentally taxing in of itself.

But if a soldier knows that he or she is fighting a war that makes sense, such as in Afghanistan, it will give them motivation to fight on.