By Elizabeth Szlek, LMHC
For most Americans, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have not changed our lives appreciably. By this I mean, if we are not acquainted personally with someone serving in the military, we may not have realized the personal devastation these two wars are bringing to thousands of families across our land. As a counselor of returning veterans, I can tell you that effects of modern combat are absolutely horrific. I am not even talking about the physical wounds, which number in the thousands, or perhaps hundred of thousands. I am more familiar with the trauma injuries, and especially Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (PTSD).
While Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is being called the “signature injury” of the Iraq war, PTSD has been with us since the time of Homer, who wrote about it in the Iliad. Since war began, soldiers have been traumatized by it. It seems that normal humans simply cannot bear for long, the horrors of war. For everyone except the sociopathic, the human mind will eventually just go “off line”.
Traumatic Brain Injury results when the brain is forcefully slammed against the inside of the skull, usually because of a violent explosion or impact, such as a roadside bomb. PTSD can occur without any concurrent physical injury, or it can accompany TBI.
What is PTSD?
Looking at the words, we can see that PTSD follows some kind of physical or psychological shock.. It could be the result of a crime such as rape, or witnessing a horrific natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina. It can also occur in soldiers who have been trained to override their natural aversion to killing, and who go beyond their personal moral codes to commit acts of violence, or who witness ghastly events.
This problem among soldiers, as I have said, has always been part of military life, even though it has not always been fully understood. In the Civil War, the problem was called “soldier’s heart”. During World War I it was called “shell shock”, and then in World War II, “combat fatigue”. Following the Viet Nam conflict, the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder evolved, and that is how we look at this problem today. PTSD has been taken out of its formerly military context, and is applied to all sorts of civilian trauma, as well. However, military psychiatrists have stated that every single soldier will eventually develop PTSD if left in intense combat situations for too long. This astonishing fact should be made known to those who might think a soldier “weak” or worse, when the symptoms of PTSD occur.
PTSD occurs when a person is not able to properly process the events around them. It is a state of intense overwhelm, and because of this, the precipitating event seems to remain in the victim’s present, rather than receding into the ever more distant past. Such symptoms as nightmares of the event, and flashbacks take over the life of a badly traumatized person, and they cannot seem to break free of the terror they once experienced. When veterans return home, neither they nor their families are normally prepared to deal with this spiritual, emotional and psychological condition, and many families break apart.
There are, however, new methods, which do not rely on drugs, to help PTSD sufferers. I am committed to helping veterans, their families and others who wish to break free of this debilitating condition. The use of psychiatric drugs is increasingly being seen as a harmful method of dealing with PTSD, and many veterans are dying from unexplained causes following drug treatment for PTSD. I will continue this story in my next column, so please stay tuned!
Elizabeth Szlek is a Tricare Provider, and welcomes your comments and questions. She is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville, and can be reached at (315) 768-8900 or info@thedoorcounseling.com.
