By James S. Gordon, MD., founder and director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. He is the author of Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression.
“It’s time to commit to programs that will serve our troops with the same fidelity with which they serve us.
Since 2001, more United States troops have died from suicide than have been killed in Afghanistan. The Army estimates that up to 20 percent of those deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan — half a million men and women — will suffer the disabling agitation, nightmares, and emotional withdrawal that characterize post traumatic stress. Military leaders, the Secretary of Defense, the President, and Congress speak of the gravity of the problem and the inadequacy of present approaches to care.”
Dr. Gordon goes on to note that solutions to PTSD proposed by Department of Defense and Institute of Medicine experts are reasonable, but fall short, and may actually alienate those they’re intended to help. Read more of his insightful commentary derived from more than two decades of experience in issues of psychological healing – check out the full article here.
Psych drugs are not the solution, they are the problem. These drugs are directly responsible for the increase in suicide. These soldiers are being victimized by the big drug companies profitting from their situation.
i have little sympathy for those who slaughter children of other nations. i do not support our ‘troops’. what they are doing to others is being done to them. always and ever it is so.
it is not just the military but everyone on earth is ptsd. we are being ‘ruled’ by sociopaths. accept it and you pay the price. i do not accept it. i do not vote. i do not support sociopathic criminal activity when i know it is occurring.
our troops are committing genocide. and we are going along with it to an appalling degree.
do what you will. i do not validate murder. i will not validate murder.
As a Naturopathic physician we are trained totreat mental illness with mind, body, spirit
Medicine..we use natural supplements, acupuncture,massage, etc which works extremely on most patients.
To drug troops returning from combat makes matters much worse! They feel as though they have no alternative.
Use modalities that calm the spirit
psychological counseling can go just so far. meditAtion has already proven to be very helpful to a full range of psychological disorders.
Dr. Gordon is totally wrong in his ideas, as are the fools in the Institute of Medicine and the DoD. PTSD is the physical body’s response to violating God’s law of “Thou Shalt NOT Murder”. PTSD is a result of the person’s Spirit and Soul having a direct conflict that cannot be reconciled with God’s law and the resulting disconnect causes the physical body to go through what is referred to as PTSD. Committing murder by government edict is no different than murdering someone on your own if your life is not in imminent danger at home. (God allows you to defend your life and those of your family members from harm…NOT going around murdering people in other countries.) Great damage has been caused and as a result that person has caused themselves a tremendous amount of bad karma as a result. Whether or not anyone believes this or not is totally irrelevant as truth IS. God does NOT tell “governments” it is “OK” to go murder people in other countries and steal their resources, etc.
I’ve been married to a Viet Vet for almost 40 years. In times when he’s under “more then usual” stress, his PTSD “comes out”. There have been times I’ve had to wake-up and jump out of bed because of “an episode”. Daytime anger explodes for very minor “reasons”… But it goes un-diagnosed / untreated / uncompensated because he won’t admit to it. There are times I’ve almost left… There are times I think that I’ve “earned” a Purple Heart… The natural health products that I sneak into him have helped (in my opinion). Thankfully, as we age, the night episodes diminish at least…
The article mentions how those with PTSD are wounded in body and mind. I find it goes even deeper—into the soul.Without helping heal this level, the wounded warrior is not entirely free.
I have to totally agree with Chuck Garwood, Humans are, in their normal state, loving helpful beings….what governments are doing systematically is destroying these military people’s inner values,and with that, many can’t stand to live with themselves or their nightmares. The only way to reverse this trend is to have groups that actually do healthy,loving community projects that they can live & build up their inner values…..they were forced to take away everything dear to innocent civilians, they need on many levels to return values to themselves and the world and innocents that deserve fair loving opportunities. This would be a more kind way of repaying karma. and to make good on so many levels! Humanity must remember our true wealth is in building communities on trust & human rights!
PTSD doesn’t just affect soldiers. It affects a lot of people. My ex-husband faked PTSD after he got kicked out of the army for sexual assault and abandonment of duty station. (He had a safe job. He never left the miltary instalation.) He became controling and abusive and I left. Afterwards he tried killing me several times. Those incidents caused me to suffer PTSD. I did not murder anyone and yet I have PTSD. I did nothing wrong and yet I have nightmares and sleepless nights and bouts of anger and extreme sadness. I have severe anxiety and other problems associated with PTSD. I am not being punished by God for breaking biblical laws. My mind simply has a hard time wrapping around the fact the creature that I devoted my heart and life to simply is not who I thought. He simply is not worthy or desirious of a truely healthy loving marriage. He lied about and portrayed a character completely unequivical to his actual character. I cannot wrap my mind around how I allowed myself to be fooled.