Battling PTSD and misperception all soldiers have it
VALDOSTA — The case of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales emphasizes a growing stereotype of American military personnel ready to snap. But many soldiers and observers disagree.Bales stands accused of killing several civilians, mostly children, in a violent rampage in Afghanistan. Since, commentators have speculated on Bales’ four deployments into combat during the past decade, a brain injury, other injuries, financial problems at home, witnessing the deaths of friends, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.
The incident spurred Time magazine columnist Joe Klein to recently write that focusing on possible reasons for Bales’ actions reinforces the wrong stereotypes and does a disservice to those who have served admirably.
“There has been little acknowledgement that the overwhelming majority of our veterans – even the overwhelming majority of those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries – have come home to lead productive and, often, inspiring lives,” Klein writes. “The unfairness of laying the burden of this stereotype on them, after they assumed the burden of fighting impossible wars for the rest of us, is infuriating.”
As one soldier told The Times, he believes 99 percent of returning military do not have PTSD and those who do need counseling. “They’re not broken,” he said. “They’re bent.”
Still, of the 2.4 million troops who have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since September 2001, “estimates suggest that at least 18 percent of those deployed suffer from severe depression or post-traumatic stress, and over 19 percent have suffered a traumatic brain injury,” according to information from Valdosta Veterans First, A Community Blueprint Initiative.
Valdosta is part of Community Blueprint’s national pilot program to smoothly integrate returning soldiers into civilian life.
Valdosta Veterans First’s overview notes that “symptoms of severe mental health difficulties are as high as 35 percent among Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans and only about half are seeking treatment.”
Along with reintegration, employment, education, family strength, life skills, volunteerism and homelessness, behavioral health is one of the eight areas targeted by the Community Blueprint program to help returning veterans.
Valdosta’s Greenleaf Counseling Center has been working with returning veterans for several years. Greenleaf counselors must balance a delicate situation. They must help these soldiers deal with the memories and reacquaint themselves with the world of “back home” all the while remembering that most of these warriors will have to return to combat. Soldiers had to manage being home while maintaining a certain level of aggressiveness for when they were re-deployed for combat.
In the past, when soldiers came home from war, they were often finished with war. In Vietnam, most soldiers served a tour of duty and came home; however, they could opt to serve additional tours. In World War II, military personnel served the war’s duration before returning home. Modern soldiers may serve a year-long tour, come home for
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