And now because I think it's not only relevant, but important, I'll direct readers to this blog post by PsychCentral site founder Dr. John Grohol:
In Honor of Veterans, 2009
This Veterans Day, as we honor the sacrifices made by soldiers who’ve served and those who continue to do so, we mark the 91st anniversary of the end of World War I. It seems so long ago to most of us — ancient history. Yet history is a teacher and if we don’t listen, we’re bound to repeat the same mistakes.
The mistake we’re repeating today is not doing enough to recognize and take care of veterans’ mental health needs. This isn’t some feel good mantra. This is a very real need that the military continues to have problems meeting...
[ Read the rest ]
Also of note via PsychCentral:
Most Returning Veterans Won’t Seek Treatment
I can't help but wonder how much of a vet's reluctance to seek treatment for such issues is due to the very training they receive from the military to be strong, "Army Strong", or "an army of one." I realize those are just marketing slogans designed to initially attract recruits by presenting a certain image in ads, but that the reality of the training may be (and probably is) quite different.
I've never served, so I have no way of really knowing if recruits (these days) ever receive any sort of adequate psychological grounding that could help them recognize symptoms of serious mental health issues (in themselves or others), encourage them to seek help from available resources, and indeed point out that seeking help would not be a sign of weakness or failure.
When one is trained to be physically and mentally disciplined in order to survive the many dangers of potential combat situations, I can very well see how that training would run completely counter to the concept of seeking help to deal with problems not involving others shooting live rounds at you, issues that may even be almost entirely internalized and therefore not at all evident to others.
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1 comment:
Dim Skip: Thank you for making the connection between the two events. In the midst of the sadness I feel at seeing the Memorial Ceremony yesterday (which so reminded me of The Unit episode "Play 16", when the members of The Unit have a Memorial Service for their fallen comrade), was that this was one of the subjects the show was trying to bring to light. Instead, the show was canceled, because no one wants to know such sad things as our men and women in the Military are human and sometimes they need help. The fact that our Government rarely helps our returning Vets, is an atrocity.
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