Combat Veterans May Have the Antidote to What Ails Us

[unhappycamper]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-yeomans/combat-veterans-may-have-_b_4218014.html

Combat Veterans May Have the Antidote to What Ails Us
Peter Yeomans
Posted: 11/05/2013 8:25 am

An icon of the music industry had just died and a 22-year Army veteran with five combat deployments sat in my office crying. His sorrow was not for the departed celebrity. He was grieving for U.S. fallen soldiers, and for the irony that so many of us were mourning the diva's death while so few of us knew the name of one soldier or Marine cut down in Iraq or Afghanistan. This man's grief lay in the chasm between a world view forged in battle and the norms of mainstream American culture. In the words of psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, soldiers realize that they have made the ultimate sacrifice to a country in which they feel they no longer belong.

Over two million service men and women have returned from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many survivors of Vietnam and other wars are still with us. It is estimated that 20-30% are suffering from PTSD, while others struggle with depression, addiction, or both. Whether infantry, supply, combat engineers, the war zone is rife with potent traumatic events. Veteran Affairs and other medical centers across the country are working to provide "best practices" in treatment. Despite the best efforts of the VA and other clinics, many of our combat veterans do not benefit sufficiently from the treatments offered.

Members of our armed services suffer from something more than the stress of war. An acute sense of alienation often rivals the distress of the traumatic experiences they may have experienced. Grave loneliness emanates from feeling that there is no one who could possibly understand the profoundly changed world view that the war has shaped in them. They have undergone a fundamental shift in values, as the war zone teaches these men and women life lessons at a depth at which few of us are forced to grapple.

In psychotherapy sessions with these veterans, I hear revelations about the preciousness of life and the foolishness of materialism. I hear testimonies to unflinching commitments to protect the vulnerable, and loyalty to a friend that transcends any thought of self -- not just Army slogans, but rather values that have been rooted in action. Back at home these veterans seek to continue to live according to what they have learned, and they cannot tolerate that we do not all live by standards borne out of necessities of survival. Upon homecoming veterans feel ambushed by a social climate of perceived immortality, selfishness, materialism, shallow relationships, and celebrity idolatry.

[democrank]

1. Thank you for posting this.

Based on life with a terminally ill Vietnam Veteran and our zillion trips to the VA, I can tell you first hand that most veterans I`ve spoken with have little interest in frivolity and shallow priorities. "Life-altering" experiences are just that....life altering. Those experiences seem to automatically cast off meaningless crap and turn full attention to life and death issues.

Many veterans feel alienated because more attention is paid to the newest gadget craze than the sickening number of daily veteran suicides. Many in the mainstream media don`t even question chopping food stamp allotments to veterans and their families or question the outrageous number of veterans who have lost their homes through foreclosure. It`s just a giant collective yawn followed by fever-pitch excitement over box stores deciding to open on Thanksgiving Day.

Trauma is a bitch, especially if you`re going through it in the middle of a crowd that can`t be bothered.

We have a lot to learn from our veterans and we should be listening.