Then the bombs went off, and the trauma set in.

Each American generation has its characteristic psychiatric diagnosis, and, typically, a drug or medication that represents the times. When the world was on the verge of blowing up in the Dr. Strangelove 1960s, we lived in the Age of Anxiety. Valium, the drug that symbolized that period, was celebrated in books and movies like "Valley of the Dolls" and songs like the Rolling Stones’ "Mother’s Little Helper." The 1970s was the Age of Malaise, and the drug that attempted to mediate that malaise was cocaine. Starting in the Prozac-fueled late 1980s and 1990s, the omnipresent diagnosis was depression. Later, the diagnosis was attention deficit disorder and the representative drug was Adderall.

Continue Reading...

It didn’t take much, that’s what surprised me.  No battles.  No dead bodies.  I spent just three and a half weeks as a contractor in Iraq, when the war there was at its height, rarely leaving the security of American military bases.

For several years now, Americans have become increasingly aware that a large number of veterans have gotten post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Studies estimate that at least 1 in 5 returning vets -- possibly as many as 1 in 3 -- have it. Less notice has been given to the huge numbers of veterans who suffer some PTSD symptoms but not quite enough to be diagnosed as having the disorder.  Civilian employees of the U.S. government, contractors, and of course the inhabitants of the countries caught up in America’s wars have gotten even less notice.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Number of Iraqi civilians dead as a consequence: At minimum, between 123,000 and 134,000

Number of Iraqis internally displaced or who fled the country: 2.8 million (that's one in 12 Iraqis)

Number of U.S. troop casualties: 4,484

Number of coalition troop casualties: 4,803

Number of U.S. troops wounded: 32,223

Number of non-Iraqi contractors killed: at least 463

Number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnoses in U.S. service members: 103,792

Number of bombs dropped in Shock and Awe Campaign: 4,845

U.S. financial cost so far: $1.7 trillion

Amount owed to U.S. veterans in benefits: $490 billion

Predicted cost to U.S. over next four decades: $6 trillion

Cost of U.S. reconstruction efforts: $60 billion

Amount of reconstruction effort funds wasted: over $8 billion

Continue Reading...

Now he's seeking out another emotionally charged, complex role: that of Chris Kyle, the "American Sniper" author and Navy SEAL who was shot and killed last week, allegedly by Eddie Routh, a war veteran believed to have been struggling with PTSD.

Continue Reading...

Chances are, though, that Kyle never heard of Clausewitz; certainly there's nothing in "American Sniper" to suggest that he ever thought very deeply about his service, or wanted to. The red-blooded superficiality of his memoir is surely the quality that made it appealing to so many readers. Well, that and Kyle's proficiency at his chosen specialty: He boasted of having killed over 250 people during his four deployments as a sniper in Iraq. While Kyle’s physical courage and fidelity to his fellow servicemen were unquestionable, his steadfast imperviousness to any nuance, subtlety or ambiguity, and his lack of imagination and curiosity, seem particularly notable in light of the circumstances of his death. They were also all-too-emblematic of the blustering, tragically misguided self-confidence of the George W. Bush years.

Continue Reading...

According to both the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, the two men were found dead at Rough Creek Lodge’s shooting range west of Glen Rose, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. The Star-Telegram reports that witnesses saw a gunman open fire on the men on Saturday afternoon, around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, before fleeing in a pickup truck belonging to one of the victims. The suspect, Routh, was taken into custody in Lancaster, southeast of Dallas, and arraigned on two counts of capital murder. According to the Associated Press, Capt. Jason Upshaw with the Erath County Sheriff's Office said Routh used a semi-automatic handgun, which authorities later found at his home.

Continue Reading...

The gunman is identified as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, a Vietnam veteran. On Tuesday afternoon, Dykes allegedly stormed into a school bus in Midland City, Ala., shooting the bus driver four times with a 9 mm pistol before taking a child to an underground bunker behind his home. The bus driver, identified as 66-year-old Charles Poland Jr., later died.

Tim Byrd, chief investigator with the Dale County Sheriff’s Office, told Hatewatch that Dykes had “anti-America” views. “His friends and his neighbors stated that he did not trust the government, that he was a Vietnam vet, and that he had PTSD,” Byrd said. “He was standoffish, didn’t socialize or have any contact with anybody. He was a survivalist type.”

Continue Reading...

Seven police officers spoke with Ray Rivera of the New York Times to share a heartbreaking and sobering account of that fateful day, and the reality of post-traumatic stress disorder for those who witness horrific violence in the line of duty.

“One look, and your life was absolutely changed,” Michael McGowan, one of the first to arrive at the school, told the Times.

As the officers recount the gruesome details of December 14, they also paint a picture of tremendous bravery, of young officers -- also fathers -- using their most soothing daddy voice to coax traumatized children out of their classrooms and standing to form a human curtain around the bodies of Dawn Hochsprung, the principal, and Mary Sherlach, the school psychologist, to shield them from the children's view.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Over the weekend, a group of golden retrievers arrived in Newtown, Conn., to do exactly what they do best – to offer a little warmth and sweetness to a town shaken to its core with sorrow. The team of specially trained comfort dogs from Lutheran Church Charities traveled 800 miles to arrive at Christ the King Lutheran Church, where the funerals of two of the children killed in the massacre are being held. As Tim Hetzner, head of the organization, explained to the Chicago Tribune, "Dogs are non-judgmental. They are loving. They are accepting of anyone. It creates the atmosphere for people to share." In just a short time, the animals have already put in their share of work. Hetzner told the Tribune, "You could tell which [townspeople] … were really struggling with their grief because they were quiet. They would pet the dog, and they would just be quiet … I asked [one man] how he is doing. He just kind of teared up and said: 'This year, I've lost five loved ones and now this happened.' The whole town is suffering."

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

The most recent National Comorbidity Study asserted that the prevalence of PTSD in the general population in 3.5 percent -- nearly 10 times less prevalent than in prison security guards. 14.3 percent of New York firefighters were found to suffer from PTSD -- a prevalence rate nearly half that of correctional officers. A National Institutes of Health study from 2009 put the prevalence rate of PTSD in Iraq war veterans (20 percent) below that of prison security officers.

Continue Reading...

Using national administrative data from the Veteran Administration’s largest supported housing program — the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUDVASH) program — between January 2008 and April 2011, the study assessed nearly 100 Iraq and Afghanistan vets (who made up just over 2 percent of all the veterans who went through HUDVASH during that time.

The researchers highlighted key findings:

Continue Reading...

After serving in the Army from 1994 to 2000, Knapp was honorably discharged and moved to Wisconsin, where he met and married his wife, Sharlene. It wasn’t long before the transition to civilian life, which he describes as “absolutely awful,” took a toll: Knapp sank into depression, started abusing narcotic pain pills and later turned to alcohol.

In 2007, he hit what everyone hoped was rock bottom: Knapp, brandishing a loaded gun, contained his wife and their two young children in their home while staging a four-hour standoff with police. “He was telling the police to shoot him,” Sharlene recalls. “He said he just wanted to die, but it was an obvious sign for help.”

Continue Reading...

But too often, people suffering from anxiety disorders fail to respond to the all-clear signal. This leaves them in an ongoing state of heightened tension, which—if it lasts long enough, or gets triggered often enough—can take a severe physical and mental toll. Why are some of us able to relax, while others stay on guard long after any danger has passed?

An answer that could point the way toward breakthrough therapies is emerging from complementary studies of humans and mice. But Ahmad Hariri, a neurobiologist at Duke University, crystallizes the idea with a different animal altogether. He refers to the amygdala, which has been called “the fear center of the brain,” as a sort of watchdog. “A watchdog responds reflexively to threat,” he notes. It’s up to its owner to say ‘That’s enough. I heard you bark. I checked it out. It’s okay.’”

Continue Reading...

I met my European spouse on a fully financed study trip in 2004, when I was the oldest student participant, at 27 years old, and we had a rock 'n' roll fairy-tale courtship. I had never traveled outside of the U.S. before, but had met the guitarist of the band that my now-husband was the sound engineer for at a SXSW party in Austin, Texas. My future husband and I had a wild one-night stand in the attic of a London party. We never thought that the romance would culminate in a long-term partnership, but due to my winning a few study-abroad fellowships (in 2004-2005) and his joining bands for U.S. tours we were able to maintain our relationship for a couple of years until I finally won a scholarship to study in his home country in 2007. We were married in 2008.

Before we lived together, he had warned me that he had dark moments and did not expect to live past 36 (he is now 41). I identified with him all the more when he said this, as I have suffered from depression on and off as long as I can remember. Somehow, at first, I didn't connect these admissions of his with his experience as a soldier in the former Yugoslavia in 1995.

Continue Reading...

Opening up about the PTSD that hit her after an emergency C-section and the premature birth of her daughter, Valenti writes: "The eight weeks that Layla was in the hospital – while the emergency was still in full force – I was fine." Only later did the flashbacks, the mini-blackouts and sleep deprivation kick in. Rare restful nights were no consolation, because that's when the nighmares arrived.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...