We have seen in our recent readings and viewings of “Apocalypse
Now,” “The Banana Fish” and “The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, the scars
that war leaves on soldiers are not purely physical; the psychological effects
of war are very real and very prominent in every one in eight returning
soldiers. We saw Captain Kurtz go insane under the pressure of war, we watched
as Mary Anne Bell transform from a sweet, innocent girl into a savage brute as
a result of being brought into war, and we learned of Seymour’s suicide
attempts before seeing him crack under the weight of the blood on his hands as
a result of fighting in a war. War is a terrible burden on the minds of
soldiers, and the more we learn of the human mind, the better we can see the
mental scars of the ones who return. The overwhelming statistics are discouragingly
gloomy. One in five veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are officially
diagnosed with PTSD, or Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder, which is defined as a
condition that's triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or
witnessing it. Hundreds of others who aren’t diagnosed suffer in silence:
almost 40% of those who experience symptoms don’t seek out medical help. The
suicide rate of veterans is nearly double that of the general population: about
8,000 each year, or 22 every day. The majority of this number are men between
the ages of 50 and 59. The numbers are staggering but they do not end there;
other statistics regarding the mental health of our soldiers are just as undesirable.
While
depression and PTSD are the most common mental health problems, there are many
other effects and difficulties tackled by soldiers. Unfortunately, 30% of
soldiers develop mental problems within 3 to 4 months of being home, but only
56% of veterans will seek out professional treatment. Those who don’t may turn
to more unconventional methods of dealing with their ghosts: 20% of veterans will
eventually turn to heavy drinking or drugs once they return. There are
different reasons for the manifestation of these problems. Some of the more
common causes are TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), and MST (Military Sexual
Trauma). Between 10 and 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have suffered a
TBI, causing radical changes in personality, especially anger and suicidal
thoughts. 55% of women and 38% of men report being victim to sexual harassment
while serving in the military, but because men make up a larger portion of the military,
more than half of those who suffered from MST are men. Although so many of our
soldiers suffer from intense psychological disorders, there are several forms
are treatment that have varying levels of success.
Since PTSD
is the most common mental health illness experienced by veterans, it makes
sense that it should have the most treatment. Cognitive therapy is one type of
treatment used to decrease the effects of PTSD. In cognitive therapy, your
therapist helps you understand and change how you think about your trauma and
its aftermath. In cognitive therapy, the soldiers learns to identify the
thoughts that make him upset, and will try to replace those thoughts with less
stressful ones as a way of coping with negative emotions. Exposure therapy is
designed to reduce fear of memories by talking about them in detail and
focusing on them. The goal is to desensitize the soldier so that their memories
affect them less. EDMR, or Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, is
used by having the soldier think or talk about their memories, then having them
focus on other stimuli like eye movements, hand taps, and sounds. While the validity
of this type of therapy is still being debated, it has proved effective in some
cases. As a last resort, SRIs, or serotonin reuptake inhibitors are used to
ward off depression, because an excess of serotonin is the root of a large
portion of depression cases. SSRIs include citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (Prozac),
paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Zoloft). All in all, although the
statistics of mental health problems in soldiers are unfortunately high, there
are ways to help reduce the effects of the scars that war leaves.
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