Iraq Is Such a House of Trauma, It Doesn't Take Much to Get PTSD

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/world/iraq-such-house-trauma-it-doesnt-take-much-get-ptsd




I was one nightmare short of PTSD.

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.

The thing is: It doesn't take much to develop the symptoms of PTSD. Our idea of what used to be called "shell shock" tends to be limited to terrible battles, not just the daily stress of living in a war zone or surviving a couple of close calls.

[democrank]

1. Our vets need help.

Enough political grandstanding. Enough posing with flags. Enough empty rhetoric. Just help these men and women.

[KoKo]

2. Powerful Read...here's another snip:

And what about the people who actually live in the war-torn country, who don't get to escape the war and go back to a peaceful home at the end of a deployment? Civilians are the great victims of modern war. In Afghanistan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 42% of Afghans suffered from PTSD and 68% showed signs of major depression -- and that, mind you, was back in 2002. The country's health minister estimated in 2010 that 60% of Afghans suffer from mental-health problems. Beyond prayer, that country has close to zero services to help its people. Washington’s “nation-builders” tend to forget about basic things like this.

These are not just short-term human costs that will fade away as my PTSD symptoms did. I was a lucky one, briefly in theater and mostly sheltered. For some, the trauma lingers for decades. Today, an American veteran of any war takes his or her own life every 65 minutes. Veterans account for 1% of the overall population but 22.2% of the nation's suicides, and the majority of those happen after age 50. In other words, as with the debt we used to fund the wars, we will pay -- and shirk -- these costs for many years to come.
t doesn't take much to develop PTSD symptoms. The folks clamoring for new wars should remember that. Those defending the Obama administration's drone-missile targeted assassination campaigns should keep that in mind, too. Admittedly, robots don’t develop the disorder, but drone pilots hundreds or thousands of miles away are at risk, and civilians who live where drones regularly hover and strike are already suffering from PTSD. For me, it only took a few explosions.

Civilian officials who beat their chests about making "hard choices" and "tough decisions" should listen up. They have no idea how many eggs they are breaking to make their proverbial omelets. Would it matter if they did? I suspect that it would, if they recognized that people have soft shells, if they considered how war harms most everyone it touches, if they spent even a moment laying their cold assumptions aside and empathizing with war's victims -- their victims -- both foreign and domestic.

I have a mental image of them relaxing in their homes, watching a movie. On the flat screen, scenes of war flash by, inspiring them, giving them ideas. I used to love war movies, too. Almost six years later, I still can't watch them. The old panic sets in and I have to walk away.

[madrchsod]

3. just think of the iraqi`s who have suffered since desert storm..

we have been at war with iraq since desert storm. although the war is over for us it is`t for the iraqi people. one if not the most despicable thing this country has done in our name. i have no idea what the historians will write about the us involvement in iraq since reagan`s selling poison gas to the iraq`s to the last american to leave the country. i do think it will not be to our citizen`s liking.