Brig. Gen. (and former POW) Rhonda Cornum is working to eliminate PTSD.
Here’s more on Cornum.
And here’s more on PTSD.
And here’s more on the program, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.
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Dating Jesus 
Although her intentions are good, “tough it out” can lead to repression and serious mental health problems later on.
I’d like to see the whole program. I’d like to see how they intend to train soldiers to withstand the kind of awful things inherent in war, and then I’d like to know what happens to those soldiers afterward. Are they untrained so that they can feel again?
Agreed.
I’m sure that they do train the military to withstand the possibilities of being a POW, but it seems that Ms. Cornum is taking this to a new level.
I have (had?) PTSD. It’s a tricky bitch.
Ditto
Ditto. You never know what’s going to trigger it. At least, I didn’t.
On that note, I don’t think the military wants to deal with it because those who suffer from it REALLY shouldn’t be in combat. They can’t afford that though.
My own newspaper (Hartford Courant) did a fabulous series on “Unfit to Fight,” and how the military was ignoring the obvious mental issues of its fighting men and women. It was a real eye-opener.
I remember that but I don’t remember the details. What was the military’s excuse for not paying attention to obvious mental issues? Was it a funding issue?
The one thing I read is that the Army didn’t want to let him go, considering the amount of money they’d spent on his medical training.
A report I half-heard yesterday suggested there were those who WERE trying to get rid of him, but couldn’t think of a way to do it. One effort (at least as I heard it) was to try to use the fact that he was heavy.
I heard that, too. Didn’t they abandon that? I half-heard it, myself.
Yeah, I think it was one of their considerations as they tried to think of ways to dump him.
Which was, I’m sure, a fraction of what is spent on one rocket.
Speaking of cost…I’m loading up another entry right…about…now…
“On that note, I don’t think the military wants to deal with it because those who suffer from it REALLY shouldn’t be in combat. They can’t afford that though”
But . . . but . . . PTSD comes after the ordeal. That’s why it’s called post traumatic stress disorder.
That’s true, but PTSD can manifest itself fairly quickly. Look at Nidal Hasan, for one. It’s not fair of me to diagnose him from afar (and without a degree for doing so) but he worked with people with PTSD at Walter Reed in D.C., and there’s a good argument to be made that that severely affected him. And he didn’t even see battle. PTSD can manifest itself nearly immediately and if a soldier is still stationed in, say, Kabul, then that soldier is impaired and still expected to perform.
“After the ordeal” could be a week into their first deployment or it could be during the 2nd, 3rd, 4th…deployment. Or, they could be triggered before they even go from earlier traumas or from hearing one horrific story after another from the returning soldiers. As Vegas said, it’s a tricky bitch. One thing is for sure: no one chooses PTSD – it happens to them – and it can hit a person like a ton of bricks out of the blue with the right trigger. Clear thinking is very difficult in the midst of it and so I also think that people suffering from it shouldn’t be in combat. But as Vegas mentioned, the military can’t afford that.
I wonder why PTSD, as it’s discussed openly, is primarily centered around combat PTSD. There are other things that can severely traumatize a person. If you look at other professions, I would think that police departments must deal with officers who develop it. Maybe some personality types are less likely to develop it when exposed to trauma. I wonder if they can test those things before a person chooses to be in a profession (military or otherwise) that has a high probability of exposing the person to a trauma. When a person joins the military, they know that they are going into a situation that is likely to be traumatic.
When I was diagnosed some years back, I tried to argue with the therapist because I hadn’t been in combat. I don’t think PTSD is nearly as fully explored as it could be. And it’s an excellent idea to pretest, though I don’t know if that’s actually done.
I can relate to that. I was shocked when PTSD was mentioned to me, however, I knew nothing about it. I thought I was going nuts. Once I learned what it was, it fit perfectly. I only knew of the combat connection. Dammit – why won’t people talk about it?
Years ago they used to call it shell shock and my Grandfather had it after coming home from WWII. He was a marine on Iwo Jima and saw his best buddy get blown up, then he got hit in the gut by a piece of shrapnel. Once he showed the shrapnel to me, but he didn’t really talk much about his time on Iwo Jima. It was horrible for him to think about it even 50 years later.
I would think that there are some things so horrible that they would most likely affect just about everyone in a PTSD way but I don’t know for sure.
Maybe renaming it PTSD instead of shell shock is progress, but it’s not enough progress in my book.
I agree. It’s not progress so long as we know so very little about it.
I can’t tell if you are joking here, Jay. Because this would only make sense if soldiers were sent back home, never to return, after their first combat experience.
An MD is licensed to practice any form of medicine, regardless of training. He could have been assigned to bandaging up scraped knees at the base Doc in a Box facility, where he couldn’t do too much harm.
Or maybe he could. Imagine this guy doing surgery and suddenly goes bonkers while holding a scalpel.
Good Lord. He seems unfit in just about every way.
“Maybe renaming it PTSD instead of shell shock is progress, but it’s not enough progress in my book”
The American Psychological Association loves to re-name psychiatric conditions. Remember “Manic Depressive?” It’s now called Bipolar or something like that.
Every few years APA publishes a new edition of their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the Bible of mental health professionals. So, they have to come up with something new in order to justify selling those new editions. Sort of like your college textbooks.
And those aren’t cheap, are they? Where did I read the author of a college textbook can issue a new edition if they rewrite roughly 10 percent of the text?
While this is true we are also learning new things about mental health all the time. PTSD makes more sense than shell shock and we are still only just beginning to research it’s effects. For instance, I’ve had the diagnoses of depression, anxiety and bipolar 2 at different times all under the blanket of PTSD because the symptoms can change.
For real? Is that because the symptoms change and/or the propensity to diagnose PTSD shifts, as well? I swear I’m not questining the diagnosis. I’m not qualified to do that, but when I was diagnosed with PTSD it was just that moment becoming a diagnosis that had left the fort. In other words, it was just starting to be a diagnosis for civilians.
Yeah, I don’t understand all of it but I was treated for bipolar 2 for a while and then just for anxiety and mild depression. He said that this can happen under a PTSD diagnosis. Hence my tricky bitch comment.
Wow. Tricky bitch-diagnosis is right.
How long has PTSD been a diagnosis? I really didn’t know much about it before my diagnosis. I thought most people that have PTSD also have other issues casued by PTSD (like depression etc.). Is that what you mean, Vegas? I was thinking that there’s the actual PTSD and possibly the associated coping issues, and then there’s the additional depression & anxiety that can be develop from living with PTSD. It can be really hard to live through.
This (http://www.psychiatric-disorders.com/articles/ptsd/causes-and-history/history-of-ptsd.php) says 1980, but that’s just how long the name’s been out there, I guess. The way PTSD was explained to me (not saying it’s right) is that’s it’s often a perfectly legitimate reaction to trauma, but then you keep having that reaction even without the trauma.
Because a trigger will make you think you are in danger of trauma, I think. I think that’s why it can be more difficult for people who have been traumatized over and over. I bet it reinforces the response.
Your link was interesting. I noticed it focused on combat PTSD (Ahhhh!), but oh well. I also noticed this and wonder why it’s true:
“•American women serving in Iraq tend to suffer from more severe and debilitating forms of PTSD. “
If my comment that suddenly got sucked into WordPress ends up on someone else’s blog, I sure hope it’s pertinent. ANYWAY: I have done shockingly little reading on women and combat PTSD, but it’s a good question to ask why, if it is true that women suffer more severe and debilitating forms from Iraq.
You know, I’m not sure. I just know what my psychiatrist told me. I think it came up when we decided to stop treating me for bipolar 2. I felt like I didn’t have those symptoms anymore and he said these things can change when you have PTSD. I took it to mean that it wasn’t like someone who just has bipolar because in my case, the bipolar is caused by or a result of the PTSD so it can change.
I’m only talking about my own experience though, I haven’t read about it.
I find this really fascinating. To me, PTSD is probably underdiagnosed (again, only anecdotally) but there are people (mostly those who don’t want to give any more money to veterans) who disagree.
That makes sense. My psychologist doesn’t use the labels much, but she gently brought it up several times. I thought it was most helpful when she explained that everything I was feeling and my reactions were NORMAL for a person who had been through the things I had been through. I had been really struggling with PTSD AND I was beating up on myself for reacting that way. I thought I had failed miserably and was becoming hopeless. She had to tell me a number of times that IT WAS A NORMAL REACTION. When it sunk in, I broke down in tears hearing that. That’s why I get concerned when I hear about a military attempt to “eliminate” PTSD through training. I can easily imagine how the soldiers will feel when the training doesn’t work. I’m pretty sure some will feel they failed, they weren’t strong enough. The military isn’t likely to accept responsibility for failing the soldiers. What will that do to them? I think I know.
I think I’m slowly finding a new cause for myself, and I’m not even kidding.
I’m losing track – what’s your new cause?
PTSD and women. I lost track, too.
Awesome! It needs attention for sure.
I disliked that Daily Beast article and I question this women’s credentials. According to the article:
But one suspects she would not have needed such preparation in the first place. “I have always been a daredevil with a disciplined mind,”
What does that say about the people who do develop PTSD? Is it that they aren’t brave enough and they have undisciplined minds? That’s crap!
Also, this woman is a surgeon (specializing in urology), not a psychiatrist or even a psychologist. What training does she have in treating psychological trauma? Yes, she was traumatized herself, but that doesn’t mean she is an authority in treating other people. Does the military also have psychiatrists performing urological surgeries? What was that term you used, leftover? FUTBF (I’m sure I have that wrong)
Leftover used FUBAR, but FUTBF counts, too. I get your point. That she was able to withstand the trauma is no indication that people who can’t withstand the trauma are any less than she. I think it’s going to be a very sticky wicket to try to train soldiers to feel no pain. That’s an overstatement, I know, but I think the better answer is to screen more fully for PTSD and other trauma-induced disorders, and then have the mechanism in place to remove those so afflicted. We feel pain for a reason. I can’t believe that somewhere down the road, even the best-trained of our military don’t pay the price.
Oh well, I remembered the most important part: FU.
Exactly! Per the article, “jumping off barns and climbing trees” as a kid is no justification for PTSD resiliency. My Grandfather was a tough marine and even a drill sargeant and he developed it. Little kids can go through horrible trauma and then not be affected until adulthood. That certainly doesn’t mean they were tougher as kids. It doesn’t mean they are weak adults.
Too true.
” “But one suspects she would not have needed such preparation in the first place. “I have always been a daredevil with a disciplined mind,”
“What does that say about the people who do develop PTSD? Is it that they aren’t brave enough and they have undisciplined minds? That’s crap!”
My vastly-undisciplined mind had a glimmer of that same idea when I read the article yesterday (but I wandered off onto something else). This reminds me a bit of our discussion about who gets nauseated at the prospect of an injection, and we talked about how some very brave people are subject to that nausea. There just isn’t a causal relationship between discipline / brave-ness and PTSD (or nausea), I’ll bet.
Perhaps an experience different from what Cornum suffered might bring about PTSD in her — no way of knowing. I also think she has very cold eyes, but that’s (probably) irrelevant.
The photo I posted is not the most attractive one out there, as for her eyes. I didn’t post it to be hateful but it seemed to fit. It’s hard to say what will trigger PTSD in each person. I mean, we’re all different and we all react to different stressors.
Good point. One isn’t the better, stronger response; it’s just one of the possible responses.
“Also, this woman is a surgeon (specializing in urology), not a psychiatrist or even a psychologist. What training does she have in treating psychological trauma”
Wonder if she told the soldiers that she was going to operate without giving them anesthesia.
Toughens them up, ya know.
That would be a powerful motivator…
Let’s hope not!