(MintPress)— A week after US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales left his post on a base in Afghanistan in the middle of the night, walked to a nearby village, and opened-fire, killing 16 unarmed civilians, then setting many of them on fire, people across the world are struggling to comprehend the soldier’s actions.
The horrific event is shedding light on a broader issue; that of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) experienced by US military members. But is the US government and American society in general asking the right questions, and giving enough attention to the issues surrounding the mental health of military members an veterans?
The Bales Case as a Flashpoint
According to the Christian Science Monitor, “The details will be unique to Sgt. Bales. But inevitably they boil down to what hundreds of thousands of GIs have experienced over 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan: the sometimes almost unbearable stress of violent combat and the strains of military life on individuals and their families.”
Bales, who sits in solitary confinement in a US military prison in Leavenworth, Kan. is described as a loving husband and father by his friends and family, which is why what led Bales to go on the alleged shooting rampage is so difficult for so many to understand.
While he could face life in prison or the death penalty, Bales, who was on his fourth tour, hasn’t issued any public statements about the incident, which killed nine children. A total of 11 victims belonged to one family.
Media reports have delved into Bales’ past looking for answers. One news report which surfaced over the weekend detailed Bales’ troubled past, citing court records and interviews that showed “that the 10-year veteran — with a string of commendations for good conduct after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan — had joined the Army after a Florida investment job went sour, had a Seattle-area home condemned, struggled to make payments on another and failed to get a promotion or a transfer a year ago. His legal troubles included charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a hit-and run accident, ran bleeding in military clothes into the woods, court records show. He told police he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed”.
Another report on Monday hinted that while Bales is awaiting formal charges, his attorneys have busied themselves assembling their case, which is anticipated to argue that Bales “was not in a healthy mental state, suffering from post traumatic distress disorder after four tours of duty and two injuries.”
“Everybody who has had three or four deployments to the Middle East is going to have some form of PTSD,” Lead defense attorney John Henry Browne told Christian Broadcast News.
But, is the US government and military asking the questions needed to prevent unfortunate issues stemming from PTSD from becoming more prevalent?
No Spotlight on PTSD
First Lady Michelle Obama stopped in Minnesota on Friday, briefly meeting with local military family members and representatives of support groups at the state’s Air National Guard base in St. Paul.
The event was touted as a round table discussion, which media were invited to attend, but were only able to view and photograph for 20 minutes, without the ability to ask any questions, before being ushered out of the building by Secret Service. It was part of the First Lady’s Joining Forces initiative, which aims to connect and promote support and resource groups for military families.
She and Dr. Jill Biden, the vice president’s wife, launched the initiative last year in an effort to boost the nation’s support of troops, veterans and their families.
Obama said she believed that Minnesota was “a model” when it comes to providing resources and support to military families, adding “I want to make sure that the rest of the nation understands how you work as a state, how your organizations come together, the needs of our military families and how organizations can serve them.”
But there was no formal talk of mental health care services or issues at the event.
Mrs. Obama began the discussion by praising the military, thanking the family members for their sacrifices. “One percent of this country is serving and sacrificing on behalf of the 99 percent,” she said, adding that “a lot of the time America does not understand the struggle military families and kids go through.”
At one end of the table sat 13-year old Alex Homme, who’s father was slated to deploy two days after the first lady’s visit. He sobbed openly as Tracy Clark spoke of her son Ryan Clark, who was killed at age 22 in Afghanistan while serving in the Army in 2010.
Clark read from a letter her son wrote to her before he left, “I say goodbye for now. When I return I know everything will be different. Don’t worry about me,” Clark read, choking back tears, “Just keep me in your prayers.”
Clark says that for her son’s funeral in the small town of New London, Minnesota, she had asked community members to bake on thousand chocolate chip cookies, as they were her son’s favorite. She was overwhelmed by the support of her community, she said, when seventeen thousand cookies were made.
Melissa Soukup, whose husband, LTC Troy J. Soukup has been deployed for two tours, and has been gone three out of the last six years of their families’ life was also asked to be part of the event, taking a seat at the First Lady’s round table discussion.
In an interview with Mint Press before the event, Soukep said she has felt well-supported by the military and her community, but added that she wanted to “Make sure the support is going to continue after they [soldiers] get home,” noting that in the Vietnam War it wasn’t until year’s later that many veterans were diagnosed with severe mental issues stemming from their time in the military.
But Soukup wasn’t asked about her perspective on that issue at the discussion, instead she told of help from the group Defending the Blue Line, which offers free hockey equipment and financial assistance for children of deployed soldiers in Minnesota to play hockey. She said the non-profit made it possible for her two daughters to play hockey this year.
Another panel participant, Joy Westenberg, discussed her non-profit, Project EverGreen’s GreenCare for Troops, which helps military families with free lawn and landscape assistance while a family member is deployed.
But is baking cookies, mowing laws and providing extra-curricular activities for military kids getting to the heart of the problems affecting military families and members?
The First Lady spent about 45 minutes with the round table members, then departed for a private fundraiser for her husband President Barack Obama’s campaign at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where donors paid between $250 and $10,000 to attend.
Mass Effects of PTSD
Approximately 300,000 vets are currently diagnosed with PTSD. The illness afflicts about 20 percent of returning military personnel and up to a third of those returning from multiple deployments.
Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder says that someone who suffers from PTSD “is someone whose life has been dramatically changed after exposure to a catastrophic event.”
The experience alters how the patient’s brain processes information, how he or she reacts to the environment, and how he or she behaves with loved ones and strangers, according to a 2011 article.
In the past year alone the number of diagnosed cases of PTSD in the military jumped 50 percent– and that’s just diagnosed cases, one source said.
In an article published on Military.com, Master Sgt. Sue Harper says that pre-deployment screenings and redeployment surveys are administered to try and help soldiers who suffer from the issue, in addition to Combat Stress Teams, 24-hour hotlines and a host of other programs and systems.
However, many current military members, like Bales perhaps, and those returning from service go undiagnosed, “The stigma of being thought of as a wimp or a malingerer because off-duty conversations and attitudes on the subject might carry the themes that PTSD is not real or only impacts cowards or is something used by people trying to avoid a deployment or duty is stopping Soldiers from seeking help early enough to prevent or mitigate the onset of both varieties of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and life-ruining behaviors,” Harper writes.
She adds that trends show that soldiers who need help are not stepping forward to get that help.
“Of the service personnel who met the criteria for mental disorders less than half, 38 to 45 percent, expressed interest in receiving help, and around a third, 23 to 40 percent, of those people sought professional help,” she said, and those who “work with, love, or provide medical care for combat veterans must be alert to the signs of this insidious disorder.”
Military Family Members Speak Out
Nicole Lovald, another participant in the panel, whose spouse is now home after being deployed twice, to Kosovo and Iraq, said in an interview with MintPress that it was “challenging” for her husband to come back, but she knew it would be. “The military tells you, hey, it’s not going to be perfect when they get back,” she said.
She said her husband has not been formally diagnosed with PTSD, but admitted he may have it, citing an incident which took place after he returned. He attended a birthday party for his son at a water park, Lovald said, but complained that the over-stimulation bothered him.
While Lovald says her husband has the support of his family, she acknowledged that all vets “aren’t so lucky.”
W. Brad Johnson, an Associate Professor of psychology at the United States Naval Academy, believes, “As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wear on, hundreds of thousands of veterans are at significant risk for a particularly distressing and impairing mental health syndrome: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.”
Johnson notes that there are a variety of symptoms which can be indicative of PTSD, including:
- Exaggerated startle response (especially to sudden movement or loud noises)
- Intense psychological distress when exposed to cues or reminders of any aspect of the trauma
- Poor concentration
- Irritability/anger
- Disturbances in one’s ability to sleep
“Beyond the severity of the traumatic event itself, key risk factors include poor social support after the trauma, additional life stressors, adverse childhood events, lower education, prior traumatic exposure, and gender — women are at greater risk,” he points out, adding that a landmark 2004 study seeking to calculate the psychiatric prevalence of military members suffering mental problems from the Iraq theatre found that 16 percent of those returning from Iraq suffered from mental health problems, the most prominent among them being PTSD.
Johnson also noted that these rates “understate” the scope of the mental problems experienced by American was veterans, as depression, substance abuse, marital discord, and impulsive anger are also side effects of combat exposure. Among veterans, he said, “prevalence of mental issues are directly proportional to exposure to combat.”
Treatment for PTSD often includes various types of medications, such as antipsychotics, to relieve severe anxiety and related problems, and anitdepressants, as well as phychotehrapy, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Source: MintPress