Post by Admin on May 30, 2016 13:52:31 GMT -5
Tom Davis of the Interfaith Veterans Workgroup made me aware of this timely and excellent article and while it's not specifically about mindfulness, it sure seems to me to be problem for which mindfulness-based treatments seem most appropriate. The article by Benedict Carey in the May 29th, 2016 New York Times is about those Iraq and Afghanistan vets with multiple combat tours (5 or more). He quotes some research which indicates some surprises when compared with most of the recommended approaches for treating PTSD. Below is the part which seems to highlight the key points of the piece and the research:
Those With Multiple Tours of War Overseas Struggle at Home
Benedict Carey, New York Times, May 29, 2016
....After 14 years of war, the number of veterans with multiple tours of combat duty is the largest in modern American history — more than 90,000
soldiers and Marines, many of them elite fighters who deployed four or more times. New evidence suggests that these veterans are not like most
others when it comes to adjusting to civilian life.
An analysis of Army data shows that, unlike most of the military, these soldiers’ risk of committing suicide actually drops when they are deployed
and soars after they return home. For the 85 percent of soldiers who make up the rest of the service and were deployed, the reverse is true.
“It’s exactly the opposite of what you see in the trauma literature, where more exposure predicts more problems,” said Ronald Kessler of Harvard,
who led the study.
The findings may shed a clearer light on the need of this important group of veterans, whose experience is largely unparalleled in American
history, in their numerous exposures to insurgent warfare, without clear fronts or predictable local populations. Researchers are finding that
these elite fighters do not easily fit into the classic mold of veterans traumatized by their experience in war. As psychologists and others grow
to understand this, they are starting to rethink some approaches to their treatment.
The idea that these elite fighters can adapt solely by addressing emotional trauma, some experts said, is badly misplaced. Their primary
difficulty is not necessarily one of healing emotional wounds; they thrived in combat. It is rather a matter of unlearning the very skills that
have kept them alive: unceasing vigilance; snap decision making; intolerance for carelessness; the urge to act fast and decisively.
To read entire article:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/health/veterans-iraq-afghanistan-psychology-therapy.html
Benedict Carey, New York Times, May 29, 2016
....After 14 years of war, the number of veterans with multiple tours of combat duty is the largest in modern American history — more than 90,000
soldiers and Marines, many of them elite fighters who deployed four or more times. New evidence suggests that these veterans are not like most
others when it comes to adjusting to civilian life.
An analysis of Army data shows that, unlike most of the military, these soldiers’ risk of committing suicide actually drops when they are deployed
and soars after they return home. For the 85 percent of soldiers who make up the rest of the service and were deployed, the reverse is true.
“It’s exactly the opposite of what you see in the trauma literature, where more exposure predicts more problems,” said Ronald Kessler of Harvard,
who led the study.
The findings may shed a clearer light on the need of this important group of veterans, whose experience is largely unparalleled in American
history, in their numerous exposures to insurgent warfare, without clear fronts or predictable local populations. Researchers are finding that
these elite fighters do not easily fit into the classic mold of veterans traumatized by their experience in war. As psychologists and others grow
to understand this, they are starting to rethink some approaches to their treatment.
The idea that these elite fighters can adapt solely by addressing emotional trauma, some experts said, is badly misplaced. Their primary
difficulty is not necessarily one of healing emotional wounds; they thrived in combat. It is rather a matter of unlearning the very skills that
have kept them alive: unceasing vigilance; snap decision making; intolerance for carelessness; the urge to act fast and decisively.
To read entire article:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/health/veterans-iraq-afghanistan-psychology-therapy.html