Canada:The Trauma of War: Finding healing

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The Trauma of War: Finding healing
Machinegunner Tony Spiess, a Seaforth Highlander from Vancouver, was having nightmares, drinking heavily and causing enough trouble to get himself repeatedly arrested.


Despite having returned to Canada from the chaotic battlefronts of the former Yugoslavia, Spiess (left, in Croatia) couldn't go anywhere in public without sitting with his back against a wall. He was sleeping under his bed. He didn't know why.

The survival skills that Spiess had developed to serve him well when the bullets were flying in combat zones -- the stoicism, hyper-vigilance and aggression -- were killing his soul in his peaceful home country.

Many of the comrades of Spiess, who still displays bravado, were doing no better. When Spiess talked on the phone with one of his buddies from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Balkans, he thought the conversation had gone well. But a week later his buddy "took a shotgun to himself."

It's now estimated that hundreds of thousands of emotionally injured North American soldiers are facing a host of destructive inner demons after returning from peacekeeping missions and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The veterans are emotionally crashing while trying to make the transition back to civilian life. They're traumatized. Many, like Spiess (photo below), have trouble living with the horrifying things they witnessed. Or did.

Many feel guilty they could not stop the destruction of innocents.

As soldiers, they have been trained to be hard-assed. But psychologist Marvin Westwood and Dr. David Kuhl, co-directors of a unique program for veterans at the University of B.C., say many soldiers begin discovering they cannot handle their trauma. They feel ashamed of it. And they don't feel understood.
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http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/
thesearch/archive/2008/08/02/the-trauma-of-war-finding-healing.aspx
also on this
The Trauma of War 2: Dropping the "baggage"
The Trauma of War 3: Men learning to deal with grief