Adm. Mike Mullen:PTSD "pretty normal and pretty human,"

Help for soldiers fighting the war within
The first salvo in the battle against record soldier suicides ought to be aimed at stamping out shame and other stigmas associated with mental-health challenges. Next under fire: the military's appallingly sparse mental-health-workers corps.

THE New England Journal of Medicine found in 2004 that 15 percent of Iraq war vets had major depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Two wars and multiple deployments later, the alarming rise in soldier suicides should not be surprising.

Suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have more than doubled, going from 52 in 2004 to 110 in 2006, according to the latest statistics available from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Army reported 115 suicides in its ranks last year. If that trend continues, the suicide rate for that branch of the military will outpace the civilian suicide rate of 19.5 people per 100,000.

During a Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing last week on the Department of Defense's 2010 budget, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., challenged military leaders. Their response was encouraging. Spending for mental-health services is increasing by 75 percent, from $428 million this year to $750 million in 2010. Mandatory mental-health screening for all enlisted personnel is the long-term goal.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called soldier anxieties "pretty normal and pretty human," necessary words to emphasize that mental-health problems aren't career enders.
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Help for soldiers fighting the war within

Adm. Mike Mullen needs to repeat this over and over again until if finally sinks in. If you have PTSD, you are normal! You are human! You are not weak, a coward, a slacker and you are not anything there is to be ashamed of. Yes, it's as simple as that.

How can you think that this wound (reminder Trauma is Greek for Wound) has anything to do with any kind of sudden deficiency in you? As a matter of fact it's because of something so strong in you that you were able to endure it, tough enough to get thru it until the battle was over. Did you just suddenly say, "I've had enough Sarge." then drop your weapon and walk away? Did you think only of yourself and walk away? That's the point you miss constantly.

The same strength within you allowing you to do what you do when you risk you life for the sake of others, is also the same reason you ended up carrying it all away with you. It's your ability to feel. They cannot stop you from feeling no matter how much they train you or tell you that you can suddenly stop being what you were from birth. Look back at your life. Were you the type of person always caring about others? Were you the type of person always ready to help? Did you feel things deeply? Did you set your own comfort or safety aside for the sake of someone else? If you answered yes, then how can you forget what you've always been?

Aside from being married to one of you, I've talked to your brothers and sisters for 27 years. The vast majority of you show this common characteristic. Call it sympathetic or empathetic, it's in most of you. While you tend to confuse this with being soft, you need to understand this characteristic is what rests behind your bravery.

You are the type of person that will risk their life to rush out into traffic to save a child. You are the type of person to rush into a burning building, putting lives in danger ahead of your life. You just didn't enter into the fire department, you went into the military instead. You are the type of person that will face off with criminals with a guns ready to use any means to stop them from hurting anyone else. You just didn't enter into the police department but went into the military instead. You are the type of person that will respond to horrific accidents to rescue people risking your life to get there, preparing to face whatever there is to save a life. Instead of becoming an EMT, you became a soldier in the National Guard. Aside from the courage it takes for you to do what you do, it was your ability to care that set you off on the road few others have traveled. Caring required the courage to act for the sake of someone else. Caring is not weakness. It is the core of your courage.

Medal of Honor recipients, no matter the wounds they had already received, no matter the odds against them, they put others ahead of themselves. Did that take caring about others more than themselves? Did that require courage? So why is it that you think caring is weakness? If you didn't care wouldn't you have walked away without feeling the kind of pain you feel? No matter how much pain you felt inside, you still did what you had to do until your tour of duty was over, or when the mission itself was over and your friends were safe again. You pushed on with the pain inside of you because you put others first. That is what heroes are made of. That same characteristic is inside of you.

Now, with that sunk in, allow me to continue to the second part of the journey of your life. The most important factor in how that part of the journey begins is when you begin to get treated for this wound you are carrying. If treated early enough, most of what your going thru, what your mind is trying to cope with, can be reversed. Still even if it's been years, it's not too late to heal. Time is not your friend but there is no time limit on healing.

Vietnam veterans, Korean War veterans and even WWII veterans are being treated for PTSD even though they carried this within them for all of these years and they are finding a better quality of life than they dreamed was ever possible to live again. With treatment and medication, spiritual reconnection and understanding the responses you have, you can come out on the other side a better person. All of this goes into supporting the caring part of you that has been trapped behind the wall your mind trapped it behind to protect it. It's all still there. The person you thought you lost along the way is still there. The anger no longer has to act to protect your heart.

When veterans begin to heal, they feel a rush of emotions as the wall begins to crumble. Tears usually flow after. This is not a bad thing. It's a good thing because your sensitivity is being awakened. It's the part of humans allowing us to feel love, joy and hope. It is what allows us to look up at the sky when day light is ending and actually feel the sunset as it appears painted by the Master artist. It allows us to feel the beauty in this world, the goodness of our fellowman instead of only the mistrust we have for them. Still the miracles within you are only beginning.

What comes later is what you do for others even as you are healing. You begin to help other veterans wounded by the same " silver bullet" that wounded you. You help them to heal because you are in the perfect position to stand by their side. In the process, you save not only the veteran but their families as well. What is required to do this is already there. It's the same kind of compassion and courage it took to get you where you were before you were deployed into combat. The same kind of courage and compassion that allowed you to endure it and act for the sake of someone else.

Helping others also allows you to help yourself because you can see yourself in their eyes and know, you are not alone with what makes you "you" and as you see others, you see the qualities within them that is familiar. You see that what you went thru was not normal but you are because you see them as just normal humans after anything but normal was part of their life too.