Repeat tours take invisible toll

This cannot be repeated enough! PTSD is a wound to the spirit/soul. If we dismiss the importance of Chaplains and members of the clergy back home, we are heading to the point where there will be no real return from Iraq or Afghanistan. The bulk of the men and women we send over and over again will live out the rest of their lives adding to the ranks of homeless veterans as well as graveyards. No, this is no melodramatic rant. We've already seen the evidence of this. Suicides have risen every year no matter what the military has tried to do. Divorces among military families have gone up. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been adding to the homeless veteran population every year as well as the "couch homeless" sleeping on the couches of friends for as long as they can.

The military has set up "spiritual resilience" campuses at the U.S. bases where soldiers return from deployments. Screened for symptoms of PTSD, they are supposed to begin treatment within two weeks of a diagnosis. The military also has started a suicide hot line with an online chat option. The Minnesota Guard's Beyond the Yellow Ribbon campaign is considered a leader in requiring participation in post-deployment programs intended to address problems like PTSD. In a pioneering study, the Guard is partnering with the Minneapolis VA Medical Center to study PTSD among soldiers deployed from 2006 to 2007, examining them before, during and after their overseas service.

Causes of Mental Illness
What are the causes of mental illness? Although the exact cause of most mental illnesses is not known, it is becoming clear through research that many of these conditions are caused by a combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors.

What Biological Factors Are Involved in Mental Illness?
Some mental illnesses have been linked to an abnormal balance of special chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters help nerve cells in the brain communicate with each other. If these chemicals are out of balance or are not working properly, messages may not make it through the brain correctly, leading to symptoms of mental illness. In addition, defects in or injury to certain areas of the brain have also been linked to some mental conditions.

Other biological factors that may be involved in the development of mental illness include:

Genetics (heredity): Many mental illnesses run in families, suggesting that people who have a family member with a mental illness are more likely to develop a mental illness. Susceptibility is passed on in families through genes. Experts believe many mental illnesses are linked to abnormalities in many genes -- not just one. That is why a person inherits a susceptibility to a mental illness and doesn't necessarily develop the illness. Mental illness itself occurs from the interaction of multiple genes and other factors --such as stress, abuse, or a traumatic event -- which can influence, or trigger, an illness in a person who has an inherited susceptibility to it.
Infections: Certain infections have been linked to brain damage and the development of mental illness or the worsening of its symptoms. For example, a condition known as pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder (PANDA) associated with the Streptococcus bacteria has been linked to the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses in children.
Brain defects or injury: Defects in or injury to certain areas of the brain have also been linked to some mental illnesses.
Prenatal damage: Some evidence suggests that a disruption of early fetal brain development or trauma that occurs at the time of birth -- for example, loss of oxygen to the brain -- may be a factor in the development of certain conditions, such as autism.
Substance abuse: Long-term substance abuse, in particular, has been linked to anxiety, depression, and paranoia.
Other factors: Poor nutrition and exposure to toxins, such as lead, may play a role in the development of mental illnesses.

http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/mental-health-causes-mental-illness

There are many causes of mental illness, but there is only one way PTSD comes and that is after trauma. It is an invader, attacking the emotional part of the brain regarded as an anxiety disorder.

What Are the Types of Anxiety Disorders?
There are several recognized types of anxiety disorders, including:
Panic disorder : People with this condition have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. Other symptoms of a panic attack include sweating, chest pain, palpitations (irregular heartbeats), and a feeling of choking, which may make the person feel like he or she is having a heart attack or "going crazy."
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) : People with OCD are plagued by constant thoughts or fears that cause them to perform certain rituals or routines. The disturbing thoughts are called obsessions, and the rituals are called compulsions. An example is a person with an unreasonable fear of germs who constantly washes his or her hands.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) : PTSD is a condition that can develop following a traumatic and/or terrifying event, such as a sexual or physical assault, the unexpected death of a loved one, or a natural disaster. People with PTSD often have lasting and frightening thoughts and memories of the event, and tend to be emotionally numb.
Social anxiety disorder : Also called social phobia, social anxiety disorder involves overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. The worry often centers on a fear of being judged by others, or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or lead to ridicule.
Specific phobias : A specific phobia is an intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as snakes, heights, or flying. The level of fear usually is inappropriate to the situation and may cause the person to avoid common, everyday situations.
Generalized anxiety disorder : This disorder involves excessive, unrealistic worry and tension, even if there is little or nothing to provoke the anxiety.

After traumatic events people will walk away either believing God spared them or just point His finger at them and sent the trauma to them. Our beliefs play an important part of who we are, what we think, how we react and interact, but above all, how we recover from life's events.

The beliefs we have are all called into question and then we question everything.

For the men and women in the military, there was a theory Vietnam veterans developed PTSD because of the way they were treated when they came home. While it may have contributed to the numbers, it was not the cause. WWI and WWII veterans were inflicted with PTSD even though they were welcomed home with open arms, parades, appreciation, housing projects, educational aid and VA healthcare.

It was not that Vietnam veterans were assaulted with PTSD more, but that it was the Vietnam veterans pushing for the research and treatment of it that we noticed it in them more. Older veterans suffered but back then it was a deep dark secret when "shell shocked" men returned home, became workaholics and then drank too much when they were finally home at the end of the day. Their families reported them as being cold, distant, moody, as well as reporting the nightmares. The only real difference was that no one was talking about it. Veterans with severe PTSD were institutionalized or sent to live on farms where they would be taken care of for the rest of their lives, hidden from the public's eye so they would not be reminded the price of war does not end when they come home again.

PTSD came to them. It came because they cared deeply, felt deeply and thus, were wounded spiritually more deeply than others around them. With each event piling onto the others, the wound dug deeper into their spirit. This must begin to be treated spiritually if there will be successful healing. Even though there has been no evidence of curing, there has been centuries of healing, when the healed end up being better than they were before. The key is to address the whole person, medically for the mind and body and spiritually. If the soul is ignored, then the healing can only go so far.

Please read the following, all the pages, if you want to learn more. It's a great piece of reporting.

Montevideo's Sgt. Phil Jensen knows the psychological scars of multiple deployments.

By MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune

Last update: February 1, 2010 - 11:24 PM
CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN -- Never-ending wars are exacting a price from the never-done warriors.

Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from 10 months in Iraq, Sgt. Phil Jensen was nevertheless ruled fit to go to Afghanistan for his latest deployment. Jensen, 25, didn't want to go, but he didn't want to disappoint the soldiers in his new unit.

"After the first or second drill with these guys, I didn't want to let them down," he said. "It's that brotherhood; for me, they're family."

The scrapbook Jensen's mother keeps for him at home in Montevideo includes the picture of the first time he put on the uniform of the Minnesota Army National Guard. It has come to hold pictures of other young men in the eight years since: The New York Guard member with whom Jensen trained who died in Iraq and the Guard member from the Montevideo area who killed himself after returning home. The last pages include a People Magazine photo layout of fallen soldiers that features Specialist George Cauley.

Jensen was several trucks behind Cauley's during an October supply run when a mine explosion blew Cauley out of his vehicle.
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Repeat tours take invisible toll