Researchers finally figure out killing in combat can hurt?

Researchers finally figure out killing in combat can hurt?
by
Chaplain Kathie

They finally get it! They are starting to understand that there are different events behind PTSD and need to be treated differently. Could you imagine taking a survivor of child abuse and treating them the same exact way a Police Officer is treated? What good would that do? They need to focus on the events as much as they focus on PTSD itself. The other thing is that in this study, they finally had to admit they have found what was already known with Vietnam veterans.

Mental health experts said the new study confirmed findings from research on Vietnam veterans and did not break much new ground. But they said it underscored that treating stress disorder among veterans is often very different from treating it in people who, say, have been raped or have been in car accidents.

PTSD is not new and most of the research has been done to death. They take the same findings they did thirty years ago as the veterans wait for actual "news" on PTSD.

When a Police Officer is involved in a shooting, they are sent to talk to someone. No matter how hard anyone tries to remove the "Thou shall not kill." from their minds, this eats away at them. They are only human and have killed another human. It is understood that they are not to be treated the same as someone surviving a tornado. They are not just survivors of traumatic events, they were participants in them.

When PTSD Not God's Judgment was developed, it was intended for combat veterans. It ended up being used working with Police Officers. Why? Because they are the same type of person as the military servicemen and women. They are dealing with what other humans do as much as what they had to do in response. Double edge trauma cutting them deeper than if just their life was involved.

When a soldier is involved in the death of someone else, well, that's just part of combat and they should have expected it. While they were willing to think of the fact they may have to it is a totally different story when they actually do it.

Police officers and regular military members have a lot in common. If you ever wondered what makes some people go into the line of work they do, you need to begin with them. They have the compassion to care about others and the courage to do something about it. In their core, their soul, they have the ability to risk their lives to save lives, but beyond that, the ability to take lives in order to save others. When it happens "once too often" they suffer for it but can recover if they receive the right kind of help as soon as humanly possible. Police Departments understand the need, but this has escaped the military's thinking process.

Firefighters and National Guards, as well as Reservists, have a lot in common, but for them, while they have it in their core to risk their lives to save lives, what they lack is the added element of willing to kill to do it. There is a vast difference between what they intended and what ended up being expected of them especially if they are sent into combat.

If their life was on the line, then when PTSD strikes, they need to be treated differently than someone after they had to kill someone. What is appalling is they are just now figuring this out and that would indicate they've been getting it wrong all these years!

Study Suggests More Veterans May Be Helped by Talking About Killing

By JAMES DAO
Published: February 13, 2010
The act of killing is as fundamental to war as oxygen is to fire. Yet it is also the one thing many combat veterans avoid discussing when they return home, whether out of shame, guilt or a deep fear of being misunderstood.

But a new study of Iraq war veterans by researchers in San Francisco suggests that more discussion of killing may help veterans cope with an array of mental health problems stemming from war.

The study, published last week in The Journal of Traumatic Stress, found that soldiers who reported having killed in combat, or who gave orders that led to killing, were more likely to report the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse, anger and relationship problems. The study was based on data from health assessments conducted on about 2,800 soldiers who returned from Iraq in 2005 and 2006.

Shira Maguen, a psychologist at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the principal investigator on the study, said the results suggested that mental health professionals need to incorporate killing more explicitly into their assessments and treatment plans for veterans. That would include finding ways to discuss the impact of killing, in public forums and in private treatment, to reduce the stigma and shame, she argued.
read more here
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/us/14killing.html