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Saturday, July 24, 2010

NO PTSD IN IDF, JEWS IMMUNE TO MENTAL ILLNESS?

It's a human condition that often follows after traumatic events. Considering when you read the Bible and the ancient Hebrews accounts of war and the aftermath, you can clearly see all the suffering we now call PTSD. America is not the only country trying to deal with this. Australia, Canada and the UK list many problems taking care of veterans. India has a huge suicide problem and then there are many parts of Africa we occasionally read about. The USA has a higher rate for one simple reason, more warriors.

Since the war of 1812, and our own Civil War, we've been fighting for another nation in their time of need. WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Bosnia, Somalia, the list seems endless and there has never really been a time when our troops have not been needed somewhere for some reason. North Korea has a huge military but do you see them go anywhere? Thank God they don't. Russia has a huge military but has had to do very little with them since Georgia. With all the bombings and this history of Israel, maybe they all have it in one way or another? Maybe they just have a different way of treating them after trauma?

Civilians here in normal daily life know that if you have crisis teams respond soon after an event, it often gets ahead of what PTSD can do. Maybe that has more to do with it than anything else?


But it looks as if it very well may be the case,,,,


One note made in the study involved the quality of officers. The Israeli study indicated that their officers were more aware of the condition of troops under their command, were less adversarial and elitist than their American counterparts. Israeli officers got treatment for soldiers much quicker than Americans in similar situations.

The last significant combat Israeli troops had seen was nearly as long ago as the Vietnam War. Though a case may be made for no useful comparison between combat exposure, even as admitted in the study, Israeli forces inside their own country and Americans, sometimes fighting year after year with tens of thousands of casualties, fighting at the ends of the earth, some issues may be useful, when seen above the smokescreen of hubris and bravado from Tel Aviv.



In all the years I've been writing about PTSD, one of the factors in doing this was to discover why I didn't have PTSD. Two conclusions from living my life. One is that my big Greek family talked everything to death. No matter what trauma or crisis I faced, I was able to talk until I had nothing more to say and I knew I was loved as they listened. The other is the depth of my faith and my understanding of a Loving God. This report on Israel's claim supports what my life has already shown and many experts have agreed with.

The opportunity to talk to someone you know won't judge you so that you can make sense out of the trauma and find peace with it and the sense that you are not alone in this world with a faith to help you heal. Trauma strikes the emotional part of the brain and it is my belief that is where the soul lives. Heal that part and you heal the person.

Read this whole article and then know that when it comes to taking care of the troops,we're a lot better at taking care of an average citizen after a car accident than we are at taking care of them.

GORDON DUFF: ISRAEL CLAIMS “NO PTSD IN IDF, JEWS IMMUNE TO MENTAL ILLNESS”
STUDY COMPARES “RESETTLING PALESTINIANS” WITH WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Is this Israeli arrogance or are there genuine problems with, not only America’s military but culture as well? Are both true? How is being a Jew serving in Israel’s military, more conducive to protecting soldiers from combat stress? Why are Americans, in combat across the Middle East, fighting securing Israeli interests in the region, subject to much higher rates of Post Traumatic Stress than Israeli’s in action against their own citizens?

If America brought her military home and forcibly started rounding up Catholics in a 21st century “trail of tears, perhaps resettling them to North Dakota, in league with Canada, walling them in to keep out building materials and twinkies…..or are there other factors that have caused up to 25% of American troops on active duty to require anti-psychotic medications?

Today’s Israeli National News Service quoted a study on PTSD from BaMachaneh, the Israeli version of Stars and Stripes stating that IDF soldiers don’t get PTSD due to combat, making them vastly superior to their American counterparts. The IDF study cites that up to 30% of American veterans and active duty alike, suffer flashbacks, outbursts of anger and a host of other symptoms which do not plague Jews who are subjected to similar combat circumstances.


Israeli’s returning from service, though Israel has never fought a protracted conflict, have, not only job guarantees and full socialized medicine but extensive subsidy for education, housing and subsistence for life, even without disability or even wartime service at all. The United States pays this for Israeli troops but won’t pay this for their own, American soldiers, some of whom have spent 4 or more years deployed.

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NO PTSD IN IDF, JEWS IMMUNE TO MENTAL ILLNESS

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