Minneapolis VA sees spiritual warfare in PTSD research

Researchers at the Minneapolis VA are taking a good look at the spiritual part of Combat PTSD. It isn't as if no one has done this before but it seems as if this study may be one of the better ones. After reading the following article, it seems as if they actually get it.

Combat PTSD is different from the other types following the other causes and there is a very simple reason for it. They risk their lives to save others but their job often requires taking live in order to save. War is ugly and violent. They end believing they are as well but they are far from it. They fight a battle with the psychological part of surviving traumas of combat yet the hardest battle is fighting the spiritual war.

PTSD Not God's Judgment 2008 5:59
After 26 years of outreach talking to veterans and living with my husband, one of the most common things I hear is that PTSD veterans feel judged or abandoned by God because of what they saw and had to do. They forget Christ said the greatest deed a person could do was to be willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their friends. They also forget that God created a warrior before He created mankind. That warrior is the Archangel Michael. He knew there would have to be defenders and put that willingness into the souls of a select few. War did not make these men and women heroes.

They were born that way.

Submitted by: NamGuardianAngel (aka Kathie Costos)
Inspirational
Keywords: faith PTSD Post Traumatic Stress veterans Vietnam Iraq Afghanistan warrior Archangel Michael

"The lack of resiliency among soldiers who met this definition was alarming," said Dr. Irene Harris, the VA psychologist leading the research. In other words, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness did not work, which has been pointed out many times on Wounded Times going back to 2009 and tracked across the country. The bad outcome of CSF was known in far too many homes as families and friends blamed themselves.

This article points out how long the VA has been looking at the spiritual connection to reversing much of the damage done. When the whole part of the veteran is treated, body-mind-spirit, they live much better lives and most of the time, the first thing they want to do is help others heal as well.

Minneapolis VA studies invisible scars from combat
Star Tribune
Article by: JEREMY OLSON
August 10, 2014

Researchers at the Minneapolis VA probe whether killing in combat leaves lasting spiritual wounds.

The two soldiers followed standard rules of engagement as a suspicious truck rolled toward their convoy in Iraq.

First, they fired a warning flare. But the truck kept coming. Then, a warning shot with live ammunition. The truck kept coming.

Then, they took aim at the driver, shooting and killing him.

Yet when they searched the vehicle, they found no weapons or bombs around the dead man.

Soon, they were sitting with Minnesota National Guard chaplain Steve Timm, anguishing over whether they had committed an unforgivable sin that violated their Christian beliefs.

“It’s really, really tough,” Timm said, “to believe that God hates you.”

Those kinds of deadly wartime encounters — and their imprints on soldiers’ consciences — are the focus of a new movement among military medical researchers to study “moral injuries,” the invisible scars on soldiers who believe they have committed condemnable acts.

Psychologists at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis are at the forefront of the work, helping to define moral injury, examining how it aggravates mental disorders, and testing whether an experimental form of group therapy can heal such wounds of the spirit.

A study of survey results for 814 Minnesota National Guard members who served in Iraq over the past decade showed that those who experienced moral injury had higher levels of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Moral injury generally refers to any type of guilt, shame, or depression that arises from actions that may have violated deeply held beliefs. But for this study, which was presented at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center last month, soldiers met the criteria if they killed in combat, felt their actions were unforgivable, and believed that God had abandoned them.

The lack of resiliency among soldiers who met this definition was alarming, said Dr. Irene Harris, the VA psychologist leading the research. “Basically, [they feel] at my spiritual functioning level, I don’t think I belong here in the world. I’m not worth it. I have a sense that I should not be here.’’
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